Journey To A(nother) Marathon

It's been made public that the Chattanooga Marathon was not, in fact, a full marathon. Between mile 4 and 5, we ran through the St. Elmo neighborhood and had a U turn. That U turn was supposed to be at 51st Street, but was instead set up at 49th Street, 0.14 miles short of the mark. This resulted in the marked course being 0.28 miles shorter than advertised/certified.

During the marathon, I was aware there was something wrong due to my GPS not hitting the miles in the same general area as the mile markers. At the time, I thought perhaps the mile markers had been placed in error due to a last minute reroute, but in the day or two following, it became apparent what really happened.

I understand this is an embarrassment for the Chattanooga Marathon officials.

I understand if somebody was going for a PR, this really stinks.

I understand if somebody was trying to qualify for Boston or any other marathon or wanted it to count for Marathon Maniacs, this was a dud and really really stinks.

Having said all that, I don't feel like I missed out. Due to being back of the pack, running my first marathon and not really concerning myself with running the tangents (to run the course as closely as it was designed), I actually did run 26.2 miles on Sunday. I ran a marathon. I am still proud of that and will still proudly say I finished a marathon.

Still proud of my medal!