7 Bridges Marathon & 4 Bridges Half Marathon

I’m going to preface this review by saying that I hadn’t planned to run this race. I generally do one or two marathons a year, and I’d gotten a BQ just five weeks earlier at a race in Washington state, so I was ready to rest. I did have another race (deferred from the previous year when I was injured) on my docket for December, and decided that if I did one between the two, I’d qualify for Marathon Maniac-hood. So I looked up all the races between the two within a half-day’s drive from my home and encountered Seven Bridges. Once I settled on this event, I decided that I’d treat it as a long run, and whenever I hit the wall at 20, or 22, or whatever, I’d just walk in to the finish, not caring at all about finish time. The best laid plans… got better. Great running temperatures, easy pace, a nice course, and a pleasant run companion all came together such that when I got into those last six miles, I was still running easily, and never found the wall — after sixteen 26.2 mile races, this was the first where I didn’t feel the need to take walk intervals approaching the end.
Mid-October conditions are a crapshoot, but I lucked out this year. Race temperature was in the low 40s for the duration and skies were clear; the only downside was a 10-15 MPH wind out of the north that threatened to take my hat at each of the six bridges over the Tennessee river. Fortunately, that wind was at my back for most of the final ten miles of the course. The indoor VIP host area was open to runners to keep warm and out of the wind before the race start, which was a few minutes later than the appointed time.
Chattanooga could be a hilly place, but this course was more forgiving. The course ran through the flat of the Tennessee river valley, with the only real grade changes provided by the approaches to the river bridges – and the bulk of those were in the first few miles so they could be attacked with fresh legs.
This is a fairly small race, with 308 marathon finishers, and around 800 in the half marathon. Until the final mile, spectator support was almost nonexistant, but the aid stations were worthy of the Marathon Majors — located nearly every mile, and staffed with throngs of enthusiastic volunteers. All had water, most had varied flavors of Gatorade (tho I had expected all to have sports drink and was disappointed that wasn’t the case), and stops with Gu, gummies, fruit, chips, and other treats were frequent. Also abundant were toilets, accompanying the frequent hydration stops and plentiful at the start/finish line. For the many miles of the route along the concrete-paved Chattanooga Riverwalk, the majority of the toilet facilities were permanent, plumbed, porcelain, and there was never a wait.
Post race had hot pasta and sauce (with or without meat) in addition to the usual sports drinks, bananas, soft drinks, etc. There were also massage services (5 min free, additional time for $1/minute ), that might have been what I needed most, but had an extended wait that was out of keeping with my experience for the rest of the race.

Swag included a nice short sleeved shirt, unique metal and “stained glass” finisher’s medal, reusable water bottle and printed towel handed out at the finish line. There was a bag drop available that was mostly trouble-free, but the drop bags were only provided by request – something I didn’t know when I went through packet pickup on the previous day.
There are abundant free photos and finish line video for download, but I appear to have fallen through the cracks on most of these. There was also a free shuttle bus that transported runners between downtown hotels and the start/finish area, both before and after the race. (I and several other runners at my hotel missed the bus before the race because it departed several minutes early. It was a 20 minute walk instead, which probably did me good.)
Overall, it was a great little race that was satisfying on many levels. I highly recommend it.