i ran the georgia marathon for the second time in it’s three year history this weekend. i missed 2008 with a foot injury. i’ll put a full race report up on my personal blog at some point this week, but i wanted to take this space to say kudos to the organizers and the citizens of atlanta for a great marathon experience.

maybe i am biased because o set a new personal record in the race, but everything was spectacular. modifications to the course to include candler park and georgia tech were great and the water stop problem from 2007 was non-existent this year. in fact, since the water stops were outsourced to various sponsors and charities, they were actually a ton of fun.

the neighborhoods did a great job too in their official cheering zones, with poncey-highlands and candler park getting special mention for dressing up supporters in costumes and providing live music.

moving the finish to centennial olympic park was so much better than on peacthree street in front of underground too. turning the corner off of marietta and finishing in the park was just a spectacular moment.

and then there were the people like the ones above who turned out to cheer. these two obviously weren’t cheering for anyone in particular; they had just made some signs and turned out. over and over all over the course this was repeated. in druid hills people put speakers out in their yards and blasted music for us.

the city of atlanta is great, this was a great marathon and we are getting closer and closer to turning out a world class crowd for a world class marathon.

kudos to everyone who put this on and everyone that turned out to cheer. you have my deepest thanks.

since i decided to adopt the atlanta hawks before last season i have become a pretty rabid fan. i love this team and i absolutely love going to phillips arena (aka the highlight factory) to see games. in fact i’ll be heading there tonight to see the hawks play the grizzlies and hopefully catch the return of star forward josh smith (who had been out for more than a dozen games with an ankle sprain.)

i’ll be blogging a bit about my hawks-love (inlcuding big man-crushes on al horford and joe johnson) here but i am by no means a savvy basketball writer. so if you want to catch hawks fever with me, i figured i would take a brief moment and direct you to some places where you can pick up some really good hawks analysis and news.

to start with, the blog of ajc hawks beat writer sekou smith is the most important. sekou is one of the best beat writers i have ever read and if it is going down in the nba and it realtes to the hawks, sekou will report it.

continuing on with the official blogs to read, micah hart writes the hawks basketblog on hawks.com. as the team’s official “blogger” hart has lots of access to players for interviews, practice sessions and other behind-the-scenes goodies. well worth reading.

on the unofficial side i highly recommend peachtree hoops a dedicated hawks blog. peacthree hoops carries a preview before each game as well as a game report after each game with very good insight, analysis and other links. well worth reading.

i also really like zaza’s playground. it may not be as technical as p’tree hoops, but the author’s passion for the hawks is evident, as is his basketball i.q., and he can just be downright hilarious. if he gets on a mike woodson rant, watch out.

i also just start reading heavy koncak. it seems to be updated much less and i don’t have an impression of it yet, but with that name how can you go wrong?

so there ya’ go.

happy reading and LET’S GO HAWKS!!!

i tried to tell you a long time ago. our hawks ended the nba’s longest playoff drought and snuck in as an 8 seed in the eastern conference finals.

the hawks open tonight against the celtics in boston. sekou smith has the match-ups, and you can see how hard it will be. the hawks have lost all the regular season games against the celtics by 10 points or more, getting blown out by 23 in the first meeting.

the celtics are arguably the best team in the nba, and one blogger is seriously hoping the hawks can just win ONE game.

the hawks are 15.5 point underdogs, which according to some is probably a good bet. i’d offer to bet my friends over at the boston metblogs but i am a realist.

either way they are in the dance and it’s nice to say i told you so…..

apparently the revolt is on after the thrashers were eliminated from playoff contention

check out this season ticket holder burning his promo pack for next season.

(i have tried like hell to embed that video, but i just cant make it work :-O)

yikes.

btw – the hawks? still alive, still vying for the playoffs.

h/t to the falconer for the find.