Cold Turkey

Effective immediately, Christmas has been cancelled.

When I heard the news that there would be no Atlanta Marathon on Thanksgiving Day 2010, the earlier news about Christmas (relax, I just used it to grab your attention—it hasn’t really been cancelled.) would have taken a back seat.  After all, running 26.2 miles along the streets and roads of Atlanta has been a tradition with me since the Atlanta Marathon was first held on Thanksgiving Day in 1981.  But in 2010 it was taken away…just like that.  Cold turkey.   

I ran my first Atlanta Half Marathon in December 1980 when it was held in conjunction with the full marathon at the Westminster School campus.  I remember how difficult (brutal hills!) it was running the 13.1 mile loop once, and that there was no way I wanted to run it a second time (which constituted the marathon course).  In fact, the runner who crossed the finish line directly in front of me fell over and died…at the age of 26 (he had an undiagnosed heart condition).  That left quite a lasting impression on me, and I was certain I would never run the Atlanta Marathon if it meant two loops of the Westminster course.

However, when the marathon moved to downtown Atlanta in 1981 and made its Thanksgiving debut, I was there (I ran a 3:13 flat for you historians).  I’ve been on the starting line on Thanksgiving morning every year since (don’t ask me why, but I opted for the half marathon in 1989 and 1990; other than that I’ve run the full marathon every year).  From 1983 through 1991, the marathon began in Lithonia and finished in Piedmont Park.  Between 1992 and 1996 the marathon started and finished at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, until eventually settling in on virtually the exact same course used in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

But in 2010 there was no Thanksgiving Day Atlanta Marathon.  Christmas had been cancelled—at least in my book.  You see, the Atlanta Marathon is my absolute favorite running event.  It’s been a part of my running life from the very beginning.  My son Justin was only nine days old when I ran my second Atlanta Marathon; my son Josh only 38 days old when I ran fifth.  In 2010 they were 27 and 24 years old—how’s that for perspective!?!  In fact, when the first Atlanta Marathon was held in 1963, I was not quite nine years old.  How can the ‘South’s oldest marathon’ simply fade off into the sunset like that???

I asked Tracey Russell, the Executive Director of the Atlanta Track Club that very question, to which she replied:

We are working to find a better date for the Atlanta Marathon that allows us (the Atlanta Track Club) to offer a longer course time limit (currently it is five hours, which is 1-2 hours shorter than most marathons allow), providing more runners an opportunity to participate, and make the overall event even better.  Keeping the marathon on Thanksgiving Day limits our ability to really make some great enhancements to the event.  So right now we’re just in transition.

(Note: the comments in italics are mine).

While I totally understand her reply, it doesn’t make it any easier to accept Thanksgiving Day would never be the same again for me as well as for many of my closest running friends who I’ve shared this special day with over the years.  Sure, I could run the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day, but like I said earlier, it just wouldn’t be the same.

But the Atlanta Marathon will always bring back some fond memories (which is how I choose to remember someone when they leave for the Great Beyond):

·      Running my fastest Atlanta Marathon and missing the three-hour mark by a mere 20 seconds in 1991, only to hear my training pals yell ‘you suck’ (they were great kidders…I think) as I triumphantly (?) crossed the finish line.

·      Celebrating my friend Prince Whatley’s 35^th birthday by joining him for a before-the-start run to the 4.4 mile mark of the course and back to the starting line and then running the marathon for a total of 35 miles; one mile for each year.  (If you think the first 4.4 miles of the Olympic Marathon course are tough, believe me: they’re equally as tough in the opposite direction!). 

·      Pacing Valerie Reed in 1993 to her first Boston qualifier and meeting Al Barker at the finish line.  Valerie, Al and I would go on to run a cumulative three-dozen Boston Marathons over the next 16 years.  Valerie would later become President of the Atlanta Track Club for two years, and Al and I would establish the Darkside Running Club in 2002.

·      Reaching my 100,000^th lifetime mile when I crossed the finish line of the 2005 Atlanta Marathon.  I had a special bib number for the occasion—100K—and celebrating with my friends immediately after the race with three bottles of chilled champagne in the parking lot near the finish line.   

I had been planning on ultimately running my 200^th lifetime marathon—and 100^th marathon in the state of Georgia alone—at the 2013 Atlanta Marathon.  But alas, my plans were altered by the stunning announcement that the Atlanta Marathon will no longer be held on Thanksgiving Day.  My favorite running tradition; one that I’d known and loved for almost three decades was gone…taken away from me just like that. 

Cold turkey.