Race #168
Half Marathon #58
2019 Race #12
2019 Half Marathon #7
North Carolina Half Marathon #8
Downhill at Dawn Half Marathon #1

I registered for this race in early March, shortly after deciding to volunteer as a chaperone for the band and orchestra Carowinds trip rather than run the Mountains to Main Street Half Marathon

All I knew about the race going into it was that it was advertised as a downhill race. I have no experience running that sort of race so I knew I would have a new experience for sure.

I did attempt to register Mom for this race earlier this week but discovered that shortly after I registered in March, the race sold out. (The race organizers cap participants at 600.)

When we arrived at the Ridgecrest Center Friday night, I remembered that I had left my wallet (including my id) back at home. Normally, this would not pose a problem. Only one race I have ever run, Chicago, ever actually required an ID. Many of the others stated on the website that they required ID but no one ever asked for it.

This particular race stated multiple times “No ID. No packet. No race. No exceptions.” Um…say what? I found that perplexing. We ended up coming up with a workaround after reaching out on Facebook failed to generate an answer. Grandpa pulled my id out of my wallet at home and texted a picture of it. Thankfully on race morning, that sufficed, especially since the lady finding my name looked up at my phone and said “oh she has it.” Well, sort of.

While waiting to start, I looked at the course map a little and discovered that we had a few hills in the first four miles, as well as another small one about ten miles. This helped me prepare mentally. After King’s Mountain, however, these hills looked like nothing.

The weather cooperated and precisely at 6:01, we started.

I headed off at a reasonable pace. I knew better than to take out at breakneck speed because that would result only in blowing out my quads or calves on the downhills

The first four miles passed in a bit of a slog. I held onto an even pace and at the turnaround point knew that I had some significant hills ahead having just run down them. I passed a few people on these two hills but after that generally resigned myself to the fact that multiple people would pass me.

I saw Mom just as we crested the final significant hill. (The first four miles consisted of an out and back passing back by Ridgecrest before heading into Old Fort.

Mile 1: 8:28
Mile 2: 8:42
Mile 3: 9:12 (the uphill started)
Mile 4: 9:35

After passing Mom, I started to wonder if the downhill would ever come. Almost as soon as that thought crossed my mind, the road started going downhill. I breathed a sigh of relief and focused on making sure that I maintained good form. I purposefully did not take advantage of the downhill to increase my pace. Thus, I, for most of the remainder of the race, found myself frequently passed as others sped by.

Mile 5: 9:35
Mile 6: 9:21
Mile 7: 9:56 (I believe that this section, hard-packed gravel with heavy tree cover, was where my Garmin lost satellites)

Around mile 7, for some reason that I cannot identify, the race started to feel difficult. My calves, rather than my quads, began to make themselves known. They did not like the steady, pounding downhill with frequent switchbacks to activate even more muscles.

I kept pushing forward, looking forward to mile 10 when I would walk for a little. (I made a deal with myself for this.)

Mile 8: 8:58
Mile 9: 8:58 (talk about consistency)
Mile 10: 9:22 (the walk started a little sooner than the 10th mile marker)

I looked forward to having only a 5k to go although at that point, 5k felt almost out of reach. My calves did not appreciate the downhill and then we got the uphill I remembered seeing on the course map back at the beginning. So much fun.

I ran for a mile and walked for a little, on purpose, wondering how frequent these breaks would be. The weather, while lower in temperature than previously forecasted, still warned up to be quite humid and draining. Quite simply, I did not push myself through this section. I know I probably could have run a little faster through these final miles and finished under 2 hours. However, the downhill, heat, humidity, and likely, lack of running partner to motivate me, slowed me down.

I have not worked on mental toughness lately since for Zermatt in July, I plan to simply make it up the mountain and to the finish line. I have not pushed the pace at all and thus have not pushed myself. I need to start doing that so that I will have the mental stamina come Zermatt.

Mile 11: 9:33
Mile 12: 8:50

About half a mile from the finish line, we entered the small town of Old Fort and were directed to the sidewalk where the course remained until we reached the finish line in the church parking lot.

Although the “sidewalk” initially looked more like a bike path, it soon narrowed to a narrow, concrete sidewalk, uneven a points, making any sort of passes quite difficult and potentially dangerous.

We also had to make a sharp left hand turn into the parking lot of the Baptist church which served as the finish line and also added a little bit of uphill before making our way to the far end and under the finish line arch.

Mom saw me twice, once at on the sidewalk, and then once in the parking lot.

Mile 13: 9:35
.1 nubbin: 6:43 (apparently but that’s rather laughable)
Overall time: 2:00:30

I have run much faster times before but not on a course like this.

(Garmin Connect must smooth out the elevation because my screenshots never convey what it actually feels like.)

I’ll take today’s performance and use it to keep pushing forward, putting in the hard work out on the pavement to get to Zermatt and conquer that mountain. As I saw on a shirt at King’s Mountain, “It’s a hill. Get over it.”