Kennesaw Mountain Trail Run

I got off work early on Wednesday and headed to Atlanta to celebrate Thanksgiving. Traffic was suprisingly light and I managed to make the trip in less than four hours. I have been looking forward to this little weekend getaway for quite some time....

Woke up at a decent hour Thursday and got in a nice 5 mile run to get the body ready for Thanksgiving. The great thing about running up in Atlanta is that I get a chance to hit some hills; we have nothing that resembles hills in Savannah unless I tackle the bridge. I really enjoy getting hill work. I knew I also needed to get a 10 mile long run in while I was here because back in North Cackalacky CJ was going to be telling his extended family and really anyone who would listen, that he was going to to be traveling to Tybee Island, Georgia in the spring to test his manhood at the Duel in the Dunes. Of course, what he wouldn't be telling them is how I am going to run him into the ground and make him cry in front of his family....but that is for another day.

After heading to the Big Peach to pick up some GU and see if there were any "Black Friday" sales, I decided I would turn my 10 miler into a trail run on Kennesaw Mountain....

This is where this "Low-Country" boy may have gone wrong...
Much like the decision I made to run the Equinox Marathon in Alaska, this plan was not very well thought out. Let's see, 10 miles is the furthest I have run since completing my marathon in September. Oh, and this trail run will take place on a mountain that climbs 800ft of elevation in the first mile and a half.

Bring on the pain!
After peaking Kennesaw in the first mile and a half, the trail decends on some switchbacks for another mile or so. Then the climb up "Little Kennesaw" which was equally grueling, just not as long of a climb. Decending down was fun and then there was another climb up to Pigeon Hill. This was a much more gradual climb making for a little less effort.

Continuing onto Cheatham Hill I hit the five mileish point (map says 5.4)popped a GU and prepared for the return back. Seeing as this was a training run that was supposed to be my slow, long run for the week, I was never concerned about pace and walked up the steepest parts of the climbs. I stopped to take pictures often and enjoyed my 2 1/2 hour trek through Civil War history. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I took.







My running buddies~Chloe & Jada~ slept in...