Asheville Half Marathon Race Report

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So my 2nd half-marathon in 6 days ( see my previous post) was in Asheville, NC. I ran this back in 2008 in 1:58:35 and although I felt I was in good shape this time around, I was only expecting around 1:50-1:55. I would have been happy with that as I had not really been running hills worth mentioning. At all!
Had my packet mailed to me and it was waiting for me on Thursday after 9.5hrs driving down from DC. Nice shirt (interesting color this year!) and a bib (#846).

Race day: drove the 1hr 20min from Greenville with no issues and found street parking (fed the meter for 2 hrs and hoped I'd be ok. I was.). Light rain was expected and it was a cool morning...50°. I was liking it.
GTC l/s tech shirt (only wore long sleeves for the GTC support), race-ready shorts, hat, 2 Gu's (vanilla) and my trusty Ironman water bottle. Asics 2150's (with very little mileage).

Did a little warmup and found a 1:50 pace group (8:23/mi) in the middle of the crowd just before the start. After my wonderful pacer in Maryland, I had high expectations here.

Race start:

Was pretty crowded (28 secs to pass the starting mat) thru the 1st few turns, but I stayed with my pacer and began to chat with him. I recognized the name and we talked about some other races and then the course. I heard it had changed in 2009, so I was unfamiliar with what was different except the out-and-back rose garden area was no longer a part of it. I soon heard "Cherokee", and will not soon forget it. Having recently watched "Band of Brothers" for the 2nd time, "Currahee" came to mind.
So we're running along and the pace feels fast to me, but the pacer says we're on track. I miss the Mile 1 sign. I miss the mile 2 sign. Still feels fast. Pacer is questioned on it yet again, but says we're right on track. We pass a Mile 2 marker, but the time is way off and I expect it is from the 5k? This is all hills...up and down. And up. This is where we hit Cherokee. It's a climb. Steep. I let the pacer go (still too fast?) but do well on the way up. I am trying to work on my descents, let me body go with the momentum and it seems to get better as the run progresses. Miss the Mile 3 marker. Huh? Do they have Any at all??
I start running near a girl named Trisha (who had some fans along the way) and we chatted on and off - that seemed to help us both. I pulled ahead soon though. We went thru the 4mile mark (I saw the marker!) in 30:11. Was that fast? YES! 1:20 faster than last weekend and that was mostly downhills. The 8:23 pacer was nowhere to be seen ahead of us and I was at a 7:32 pace? Are you kidding me? I guess I was too preoccupied with my pace to notice I was running by/near the Grove Park Inn.

So I backed off a little as we made turn after turn (45 turns in this race). I had remembered some of the course so far, but I distinctly remembered the park by the Asheville Country Club. It's a nice section between Miles 5 and 6. Somewhere along here - I felt a little twinge in my right leg/groin. Just enough to notice it.
Splits:
mi.4: 30:11
mi 5: 9:09 (39:21)
mi 6: 7:57 (47:18)

At mile 7 - we turned onto the Beaver Lake trail and it was nice to get off the pavement, if only for a bit. I could tell I slowed thru here, but I was ok with that. I stayed pretty steady the next few miles and was still only 1 minute off last week's race thru 9miles, but I felt that I could sustain this pace for a few more miles.
mi 7: 8:40 (55:59)
mi 8: 8:26 (1:04:24)
mi 9: 8:26 (1:12:51)

Trisha caught back up to me thru here and we stayed close to the end. It was a big help and definitely helped pull me along. And looking at the elevation chart above - this is where you needed all the help you could get! A hill that kept going and going...but we kept at it and hit the next mile marker. The rain started coming down a little more heavily thru here.
mi 10: 10:29 (1:23:20).

Whew! Now the downhill. As I said I thought I was getting better, and the next mile I think showed my improvement. Going so fast I guess I missed the fact that we were right beside UNC-Asheville.
mi 11: 7:05 (1:30:26)

Then, a pretty constant uphill on Broadway/Lexington all the way to mile 13 and the finish. That last half mile is where the wheels fell off before...wasn't going to let that happen this time. I will say now that the volunteers, water stops and people cheering outside their houses & on the side of the road were numerous and wonderful. 12 aid stations - that's how you do it!!
mi 12: 8:27 (1:38:53)

Kept it steady, even on the last uphill in downtown.

Don't know this runner, but it "almost" captures the incline

There are a few more turns after this hill and then a slight downhill thru a crowded "chute" of people cheering.
mi 13.1: 9:34 (1:48:28)

Finished 284/1259 (right about the exact same finishing percentage as the Parks Half)

I was obviously very happy with my time. For a day or so - I thought I had actually "beat" last weeks time by 30secs, instead of being 30secs slower. Either way - 10 minutes faster than 2008 and faster than I was expecting.
The rain stayed constant as I got some water and looked for food. Not a huge selection, but I grabbed a banana and pretzels and walked a bit. Grabbed my camera from my car and cheered on runners over the last quarter mile.
Overall: good course (if you don't mind hills!), great volunteers, decent shirt/finishers medal, poor pacer (mine at least - he finished more than 4 minutes ahead of his expected pace)
As a cool-down and to get in more miles, I decided to stop at Paris Mountain State Park on the way home (after 2 hrs with my aunt & uncle). I did my typical 6mi loop on the upper trails. Ran it strong and finished in 57 minutes...one of my fastest times for that route. :-)
Looking forward to more runs out there in November!

Asheville Half Marathon

1:58:35. Slowest Half-Marathon time, but considering the course - I am very happy with it. Rested yesterday, waking up at 4:50am and out of the house by 5:30. Drvie to Asheville wasn't too bad (Luckily - I had filled my gas tank Thursday morning, before the onslaught of $4/gal gas prices.). Got my bib, chip, saw a few people from the GTC, did a small warmup run which I normally don't do and started at 8am. Started out comfortably, missed the Mile 1 sign, so really had no idea of my pace until Mile 2, which was just under 18. Perfect for me. Hard to gauge my running wilth all the hills, but I fluctuated with them - never feeling like I was going too fast or too slow. Found a girl (A.L.) and guy (J) running who had a similar pace around Mile 2 or so. Pretty much stayed with them (or within 30 yards) the rest of the way. Chatted and ran up and down hills. Didn't have trouble - even with the really steep ones. We got ahead of J, then I fell a little back a little about the 8 mile mark and followed Andrea a while. I did catch her, but then she was off ahead again going into the last hill, which covered the last 1.5 miles or so. That was where I finally walked once or twice for no more than 30 seconds. At the crest of the hill, you turn left and have 0.1 down to the finish line. That is where my legs felt the effects of the hills - not quite cramping up on me. Hit the wrong button on my watch - so I didn't know my finish/chip time until the reuslt were posted online. Chip-Gun time were off by almost a minute - it was that crowded at the start. Great volunteers! So many water stations - there was only one that was too crowded to get water - but I carried my own anyway - kind of a mental thing, but it did come in handy before and during the race. Very nice crowds along the way - one guy with a water hose to wet us (didn't do too much it was just set to a light mist). Maybe a mile or so was on Beaver Lake Trail, so much better than pavement!! Finisher Award and shirt are both very nice - I will wear that shirt proudly!

My pace was pretty comfortably - take away most of the hills and ask if I could do that for another 13.1 miles- I'd probably say no. So - Looks like breaking 4 hrs at NYC is not very realistic, but beating my previous time (4:18) is!

Light stretching afterwards (and eating/water!) and my legs felt fine. Found out later that A.L. was a bandit. More on that in another post - but it was disappointing after exchanging stories, etc for over an hour. The race did sell out beforehand, and she didn't take advantage of many water stations, and pulled off before the chute/medals - so that was at least something.

Anyway - may do 3.6 tomorrow and see how that feels. Traveling on and off the next 2 weeks to Juarez, Mexico and a trip to Atlanta in between, so hopefully that won't hurt my running schedule too much!

course scouting; 8 weeks to NYC.

So I went up to Asheville Friday evening for a concert and thought I'd drive the course for the Asheville Half. First off - if you are going to scout out beforehand - here are some suggestions:
Don't do this in the dark. Especially if you are unfamiliar with the area. And the streets are not well lit. Prepare yourself that the course may not be that inviting I knew this would be hilly - but come on! Mentally I am already putting doubts in my head. I know I will overcome them. Added one good hill on each of my 6+ usual laps this morning and had no trouble. I usually do better on hills anyway - what has killed me in the past - are hills combined with Heat! Asheville is looking pretty good temperature wise - low 60's and maybe rain for Saturday morning. Not bad at all! I am adjusting my predicted time - originally thought 2:02, now maybe 2:05. Either way - my slowest, but that's ok. Finishing the Marathon is my main goal. 8 weeks from today!