Tear Drop Half-Marathon (Murray County, Georgia)

 After spending the morning and early afternoon in Helen, GA yesterday, I drove over to Chatsworth and then to Dalton, GA in preparation for running my first half-marathon in about six-months. This morning, I'll be running the Tear Drop Half-Marathon, which starts at the summit of Fort Mountain and heads down into Chatsworth proper. I'm a little nervous as my knees really caused me some problems on my last distance run, but they were okay hiking down to Havasu Falls last week and so, I felt it was worth testing them

Waking up at 4:30 am in my hotel room in Dalton, I dressed and packed my gear. It's about a thirty minute drive back to Chatsworth, but this was a better option than trying to drive there from home, which would have been over two-hours and would have required me to get up even earlier. The drive is uneventful and I quickly find a place to park, before loading up onto one of the provided buses. We'll be transported to the starting line and then run back to our cars. Unfortunately, they organized the bus load order alphabetically by last name, which meant I was on the 6:00 am bus. 

I chat a bit with the other runners on the drive up and once at the top, we unload and then await the start of the race. It's pretty cold up here and we'll be standing around for nearly an hour. We are reward with a beautiful sunrise though and just the general comradery makes it worthwhile.

As 7:30 am approaches, we get in position and with a countdown from ten, we're off. This odd course will require us to run about 2-miles, turn-around, run back to the start, and then repeat that section again before hitting the 5-mile mark and starting the steep downhill. It's fairly easy though and I'm feeling pretty good. The first section does have some slight uphills and I try to conserve some energy as I traverse these sections. Returning to the start line, I pop into one of the port-o-pottys, and then start the first section again. 

I'm towards the back of the pack, but I'm feeling good and my knees seem to be holding, even when the downhill starts. Between mile 6 and mile 12, we loose around 2,000 feet of elevation and by the end my knees are starting to feel it a little bit, but nothing too terrible. The final mile takes us into town and eventually, we get back to the finish line. A cold beer and some barbequed pork over mac 'n' cheese greets us, along with our finisher's medal.

Though the race was mostly downhill, I'm still pretty happy with my performance. I finished in 2:40:47, which is over forty minutes faster than my last half-marathon. My knees were really giving me fits on that one though and even with all the downhill, they are not in too bad of shape after this run. Now the long drive home.