Race Report: Mental Health Ultra - Half Marathon, November 2024
Last year, November 2023, I ran the Mental Health Ultramarathon 10K. That was "just" one lap through the rolling hills of the Brown's Mill Battlefield trail system in Newnan GA. That was also the furthest I had ever run up to that point. This year, November 2024, I ran it again. The Mental Health UltraMarathon is definitely a "grassroots" style race. As we were milling about near the starting line, I heard one of the volunteers at the packet-pickup table say, "This is the Brody and Friends race!" Brody, the race director, was a local guy who had worked for a local run shop (one of the race's sponsors), and indeed had lots of friends show up to have some fun running in the woods on a chilly autumn day. Even all the other sponsors were local, from the Coweta County Recreation Dept, to Pathways, a counseling service that was based out of Newnan (and the main recipient of funds raised by the race). The atmosphere at the start line was distinctly rela...