Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon
Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia
Saturday, November 8, 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008 was a sunny, cold, gentle breezy day on which I raced walked the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The almost 700 participants started in the old Army Fort Oglethorpe, proceeded for about a mile to the National Battlefield, covered two twelve miles loops over the Battlefield roads, and returned to the starting line. The course had plenty of up and downs; however, none of the hills were very challenging. Water/Powerade stations were space approximately every 1.5 miles and were manned by plenty of enthusiastic volunteers. The roads were open to traffic, but there was not much traffic about which to worry. Police controlled three intersections where the field had to cross major roads. Turns were marked with arrows, signs, and volunteers on the first lap through the battlefield; however, on the second lap, unfortunately, some of the volunteers had disappeared as well as the signage. Just after I finished my first lap, a runner passed me going at a fairly fast pace. I yelled to him, asking if he was one of the leaders. He said he was in second place and I told him he had missed his turn about 100 yards back. After the race he sought me out and thanked me. There was no signage at this turn and the volunteer had not directed him. Fortunately he was able to hold onto second place. He said if I had not said something, he would have kept on going for who knows how long.
The Battle of Chickamauga occurred September 19 and 20, 1863 during the Civil War. There were a total of 34,000 casualties during the two days of carnage, sacrifice, and bravery. The Battlefield contains hundreds of plaques, statues, monuments, and cannons, marking the positions of the units involved in the conflict and forever memorializing the people involved in the conflict.
The whole trip was a very moving experience into the past and made me reflect about the horrors of the war that had been fought on the very ground on which I was standing.