Race #198
Half Marathon #72
2022 Race #6
2022 Half Marathon #3
North Carolina Half Marathon #11
Asheville Half Marathon #2

I meant to write this recap a lot closer to race day so that the details would not be as fuzzy in my mind. However, a lot of my habits have changed over the past year or so but I will not detail that in this post. See more here.

I headed up to this race on my own, the first in a series of 3 half marathons that Mom, unfortunately, had schedule conflicts with and could not run with me. (Ironically, for various reasons, I did not run the other three either.)

The worst part of this race came first, packet pick up. I arrived there first since I had chosen a hotel within walking distance of the start. While holding packet pick up at a local brewery with plenty of hang out space like volleyball courts along with a couple food trucks selling delicious smelling food may have sounded good, the simple logistics of traffic patterns and parking spots in a gravel area passing as a parking lot provided immense frustration. If I did not happen to drive a car marginally larger than a smart car, I would not have found a spot. Worst packet pick up scenario in all the races I’ve run yet.

Thankfully, the hotel location gave me plenty of food choices for supper (although not many hydrating beverage choices) so I got some food, chilled for the evening and then got my usual partially interrupted hotel sleep.

In the morning, I got up and ready with just enough time to get over to the start line at which organizers proved once again, their difficulty with planning decent logistics by starting the race with some people still trying to make their way further back in the start line pack after entering said pack by crossing through the start line.

This race starts uphill, a fact the race announcer made sure to point out as well as the fact that it finished uphill as well. I appreciated the forewarning. Since I have run a half in Asheville before, I knew that this race would not lack for hills. Thus, I did not plan to run fast, only to start practicing walking only at the fuel breaks every 3 miles rather than at every mile like I have become accustomed to.

For some reason, the fuzziness of memory comes primarily to most of the actual miles not to the pre or post race details. Thus, this recap will hold the little I can remember.

The first three miles passed fairly uneventfully with some small rollers, similar to my usual runs back home.

Mile 1 – 9:01
Mile 2 – 8:39
Mile 3 – 9:01

This fairly average run continued until the fifth mile. As you can see, we had a bit of a hill to conquer.

Up until this point, I had continued running on the hills, maintaining effort while dropping the pace. This hill, however, felt never ending, especially when we reached a curve in the road at a point I thought near the summit only to see it continue after we turned. “Good grief” escaped my lips at this point to which the guy I was passing at the moment chimed in, “I know, right?”

I ended up walking the top portion of this hill, realizing that my walk would propel me faster than my slog.

Mile 4 – 9:51
Mile 5 – 10:06
Mile 6 – 9:32

From this point forward, I remember very little distinct details, most miles consisting of strong power walks up the hills and running the rest at a reasonable pace.

Mile 7 – 10:25
Mile 8 – 10:33
Mile 9 – 9:07
Mile 10 – 9:46
Mile 11 – 9:02
Mile 12 – 9:32
Mile 13 – 10:11
Overall – 2:05:34

Coming towards the finish, I knew a hill awaited me in those final meters so I did not let it take me by surprise. Even though I could not really sprint to the finish, I still finished strong.

Although I would have preferred a time under 2 hours, especially since I’m in the middle of training to get faster, I take satisfaction in a sub 10 minute average given the hot, humid, and hilly conditions.