Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon

Ft Oglethorpe, Georgia

Saturday, November 11, 2017

On Saturday, November 11, 2017, Veterans Day,  I completed the Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon in Ft Oglethorpe, Georgia.  The temperature varied from 32 to 45 degree with sunny skies and calm winds.  Except for the first mile and the last half mile which were on the streets of Ft Oglethorpe, the course was on roads of Chickamauga National Military Park.  The roads were mostly closed to traffic with police and park rangers controlling the intersections to keep the approximately 1200 participants in the Full Marathon and Half Marathon safe.  The course had very little flat sections; however, the up and downs throughout were not very challenging.  Water/Powerade stations were located approximately every 2 miles and were manned by plenty of enthusiastic friendly efficient volunteers.  The event is very well organized and fun and I have completed the marathon once and the half marathon four times.  As I do this race through the Military Park which is filled with hundreds of plaques in red and blue explaining in complete detail exactly what happened at every place in the park where action took place, I cannot help but to have a very emotional experience.  There are also hundreds on monuments erected at the place where the different units of each army fought, usually giving an account of the dead and wounded suffered by each unit on the two days of fighting: Saturday, September 19, 1863 and Sunday, September 20, 1863.  The carnage was so great that about 35000 casualties were suffered in total by the Union and Confederate Forces.  I can almost feel the pain and agony, and hear the cries of the wounded as they died or pleaded for help and see the fields and forest completely destroyed with bodies and blood everywhere.  We need memorials like this to remind the current and future generations that past generations have given so much to make the United States the great country that it is.  Also it reminds everyone that peaceful solutions to disagreements should be preferred to wars where both sides suffer tremendous heartache and losses.

Packet Pick Up

Before Race

During Race

After Race

The Marathon Winner

Kaye Starosciak