Southern Fried Half Marthon - Nags Head, NC

Outerbanks Marathon -- Southern Fried Half Marathon

Race recap for state #14 -- North Carolina  11/12/2017


The best part of this race was that my family went along with me.  My mom, wife, daughter, Coral (Keeley's friend), and both boys.  Even better, Valerie and Noble ran in the race, and my mom rode her bicycle along with us.  We drove and had a fun road trip in the motor home.

Registration:

Registration for this race was through raceit.com

 Fee:

I received another discount through the 50 states half marathon club.  The fee was $85 and I got a 10% discount of $8.50 (for all you math averse folks).

The Expo:

The expo was super small.  The smallest expo I have been too.  Some of the races did not have an expo, but of the ones that did, this one was the smallest.  Of course, this was one of the only expos that I had time to kill and was actually interested in looking at some of the "stuff", but it being so small, they did not have what I wanted.  We browsed the exhibitors and bought a couple little things, some Nuun electrolyte tablets and Valerie bought a hoodie.  I really wanted a visor, but they did not have what I wanted. Oh well. 

Shirt:

The shirt was another long-sleeved wicking, tech shirt.  Now I am certain that I own more long-sleeved shirts than I have ever owned at one time.

Race Day:

The race was Sunday.  Valerie and Noble and Mom and I got up early and ate breakfast at 5:00am.  Mom drove us to the start.-- which was awesome, because otherwise we werre going to have to walk to the high school about 1.5 miles and take a bus to the start.
The weather was awesome.  It was about 50F.  It warmed up to almost 60F toward the end of my race, but was still nice.  I was a bit concerned the day before because it was in the 40's and super windy.... like 20MPH windy and that made it super cold, but race day was pretty nice.  MUCH less wind and a bit warmer

Race Start Time:

The race start was scheduled for 7:00am.  We started exactly on time.  I was in corral A, Noble was in corral B and Valerie was in corral D.  There was a 2 minute lag between corrals.

Course Map:

The web site is not working at the moment, so I do not have the picture of the course... but the race started in the middle of Nags Head (outer banks) and ran south.  It was pretty flat.  It ran through a neighborhood and around a golf course and the Kitty Hawk dunes (which, BTW I did not even see -- Valerie asked me, "wasn't it pretty?"  I said, "I did not see it!")... then back on the main road south.  There was a turn to the west at about mile 7 or 8 toward Manteo, NC.  Then a steep uphill section, up the bridge 55 feet to the 10 mile marker, then downhill and a right turn  into Manteo where we finished.

I was running 7:40-7:50 until the bridge.  I ran 8:23 up the hill and then in the high 7:50's until the end.  It kind of took the gas out of me.

I finished 7:56 avg per mile 1:43.58  Not too bad.

Transportation:

We drove from Florida to NC.. and back in my mom's motor home -- thanks mom.
We split up the driving between myself, Valerie and Grammie.  I tried to get Keeley to drive in there somewhere, but she would have nothing of it.

Weather:

So glad it was not freezing and super windy!  Thank you Lord!

Race Morning:

As I mentioned, we got up at 5:00 and made breakfast.  The trickiest part of the morning was trying to make sure that we all went to the bathroom adequately before we left.  We had one who couldn't seem to go at all and one that went four times.  not mentioning any names and trying to be as vague as possible.  The runners reading this understand what I mean -- actually I am betting everyone else does too.

Race:

The race was fairly small.  There were 1800 runners in the half, and 1500 finishers of the half.  There were no hiccups, so I am saying it was well run and organized.  The back streets were all blocked off and the main road had one lane blocked off.  It was actually plenty.  I did not feel any issues with traffic.  The Full marathon started 20 minutes after the half, so I did not see any of them.  The mile markers for the half obviously went from 1-13, and we did see the full marathon mile markers, but they did not join our course until they had already run 13 miles, so although we did see the 20th and 24th, etc... mile markers, it was not confusing because we knew those did not apply to us

Water/Food Stations:

There were plenty of water and nutrition stations.  Every 2-3 miles.  They had Gatorade at several stations and water at EVERY station.  There were nutrition gels at two stations.  I skipped the first two water stations again as I was feeling good and just decided to keep up my pace.  I well ahead of the 1:45 or 8:00/mile pacers after mile 3, so I just kept moving.  The next two stations, I had only a sip of water.  I really did not feel like I needed anything until after about mile 8 or 9.  I was pretty tired at mile 10, but that was because of the steep incline.

Scenery:

The scenery was nice.  I apparently missed the Kitty Hawk dunes, but the neighborhoods and the golf course was nice, and it was nice looking around on top of the bridge.  Valerie apparently stopped on the top of the bridge and marveled at the scenery, because, "It was so pretty!!!"  I did not stop.  Noble did not stop either.

Race Entertainment:

There were some nice spectators.  Most of the ones I saw, I saw at regular intervals because they were cheering for a little girl who had to be 9 years old. (there was an age restriction of 13, but there was no way she was 13)... of course Noble is 12, so I understand.  Anyway, she was running right along with me most of the way, until she passed me after mile 12.  Her dad rode his bike ahead and would stop and take pictures and she had fans doing the same thing, so they were there at multiple places cheering her on.  It was sweet.  My mom was doing the same for me, until she lost me.  I was going too fast, she did not think I was that far ahead, so I did not see her after mile 5 or 6 or so.  I remember a couple of entertainment places.  There was a guy in a shark costume and a girl in a pirate costume and a bear at the finish???  Not sure what that was all about.

Finish:

The finish was right in front of our condo.  It was awesome.  The finish area went right up the the entrance to the condo complex... so, after I finished, I waited for Noble and then went and took a shower and came back to meet Valerie.  Keeley, Coral, and Levi had just woken up and still had "sleep" in their eyes, but they strolled out just as I was finishing, so everyone had a cheering section.  Pretty neat.  The announcer called all three of our names and mispronounced each one.

Bling:

The medal was a nice medal.  Now we have three.



















The disappointing part is the post race pictures.  So far, the pictures consist of one area of the race and not even a good angle and not even the finish line

Good thing my mom was there and took some pictures.

Misc:

This was a nice race.  It was well organized and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.  I always seem to like the race when I run well.  I felt good and posted a decent time.  sub 8:00 miles is good for me right now.  It was also nice to have the family there and to be able to cheer them on.  I am super proud of my wife and my son.  Neither of them have run that far, ever.. and they both performed great.  Nice to see.   Also it is always nice to have my mom out there riding her bike along with us.

In all, it was a good race.  We made it fun as a family, had a little R&R and a good road trip.. oh yeah and we ran 13.1 miles.

I have Rehoboth Beach Delaware up next on Dec 2.  There is some talk of a Polar something weather pattern something -- it is supposed to be cold.  Snow in December in Delaware?  maybe?  I sure hope not, but we will see.

I also made a weird decision.  I scheduled two races in January.  I will be in Seattle for a week, so I decided to run the Saturday before my course in Washington and the Saturday after the course in California -- yes, that is just 7 days.  The one in Washington is "the rain race".  They schedule it specifically at a time where they expect it to rain. -- odd.  The one in California is at Pebble Beach.  1st time the 17 mile road will be utilized for a race and closed to traffic.  I don't think I will have too much trouble with the recovery time.  I ran Tuesday and Wednesday after this last race which was Sunday, and I feel good.  So, 6 days of recovery should be fine.  I'll let ya know.  Should be fun.