My next race is a little over two weeks away. I will be leaving to head to the Blue Ridge Relay race on Labor Day. I have to go out to North Carolina to review some real estate for Sprouts before the race. I will get into Raleigh that Monday night and then work my way around the State visiting sites and some of our existing stores before finishing in Greenville, SC. A couple of my other teammates will be joining me there on Wednesday night. The next day the rest of the team and my daughter Mara will be flying in to join us. We will then head up to Boone, NC to rest before heading to the starting line for our 7:30 a.m. starting time on Friday September 7th.
I am going to be Runner #3 and my portion of this relay will cover 24.8 miles. Mara is going to be runner #8 and she will run the furthest she has ever run covering 16.1 miles. My first leg (# 3) starts at the Helton United Methodist Church and finishes 5.2 miles later at the Landmark Baptist Church. The leg is described as a good climb and descent on gravel. Mostly flat and rolling before and after the gravel road section. The first mile is on a pretty heavily trafficked road. Looking at the grades of the uphill portion of this leg it looks like it will be challenge. Walking will be necessary to get up this hill.
Mara’s first leg is #6 starting at the Friendly Grove Baptist Church and finishes 6.7 miles later at the Frosty’s Choose & Cut which is a is a family owned choose and cut Christmas tree farm, specializing in Fraser Firs since 1960. Wow, it is even older than me. The leg is described as a having a good climb and a steep gravel/dirt descent early on, followed by a long gradual climb through the valley. A steep paved climb and 1-mile descent finish this run. They say that runners will enjoy the view of Bluff Mountain and its waterfall as they begin their first big descent. I will advise Mara to use the walk/run method to finish this leg.
After we get some rest as Van 2 runs legs 7 – 12, my next leg is going to be #15. The leg starts at the Grandfather Country Store. This store sits on the eastern slope of Grandfather Mountain and has claimed the site at Blue Moon Gap since the early 1920s. According to their website, generations of mountain people have bought groceries, hardware, and automobile products at the little store that was once known as Blue Moon Station. It has had several owners, name changes, and facelifts, but remains ever "The Country Store" to local people who were taken there as children and now walk the same floor boards to buy drinks and snacks with their grandchildren. This leg is my longest travelling 10.5 miles and finishing at Grandfather Mountain. This leg is described as a tough leg because of the distance and because most of it is a climb.
Mara’s second leg is #18 and starts at Newland Elementary School and finishes 5 miles later at a Chirstmas Tree lot. The leg is described as mostly rolling with a big climb on Cow Camp. They recommend that runners be extra alert for traffic on Spanish Oak. It has a pretty tough climb from about mile 2.5 to mile 4. Our team will be there to support Mara as she kills this one.
Again after a rest we will be ready to run our last legs of this race. My final leg is #27 and starts at Tipton Hill Elementary School and finishes 9.1 miles later. Based on our time estimator, I will be running this leg at sunrise. It has a nice downhill portion at the start. Unfortunately it has a steady climb from mile 4 to the end. The leg does run along the North Toe River. According to Wikipedia, the name Toe is taken from its original name Estatoe, pronounced 'S - ta - toe', a native American name associated with the Estatoe trade route leading down from the North Carolina mountains through Brevard. There is a historical plaque in Brevard with information that affirms the route, which continues into South Carolina, where a village of the same name was located. Due to difficulty in pronouncing the name it was shortened over the years to Toe. I am hoping the scenery will take my mind off the pain.
Mara’s final leg is #30. If everything goes as planned, she will be starting off around 9:00 a.m. The leg starts at Concord Baptist Church and ends 4.4 miles later. The route is a very gradual up hill and runs along the Cane River. The Cane River is a stream in Yancey County, North Carolina. It originates on the western slopes of Mount Mitchell and flows northward until it joins the North Toe River to form the Nolichucky. It flows through the communities of Pensacola, Burnsville, Cane River, Ramseytown, and Huntdale. I think this will be a beautiful way for Mara to finish her first ever adventure relay race.
I know that I have trained hard for this race. I made sure that I did a lot of hill work throughout my training. I am not sure what I will find when I am out there in North Carolina. But everything I have read about this race is that it is one of the best relays in the country. The race director and volunteer’s desire is to share the beauty of their mountain home with other runners. I have loved the mountains of North Carolina ever since the first time Bev and I drove through them in 1991 when we were moving to Arkansas. Now for the first time, I will be able to experience them on foot with my daughter and my running friends. It just doesn’t get any better than that!
July 23 – 6.10 miles (1:12:16, 11:51 pace) – Hill Repeats
July 24 – 6.50 miles (59:13, 9:07 pace) – Mile Repeats
July 26 – 9.10 miles (1:17:55, 8:34 pace) – Tempo Run
July 27 – 6.10 miles (1:03:59, 10:19 pace)
July 28 – 10.30 miles (1:42:34, 9:57 pace)
July 29 – 10.10 miles (1:45:35, 10:27 pace)
July 30 – 8.10 miles (1:35:03, 11:44 pace) – Hill Repeats
July 31 – 6.50 miles (59:04, 9:05 pace) – Mile Repeats
Aug 2 – 9.10 miles (1:18:09, 8:35 pace) – Tempo Run
Aug 3 – 7.10 miles (1:10:35, 9:56 pace)
Aug 4 – 6.10 miles (1:19:54, 10:06 pace)
Aug 5 – 12.10 miles (1:59:20, 9:52 pace)
Aug 6 – 6.10 miles (1:13:04, 11:59 pace) – Hill Repeats
Aug 7 – 8.00 miles (1:12:40, 9:05 pace) – Mile Repeats
Aug 9 – 9.10 miles (01:17:26, 8:31 pace) – Tempo Run
Aug 10 – 6.10 miles (58:29, 9:31 pace)
Aug 11 – 10.20 miles (1:37:13, 9:32 pace)
Aug 12 – 10.20 miles (01:37:42, 9:35 pace)
Aug 13 – 8.10 miles (1:28:20, 10:54 pace) – Hill Repeats
Aug 14 – 7.00 miles (1:02:53, 8:59 pace) – Mile Repeats
Aug 17 – 10.10 miles (1:26:29, 8:34 pace) – Tempo Run
Aug 18 – 12.10 miles (1:59:47, 9:54 pace)
Aug 19 – 6.10 miles (59:24, 9:44 pace)
Total Miles: 189.3 miles
2018 Total Miles: 1,210.3 miles
