Race 43 - Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon

For race #43 in my quest to do 100 races before retiring (from work), I did the Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon.

The battlefield is about 10,000 acres and is located in northwest Georgia.  Prior to the race I did read up on  this Civil War battle and the facts about it were in my mind virtually the entire time during the race:

A three day battle in September 1863

125,000 Soldiers (60,000 Union  65,000 Confederate)

Estimated Casualties: 34,624

Union:

1,657 killed

9,756 wounded

4,757 missing & captured

Confederate:

2,312 killed

14,674 wounded

1,468 missing & captured

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/chickamauga.html?tab=facts

While on the course I tried to imagine what that must have been like for those soldiers.  I also wondered what they would think of us 150 years later doing a foot race where all of this took place.

The Race:

Since Mary & I drove up the night before it was no problem getting to the race on time (so glad we drove the 125 miles the day before instead of the morning of :)  Had plenty of time to look around - one of things I noticed, the Civil War cannon - I had heard they fire the cannon for the start of the race (and they did).

It was a chilly 29 degrees at the start of the race - think everyone wanted to get the race started just to warm up.

and we were off..

There was so much to see and read on this course. I found myself stopping and taking pictures of things that explain what was going on in the location during the battle.  I really want to come back here again (when it's warmer & not a race).  However, following are a few of the pics I took:

Baldwin's Brigade

Sept. 19, 1863 3 PM

3 men killed, 4 men wounded, 3 horses killed, 3 wounded

typically do not see things like this during a race

so many cannons

As you can tell, I'm not really "racing" in these races.  I do them for exercise and they actually are fun.  I walked this entire race in 2:57 (about 13:30 per mile) so it was a a good workout.  I do want to come back and really spend some time taking in all this history.