Fun Things to Do

You’ll run by Scarlett O’Hilla in the Atlanta Marathon, near the home of Gone With the Wind’s author, Margaret Mitchell.

In 1997, the Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon settles down on Atlanta’s Olympic legacy course, which parallels as closely as feasible the course used for the women’s and men’s Olympic Marathons. The Atlanta Marathon shares over 90 percent of the course, so the runners will notice only the slightest changes. We intend to put down permanent mile markers, and other indicators which will harken back to its Olympic connection.

The Atlanta Marathon is the only one in the United States which is run on course used when that city hosted the Olympics. The dusty rural roads used in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics have long disappeared, and the course used in the 1984 L.A. Olympic Marathon incorporated over three miles of freeway, impossible to close down in normal circumstances. The one used in the 1932 L.A. Olympics has long since been paved over.

Thus our legacy is one to treasure and be proud of. As we run with our neighbors on Thanksgiving, thankful for the day and its graces, we can savor the thought that we are running where the Olympians ran with such seemingly effortless grace over our familiar roadway.