Georgia ING Marathon/Half Marathon roll call (Page 2)

I am in for the FULL!

This will be my first Full mary, but 2nd yr at ING. I ran the half last year and loved it.

My goal: Finish without crawling. Slow and steady is my mantra!

I've only run the full. I have heard the half is an easier course.

But for the marathon I think it is a very challenging course. I think this is the hardest or second hardest course I have run. I've run the full both years and neither was a PR for me--I was 1-2 minutes slower than my PR's. It has rolling hills that just wear on you and then the last part is almost all up. Though I will say they changed the course last year and I think it was easier than the first year. I should also add that if you run over a 3 hour marathon you will find yourself tangoing with half marathoners walking those final miles. And I have no bones against anyone who wants to walk a half marathon but rather wanted to point out it can be a huge challenge to navigate around people walking a half marathon 3-4 abreast at the end of marathon. It is something you should prepare for. I lost time both years having to do this.

For comparison here is a list of courses I have run ranked in order of difficulty:

Atlanta Thanksgiving (2)

GA ING (2)

Country Music Marathon

Chickamauga

OBX

Museum of Aviation

Here's a thread from last year with the elevation profile for the marathon about 3 posts down

https://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=105141

The Atlanta marathon is much harder. 

This was to be my 3rd year of racing (did the 1/2 for 2007 & 2008), but alas, no.  I'm going to be a wheelchair bike escort instead of running this year. 

I thought the Atlanta Half was harder than the ING Half, especially with the new finish thru GA Tech.  However, it was raining the year I ran the Atlanta Half that so that could have been part of it.

atl_runner - 2009-01-30 3:38 PM

Now I'm going to have to run the Atlanta full.. I don't trust Doug's words that the Atlanta TG Full is much tougher. 

You can let my times decide. I ran 3:38 on ING last year and just ran 3:37 on Atlanta. IF I run faster at ING this year then I say it is the fairer of two beasts. But those are pretty close times run 8 months apart. The terribleness of Atlanta is the uphill 10k that just keeps on climbing. It physically and mentally wears you down.

i like hearing all the information. keep going please.

I checked out part of the marathon course on Saturday.  We started at Big Peach in Decatur and ran by Agnes Scott and over through Emory.  That part was all good.  Then we head up Lullwater - ugh!!  It seems from there until the finish back at Big Peach it was hills, hills hills.  We went up Lullwater to Ponce and then down Oakdale and up Springdale.  Springdale to Moreland wasn't bad but then that hill by the Candler golf course was rough.  The next memorable one was East Lake Road - that felt like a mile of straight up (I could have just been delusional at this point, though).

Definitely a challenging course.  I'm hoping the half course is a little easier.

YES!!!

Oh and here's a useful piece of information that they gave us at the clinic on Saturday.  If you are running the half marathon, take a look at the course map so that you know the spot where the half turns off from the full marathon.  The lady from ING said that there have been people in the past that are tuned into their ipods and not paying attention and then accidentally miss the split for the half course.  That would be a sad, sad day.

She also said that they have a small number of shirts in XS and XXL that are not advertised on the registration form.  They don't have many printed so they don't advertise them.  If you want one of these shirts, get your shirt at the expo and then find the information booth and ask them about it.  

Is it too late to chime in? I'll be there doing the half.

Ooops. I have no time goal- the course is hilly and I live in the flat part of the state.  This is my first year doing ING. I heard the expo was great.