Inline Skating "Marathon through the Gardens": Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia (GA)

Just a brief note regarding this marathon. Yes! It looks great. Last year's first race fell on my 40th Birthday, and I wanted to attend to try to feel good about turning 40. However, the fear of having to get out of bed at 4am stopped me, and I decided to be lazy and drive 320 miles to Greensboro, instead. Yeah, that was logical, captain. I'm under the impression that there will be swarms of stick-figure indoor speedies at this race, so if I signed up I'd be resigned to finish la bonne derniere.

Great thing about this race is that it's not close on the calendar to any other local outdoor long-distance speed skate races. Good way to kick off your training! When I can surface from the work that is threatening to drown me I will look into this further. The Sparkles (rink) speedies down the road from me were unsure if the event was going to happen this year as it had a potential conflict with a major indoor meet. But it looks like they've sorted that out.

I have never been to Callaway Gardens, as close as it is to where I live (a few hours' drive), but the odd subdivision neighbor or two has urged me to go in the past, sputtering "It's great! You can even ride bikes there!". Cuz heaven knows ya can't anywhere else around this ergonomically-unfriendly city.

You guys missed an excellent event. The weather was perfect, the winds not too bad and partly cloudy skies that waited until all skaters were off the course before it rained. THANKFULLY the site also has two large covered areas for the award ceremonies. With a full marathon, a half marathon and a flat track mini-race for the kids this event is certainly family oriented. APRR was in the house strong this year with 17 skaters. Two of us in the top 20 and we went home Age Group medal heavy. One of our Ringers even got 3rd place overall in the ladies division on RECREATION skates. Yes this skate is lovely. Lakeside views, open fields, a good 35mph downhill, that yes you go up it too :-( It's still a small event that can make a great weekend out of. Callaway Gardens itself is pretty and with the race registration you get the days admission. the Butterfly house and the Birds of Prey exhibit/show were on my To Do List. There is a State Park with very reasonable rates for 6 and 10 people cabins. So you could in effect come in Friday night and leave Sunday morning. There is a two night minimum stay for the cabins.