Day 1,423: Atlanta Marathon announcement

The Atlanta Track Club today announced the new iteration of the Atlanta Marathon, an event that had been held since 1963 and predated the formation of the track club.

This year, possibly for the first time, they decided to not have a Thanksgiving Day marathon and instead offered a half marathon that starts and ends at Turner Field. (In the past, half marathon participants like myself would have to go to Chamblee and run pretty much the length of Peachtree Road and end in Turner Field).

So the next Atlanta Marathon will be held on Oct. 30 and will start and end in Atlantic Station. Of course, not everyone is happy that the race will be held outside of Thanksgiving.

The date was selected apparently to allow marathoners to run both the full and half in the same year:

"We think this will allow folks to do the marathon on Halloween and come back three weeks later and do the half," said Tracey Russell, executive director of the track club.

At this morning's press conference before the expo for the Atlanta Half Marathon, Russell said the entire marathon course would be "entirely in the city of Atlanta."

She said it would include Centennial Olympic Park, Georgia Tech, the CNN Center, Philips Arena, the Georgia Aquarium, Turner Field, the Martin Luther King Center, Grant Park, Virginia-Highland, Piedmont Park, Buckhead and Peachtree Road.

This does away with the previous course, which followed the marathon course of the 1996 Olympic Games -- start at Turner Field, run up Piedmont to Peachtree and up to Chamblee before turning around and pretty much following Peachtree back downtown and finishing at Turner Field.

"With a super-scenic course, we feel it's going to be a good opportunity for first-time marathoners," she said.

The race will include a marathon relay.

The club already is offering registration for this race. Until Dec. 31, the registration is $25 off, or $55.

It's really something that I'll consider, to run in a new course very close to home for the first time. I'd already put aside time to run in the 36th Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 30, but I may belay that to do this race.