Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Time: 119:32
Distance: ~15.42 miles
Pace: 7:45
Map

I've heard a lot about the mouthful that is Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, but I had never actually run here. Today I got my chance after a quick clinic Meagan had to do back at West Stride. We had hoped to pick up Leo on the way, but our car was way to full to fit another body. I would have liked to have had him show me the trails. Instead, I got in a nice long run with Meagan and forced her to go longer than she wanted. That's what she gets for pushing the pace on the early uphills.

We were out on the trail for about an hour when we came to a water fountain. We asked another runner where exactly we were and that's when we learned that it was the farthest possible point from the visitor center where we started. Only one way back and that was to knuckle up and run. The trail was fairly technical at section, but nice and wide during others. We even saw one of the Kenyans that live just outside of Atlanta who make use of this park. I started to feel really strong around the 90 minute mark just as Megan was starting to fade. We kept it together and finished up strong back at the main entrance in just under 2 hours. The loop measured just under 15.5 miles, but I would guess that it was closer to 16 if not longer as Mr. Garmin probably missed a few turns. However, looking at the map I'm impressed with the relative accuracy of our plotted course. This was a fun way to end the running for the weekend. I wasn't looking forward to the 4 hour drive back to Charlotte, but at least we got stuck in a traffic jam which only prolonged the excursion.

We were late getting back to Charlotte, but still managed to make it over to Brazwell's to see a bunch of our friends. Meagan's birthday is tomorrow which means she's even older now. It's almost time to find her an iceberg.