Summer-like spring in Atlanta

Warm weather and sunny skies were the hallmarks of the day at the inaugural running of Atlanta's ING Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon, which welcomed an estimated 15,000 runners for the city's first-ever spring marathon and half-marathon event.

That didn't mean, however, that Atlanta's infamously hot summer weather was a burden on most runners who ran the race, as temperatures hovered in the 60s for most of the race, which had a 7:00 AM start time for both full- and half-marathon participants. Though the unseasonably warm weather has been noted in much of the news coverage since yesterday's race, I found the weather to be pleasant and mild for the half-marathon I ran, and never felt overheated or warm at any time.

I imagine that wasn't the case for the later runners of the full marathon, who had a full seven hours to finish their race through the city (by that time, temperatures were approaching the 80s, definitely on the warm side). News reports indicated roughly 400 people sought heat- and exhaustion-related medical attention during and after the race, and I did see a few runners taken away on stretchers at the finish line area. But for the vast majority, the race lived up to its promise.

A side of Atlanta many visitors never see

For this Atlanta native, the race brought out a side of the city that I feel most tourists never get to see -- its intown neighborhoods. So many know of sights like Peachtree Street, the Georgia Aquarium and the downtown district, but the great virtue of the ING event was that it showed off neighborhoods such as Decatur, Virginia-Highlands and Inman Park, where the character of the pre-1960s urban redevelopment of Atlanta is still intact.

Particularly in Inman Park, where tree-lined streets and older Victorian-style homes with wrap-around porches make it such an attractive environment, both for running and for spending an afternoon. The race through neighborhoods like this one -- and through the Sweet Auburn district downtown, near the historic Martin Luther King Jr. Center and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where choir singers decked out in full Sunday regalia lined the streets to cheer on race participants -- brought out a refreshingly warm and friendly side of the city.

The terrain for the race was hilly (as runners of Atlanta's 30-year-old Thanksgiving marathon and Peachtree Road Race can attest), but the race course took runners through areas that presented a challenge and didn't go overboard. The hills we encountered were mostly long, gradual uphills followed by long, gradual downhills, always a welcome sight when you're out on the course.

The last two miles posed perhaps the toughest uphill part of the race, with a long uphill along Peachtree Street near the Fox Theatre and into downtown toward the finish line. The last hill crested at International Boulevard and Peachtree downtown, and after that the finish was all downhill.

Well-attended by spectators

Hundreds and hundreds of specators lined the streets along the way, in both the neighborhoods and in areas such as Piedmont Park, the city's largest intown park, cheering on runners. I even saw one group of spectators set up a "refreshment stand" along the street just before the park with beer, capturing some of the spirit of July's Peachtree Road Race. Needless to say, the runners who enjoyed a well-earned cerveza experienced some slowdowns later in the race -- but still had a blast.

The race did have one thing lacking, and that was sports drinks at the water stations. There were plenty of stations along the way -- roughly every two miles -- but water was the only drink available at nearly all of them, unless of course they ran out of sports drinks before I got to them (certainly a possibility). There were a couple of spots where sponsors threw out "Clif Shots," Clif Bar-like pouches of high-calorie sports yogurt, but I only saw them a couple of times during the race.

Still, though the event has a few things that need to be improved -- including mile markers, which were a little confusing for the half-marathoners in the second half of the race -- the event has a very promising future, especially considering that many will use it as a warm-up for the Boston Marathon a month later. I'm looking forward with enthusiasm to running the half again next year.

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