Sunday, February 22, 2009

Mercedes Birmingham Half/Full Marathon

See the flowers and the churches on the race course in the previous 2 posts.

All pictures are clickable to enlarge.

If you want to run a half or full marathon where the organizers and the volunteers know what they are doing, consider this one!!
The expo did not disappoint. Sign in for the races went smoothly.

The children's race on Saturday morning was popular.







Because I remember
growing up in the 50's,
I am delighted to see
girls encouraged to run.




On race morning we parked in a ramp
right at the start/finish.




The course took us from downtown and back into downtown for a delightful view of the city.





We ran by parks..

And more parks...


Mother and daughter had brought their blankets.. and when I aimed the camera at them, they did proud the meaning of enthusiastic spectators!!

Running through various neighborhoods is to experience more of the city.









A grand old house reflected in the side of a new building.



Kids and dogs are great spectators.



In praise of volunteers.. and they were fabulous in Birminham!





Left: technical finisher's shirt

Runners wearing whatever they choose to wear.. check out the pink tutu!

A marathon finisher and her daughter, view the waterfall from just in front of the fountain.


The finish for marathoners... just a slight uphill.. but a fantatic finish at the city park.


Sweet Pea and I ran the half this time.. and were so pleased with the course: once around for the half; twice around for the full... a beautiful course. If we had been running the marathon we would have been happy to run it twice.

For another review of the Birmingham Marathon, see "Don's Make It a Masterpiece" blog.

12 comments:

Amytrigirl (aka Amybee) said...

Looks like a very fun event. I love the pics of the kids who ran the event. They are positively BEAMING!

Hope you are doing great.

DawnB said...

sounds like a productive day, congrats to both of you, any course you are willing to run twice must be pretty outstanding

Unknown said...

Sounds like a great event!

Anonymous said...

Hi there=found your blog via my mom, virginia jones. What a beautiful interpretation of our city! You would have really loved last years course. It took you over the mtn into 3 of our beautiful suburbs,and then a final huge hill back into the magic city! A dear friend, Valerie MClean, is the race director. She and two other ladies, Jill and Kim put this race on. I will forward your blog to the office! FYI, they are putting on the inaugural Talladega 1/2 marathon this spring! What is your next race? I may hit the Nashville and/or Knoxville Marathons. I waited too late to get into the Seaside 1/2. It would have been my 3rd year to run it!!! GodSpeed!-Kathleen

Unknown said...

I just love how everyone is smiling in all the photos. Seems the whole crowd had fun. :-)

Good job!

Sunshine said...

Actually THIS YEAR'S course is the one we
really loved!!
(Over the hill might have scared us away.)
The double loop worked very well.

Thank you "Virginia's daughter" for making sure the race director knows about our blog and posts about Birmingham marathon.

My husband, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma (blood cancer) nearly 6 years ago.. is hoping to do marathons in the 50 states. Sometimes Sweet Pea and I do a marathon and sometimes the half.
We loved your races last weekend!
Good luck to you... Keep running!!

ShirleyPerly said...

How fun to see all the photos and smiles. I can hear the fun you had in this report. Thank you for taking us with you on your run!

Vickie said...

Congrats on another finish! And what a great place to be right now! You won't want to come back to the land of the frozen tundra. A nice reprieve in this long, cold winter.

CewTwo said...

Very interesting! I love the way that you present a race report.

We have to remember that running an event is a memory in the making. I think that you make them very well!

Thanks, Sunshine!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Great Re-cap Sunshine of an awesome day!! Love the pics...Thanks for sharing!

Dori said...

Congratulations on your race! I'll bet it was nice to get away from the Minnesota winter for a while. Love the pictures. :-)

Backofpack said...

We had friends running that race too! It looks beautiful, and I agree, running a marathon through a city is a great way to experience the "whole" of the city.