The day before the race, I was so nervous that I was practically unbearable to be around. After one particular icy moment, my husband looked at me and said, "Lauren, I know you're nervous but you need to get a grip." I couldn't even get mad at him - he was right.

This was a super small race. I'm terrible at estimating but I'm pretty sure there were about a 100 people there, both half and full marathoners. The course itself takes place entirely within the Callaway Gardens property. It's an out and back loop course which normally would be boring but when you're running through the woods all the trees look the same anyway.

Pros: There is little to no crowd support but I'm not a big fan of spectator selfies or high fiving little kids so that didn't bother me that much. There were adequate water stops and porta potties and due to the size of the race all of the runners were super friendly and encouraging.

Cons: I would have loved some post race chocolate milk and the medals were kind of lame but hey you get what you pay for.

Overall, this was the perfect race for what I needed it to be. I needed a January race in Georgia that wasn't too far to travel to and not too expensive.

Oh and guess what?

I placed second in my age group!

I didn't think that would happen until I was 85 and there wasn't anyone else left alive in my age group.

Small races rock.