February 13, 2011
4:45:01
This race is a pretty well kept secret nationally. Birmingham is one of the great southern cities, and this marathon has got to be one of the best in the south. I flew in by myself on Saturday morning. Packet pick up was a breeze and there was a nice, small expo. Downtown Birmingham is pretty dead during the weekend, and that was the only drawback to the event. It was hard to find a place to eat lunch. The evening made up for it. The pre-race pasta dinner was the best I have seen. The dinner was at the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, a very cool place to visit. I especially enjoyed the area dedicated to Dr. James Andrews, one of the legends in Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. The proceeds from the dinner benefited The Bell Center for Early Intervention, a charity for kids with special needs. A lot of the kids and parents were on hand to serve the dinner and mingle with runners. Very cool.
Race day was cool and dry. The course was pretty unremarkable. I remember running by tons of churches. If the race organizers could collaborate with the churches and get some of the gospel choirs to perform on the course, I think they would really have something.
I finished in a familiar time of 4:45. The post-race party was also a highlight. Kegs of beer and BBQ with a live, southern rock cover band. Teen-age girls dressed in southern antebellum dresses and hats handed out desserts. It was a very nice way to cap the weekend. I caught a late flight home, and if it wasn't for being stuck in O'Hare for 5 or 6 hours on my connecting flight, it would have been almost a perfect weekend.
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