This weekend, I got to run in a place where people normally go 200 miles an hour. (Disclaimer....I did NOT go 200 miles an hour...it may have been close, though.) We ran the North Carolina Half Marathon at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (That's Charlotte Motor Speedway for anyone who is like me and didn't have a clue where Lowe's Motor Speedway was.)
My two new-ish running friends and I left first thing Saturday morning to make the 5 hour drive to Charlotte. We made great time, stopped for a nice lunch, and made it to the Expo at around 3:00. The Expo was in the garages at the race track. We parked in the muddy parking lot and went under the tunnel (which was actually under the track) and found the garage. We went right to packet pick up, got our bibs, shirts, and bags. It took about 3 minutes for all 3 of us to get through the lines. Then we looked at the rather small Expo and went to find our hotel. The Expo was a bit disappointing. There were 3 vendors and they are at every race I have been to...nothing new and exciting to see or buy.)
Our hotel was a million miles away from the race. (By a million, I mean about 10 miles or 15 minutes...it was cheaper, so that's where we stayed.) We checked in and then went back toward the race track to find some dinner. We ended up at Carrabba's for our pasta dinner, which I had NO complaints about. After dinner, it was still early, so we did some shopping to try and complete my outfit for the next day.
I really wanted to dress the part for this race. I ordered some socks online that turned out to not be all I had hoped they would be. I also just wasn't happy with my outfit. We were at a race track and I wanted some checkered flag stuff. After a visit to Kohl's and a place called Academy Sports (like a Dick's or Sports Authority), I had assembled an outfit that made me happier - black compression sleeves, a new white shirt with a black rim, and a black and white scrunchy. With my shorter-than-I-thought checkered flag socks, I was ready for the race!
We made it back to the hotel to try and get to bed early. We had an early wake-up call made even earlier by Daylight Savings Time. As we were getting ready for bed, the guy in the room next door started talking on the phone...LOUDLY. We could hear every word. I finally fell asleep and was awakened by one of my roommates talking on the phone. Apparently loud phone call guy ran out of friends and started playing the guitar at 1:00 in the morning. I couldn't get comfortable after that and the rest of night was rough.
The alarms started going off at 5:00 and we got up and got ready to leave the hotel at 6am. We had hoped to take a back road to get the race track, but I couldn't remember it in the dark and the GPS kept takings us to the interstate. Fortunately, the traffic that we had feared was nonexistent. We parked in the same lot as the day before and walked the same walk to the garages. We made a pit stop (haha...pit stop...did you see what I did there??) at some real bathrooms on the way. They were lit and warm, with flushing toilets and running water....but no toilet paper. We warmed up the garages until about 7:00 and then headed out to try and make it to the Half Fanatics group picture at 7:15. We needed another potty stop and the porta potty line was SO long, we missed the picture. Oh well...if the porta potty is a choice, you always choose it!
This was where the awesome started. We walked out onto Pit Row at Charlotte Motor Speedway and walked over to the starting line. We corralled up (I picked a point behind the 12 minute pacer and in front of the 13 minute pacer....right where I hoped I would be) and waited. There was no starting gun on the race track...we got the green flag when it was time to start. Pretty cool. The first mile and a half of the race took us all the way around the track. We stayed on the apron, so we didn't have to negotiate the banked turns. The we zigzagged through the middle of the track and out through the tunnel we came in to start. At that point, I was too warm for the jacket I wore, so I made a detour and dropped it off at my car. The course then took us around the outside of the speedway, over a pedestrian bridge to the other side of the complex, down a random and unnecessary hill and back up it. (Random aside - the race photographers chose the top of this hill for a photo op. The photographers felt the need to tell us that we were halfway there. WRONG! 5.75 miles is NOT halfway and it is just wrong to say so.) Right before this hill and terrible math, I met a new running friend. She is also a Half Fanatic. She ran my intervals with me for a few miles to test them out. She got me to mile 6 when I was starting to get tired and cranky. I really appreciated her for that!
After we got up the hill, we ran around the dirt track and then headed to the drag strip. This might have been the coolest part (and...amazingly, the fastest part) of the race for me. We ran down the drag strip and then back up. From there, we looped and zigged and circled and zagged around the campground and then back over to the main speedway. Remember that pedestrian bridge?? Well, they picked a different one for the trip back. It was pretty much straight up. Thankfully, there was a drum line at the top. Also thankfully, what goes up comes back down. Then we kept going around the outside of the speedway and headed back inside a couple of miles later. Just before we went back in, I met another new friend. I was tired by then (mile 10-ish) and she was walking on tired legs. (She had run a 39 mile challenge the weekend before...I didn't really have an excuse.) I walked with her for 2 miles or so. We chatted and I appreciated her for those two miles. We didn't break any speed records, but I enjoyed that time with her.
After we went back into the track, we had about a mile and a half before we did the final lap to the finish. I stayed with my new friend until we came across a girl who looked like she was hurting. It was her first half and she was hurting. I gave her some biofreeze and we chatted a little. After a bit, I ran a little more. Then I came across a girl who was stretching at mile 12. Who stretches at mile 12? Well...she had a sprained ankle, so she did. I talked to her for the last mile. Another lady joined us as we came closer to the finish line. My fast running friends were at the finish waiting for me. I crossed the finish line and ran around in a circle. It was my burnout in Victory Lane. Here's what I got. It's huge and it's awesome and it lights up! I love it.
But now for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:
The Good
- The medal. Let's just start with the most important thing. It's just awesome.
- The course. We ran on a NASCAR race track. It was awesome.
- The people. I like talking to people. The people talked back.
- Course support. It was pretty good. There were a good number of people that followed their runners. They cheered for everyone.
- The weather. Thank you Mother Nature.
- My burn out at the end. It was awesome.
The Bad:
- The Expo. It was pretty bad.
- The course. It was hilly. I hate hills.
The Ugly:
- It hurt. It was slow. There were some long miles.
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