Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon to Pass By VaHi

The Atlanta Half Marathon, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, will take place on Thursday, causing some road closures in and around Virginia-Highland on Thanksgiving morning.

The corner of Charles Allen Drive and 10th will be affected, as will several streets in Midtown, Downtown and the Old Fourth Ward area. (See the attached PDF for more details on the times of street closures.)

The race is among the largest half marathons in the U.S. and a Thanksgiving tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond.

The 7:30 a.m. race starts and finishes on Capitol Ave. at Hank Aaron Dr. just outside of Turner Field in downtown Atlanta. MARTA will be running additional service beginning around 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving to accommodate participants and help alleviate traffic problems at the start. Organizers highly recommend that participants take MARTA to the Georgia State station to get to the start on time.

The 13.1 mile course gives participants a taste of Atlanta, running past sites such as Centennial Olympic Park, Atlantic Station, Piedmont Park, Oakland Cemetery and of course the Olympic Rings.

The half marathon course has a 3½ hour time limit (which allows people going at a pace of 16 minutes per mile to finish). The course will close once half marathoners doing a 3½ hour pace have passed.  The course time limit will go into effect as the last wave of runners crosses the start line.

The Atlanta Half Marathon Expo will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week in the Atrium Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis Hotel from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Trainers from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's program Project S.A.V.E., which educates Georgias about how to prevent sudden cardiac death, will be at the expo demonstrating CPR and teaching heart safety tips to race participants.

CPR is a life skill everyone needs—and it’s easier than ever to save a life. Visit Project S.A.V.E. at the expo to get practice with hands-only CPR and learn about the early warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest.

Through the training and education provided by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Project S.A.V.E. program, 36 lives in Georgia have been saved since 2007. That’s 36 people saved because someone like you learned the latest methods of CPR and using an AED. For more information about Project S.A.V.E., watch this short video or go to choa.org/projectsave.