Dawsonville 1/2 Marathon

Mother and I woke up at 4 a.m. and were ready within 45 minutes to go.  We decided to go ahead and leave, so we could take our time and not rush to get there.  Dawsonville is 51 miles or about an hour north of Atlanta on the south side of the Chattahoochee National Forest.  Yes, there are mountains up there and I am not used to driving on them!  Let's just say I get a little nervous driving up and down mountains.

The photo above is not mine, but it is from the cozy-cabin.us website. Used it so you can get an idea of the terrain of the half marathon that we were about to run!

 There was packet pick-up on Friday June 8th, but I did not want to drive there and deal with all the traffic, so we got our packets before the race.  The race started at 7:30 a.m. and it was already around 66 degrees with a high around 83 degrees.  It was definitely going to be hot day.  I scored an Active Schwaggle discount of $35 for the race instead of $70 for the Inaugural race.  The race was definitely not worth that amount, so I was happy I paid the least amount!

 The course, for me, was tough because of all the huge hills.  Constant up and down.  Had no problem going down, but I walked up every hill.  There were 3 out-and-backs.  I am not fond of those and each one was uphill on the way back. Ahh!  The elevation start was 418 feet.  Max. elevation was 1493 feet with a Gain of 282 feet.  Let's just say I was no way prepared for this race. I thought there might be a few huge hills, but not the whole course!

I found out after the race that the total distance was not 13.1, but was cut short to around 12.49.  Apparently, the police blocked a road because there was testing at a school on a Saturday.  That did not matter much to me. I do not think I could have ran or walked anymore.  This was the first time a used a 4 bottle fuel belt.  I filled each with Pedialyte which helped me so much.  I also had several packs of sports beans.  During the race, I started feeling very sick.  My mother was with me during the whole run, but I got chills and goosebumps and was sweating a lot.  That has never happened to me.  I started feeling dizzy and nauseous too.  We ended up just taking our time and walking the rest of the way.

PROS:

• $35 with discount
• Decent medal
• Part of the course went off the road onto a recreation department trail through the woods
• Police had every road blocked and they escorted every car going in the opposite direction.  Did not let any cars pass us going the way we were.

CONS:

• Technical short-sleeve shirt is kind of ugly. Not fond of the colour.
• Water stops and electrolyte drinks were so hot.  Could not even swallow it.  
• Goodie bag was aweful.  Just had papers and a pack of belVita breakfist biscuits, but the race was cheap, so cannot complain too much
• TOO MANY HUGE HILLS
• Not much of a starting line.  Everyone just lined up on the side of the building.  Announcer just said go every 2 minutes.  No starting line banner to run under, but there was a finish line banner.
• No professional photographers.  I always have my camera and my iPhone with me to take my own photos.
• All the GU was gone on the race course.  Apparently, there was some there on the course, but all the faster runners grabbed it.

WOULD I RUN THIS AGAIN?  No

After the race, we drove over to the North Georgia Premium Outlets.  Every time I go there, I never find anything, but I did find an orange Nike tennis skirt this time!  Yay!

Garfield is adorable.  Had to have my photo taken with him!