Race #136 - The Scream! Half Marathon - Jonas Ridge, NC - 07/16/11

The T-shirt says, The Scream! Half Marathon is "13.1 Miles of Pure Hill!" That's not entirely true. While there are probably 8 or 9 miles of downhill that will make your quads and calves scream with delight (or possibly horror), there's enough uphill to bring you back to reality. For me, every time we hit the small uphill sections they almost felt like huge mountains after getting used to all the downhill, but enough people passed me on those hills that I thought I might be in the minority. There's no doubt that the huge downhill sections helped a lot of people run their fastest half marathon time ever. I cut about a minute off my Personal Record from the 2010 Little Rock Half Marathon with a time of 1:32:11, which was 1st in the 55-59 age group and 24th overall.

Honestly, I was just a little disappointed with my time since I've been running well lately and had dropped 10 pounds over the previous four weeks. I felt like there was a good chance for me to run in under 1:30, but as reality sinks in, whether you have some major downhill help or not, you still have to run 13.1 miles and it's just not that easy. Possibly some of my problem was that about 11 miles of this race is run on unpaved roads. While I know that it's supposed to be easier on the joints, I run just about 100% of the time on pavement and prefer the smoother surface. Still, the race was great fun and lived up to its expectations, and when race director David Lee asked for a show of hands on who ran a PR (Personal Record), it looked like maybe three-fourths of the runners lifted their hands.

You'd expect it to be too hot to run a half marathon in the middle of July, but that definitely wasn't the case for this one. When we arrived at Jonas Ridge it was cold and foggy with a light rain. The temperature was probably about 58 degrees and the light rain continued to fall throughout the race, although as we came down the mountain the temperature rose a little, and at the finish it might have been 65 degrees.

I had made plans to meet up with Sharon Davis from Albemarle a couple months ago, and we had planned to both drive to the finish line then take one car to the top and leave the other at the bottom, then go back and get the other car after the race. Wow, that sounds so much easier to do than it would have been in real life. Peter Asciutto, the Vac & Dash guru, wanted to hand out some flyers to promote his upcoming half marathon/10k/5k, Run The Valley, so he offered to drive us to the top and meet us at the bottom, then return us back to the hotel where Sharon was staying in Morganton after the race. That worked out perfectly for us and saved hours of driving. By the way, Sharon ran spectacularly as always and was the 3rd overall female to cross the finish line just like she was at Hickory's Charity Chase Half Marathon last month!

The logistics of getting to and from your car might have been the most challenging part of this race. Even if you took the bus from the finish line to the starting line, just getting to the finish line in your car to catch the bus was a challenge since the finish was several miles out a remote dirt road. I didn't really hear any complaints though so I guess people just looked at it as part of the racing adventure.

Finisher medal photo and T-shirt graphic photo by Bobby Aswell.
The rain finally stopped around the time of the awards ceremony, and about 5 minutes into the awards the post-race pizza arrived. It was a little late for those who didn't stay for the awards, but a great reward for staying. It marked the first time since my return to Weight Watchers a few weeks ago that I didn't bother counting WW points for the day -- way too depressing. It probably didn't help matters that I got a chocolate milkshake and medium fries on the way home, or that I also ended up taking my grandson to Ben & Jerry's before the day was over. On Sunday I'm back to fruit, veggies, and counting everything I eat, but it was nice to have a day off of the diet, even if it did mess up any weight loss I might have achieved for the week.


Click Here for Overall Race Results





Click Here for The Scream! Official Website


Race Rating:

10 - 1-10  Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
9 - 1-10  Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10) (Great Finisher Medals!)
8 - 1-10  Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 - 1-10  Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
10 - 1-10  T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average) (One of the best ever!)
4 - 4/6   Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 - 0/5   Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 - 4/6   Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 - 3/7   Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
8 - 1-10  Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
1 - 1-10  Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 - 1-10  Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
10 - 0-10  Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
0 - 0/5   Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
3 - 1-10  Bathroom Facilities
10-10  Other -- Big extra credit for majority of runners getting a new PR -- fastest course ever!

TOTAL - 99

Race Stats:

1st Overall Male:  Josh Baker (1:12:56)
1st Overall Female: Courtney Ellabarger (1:28:33)
Total Finishers:  190

My Stats:

Time:  1:32:11 (New Personal Record)
Pace:  7:02
Age Group:  1 of 9 in 55-59 age group
Overall: 24 of 190 (13%)

Comments

  1. WhyJuly 17, 2011 at 12:04 PM

    Great race Richard!!! I was ecstatic when I saw your post on FB.. awesome. absolutely awesome. :)
    Mike Kahn

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard HefnerJuly 17, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    Thanks Mike!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Michele HJuly 18, 2011 at 11:33 PM

    Very cool awards and Tee! Everette would like them too! Congrats on your time! I enjoyed reading your blog, as usual!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Richard HefnerJuly 19, 2011 at 6:28 AM

    Thanks Michele... that's true... it looks like Everette designed the shirt now that I think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 12, 2013 at 2:36 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousJune 13, 2013 at 9:16 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #274 - Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon - Myrtle Beach, SC - 10/19/14

Image
For my running group, the Gaston County Runners (GCR), this has become our biggest event of the year. It was the fifth year of the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon and I've run four of them. I'm not sure about the year I didn't run, but for all four years that I've been there the weather has been perfect. The last five miles or so is straight down Ocean Boulevard, with a turn onto the new boardwalk to the finish line at the site of the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion. It's one of the best finishes of any race I've been a part of and I look forward to it every year. This is a pretty big race with more than 3,000 finishers in the half marathon, and this year the GCR had seven runners who finished in the top 3 in their respective age groups. For the third straight year I managed to win the 60-64 age group, this year with a time of 1:35:44. I'm happy with that time although it was on a flat course and was about 30 seconds slower than last week's Hokie Half Marathon,
Read more

Race #574 - Rocktoberfest Half Marathon - Rock Hill, SC - 10/12/24

Image
Earlier this year, I decided it would be fun to run 26 half marathons for the year, one every two weeks. I had started the year off recovering from hernia surgery last November 30th, which was followed by six weeks with a Foley catheter. Two weeks after the catheter was removed I ran my first half marathon and felt great just to be somewhat back to normal. At 72, I'm slower than ever, so I felt the need to challenge myself to stay motivated, and I thought it would be fun to at least try to run more half marathons than I've ever run previously in a year. In 2015, I ran 16 half marathons, the most I'd run in any year. This was my 16th for 2024, and I'm registered for two more, so I should surpass my previous record, but the goal of 26 has recently hit a snag. Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina mountains, where my next two half-marathons were scheduled. We're not in the mountains but are close enough that the hurricane affected us, and on the morning my Dav
Read more

Race #206 - Kings Mountain Gateway 5k - Kings Mountain, NC - 03/02/13

Image
It's kind of gratifying that I finished this race as 2nd Overall Male (and 3rd Overall since the 1st place female beat me) and I won a big, beautiful trophy, but it's a little troubling that it was my slowest 5k since June 2009. There's no doubt it's a tough 5k -- maybe the most difficult 5k I've ever run, thanks to two long hills, including one that people refer to as "Cardio Hill." On the other hand, maybe it just seemed hard to me and the hills weren't as bad as I imagined. By the time I hit the first hill less than a mile into the race I was already huffing and puffing. I knew that I had started out a little faster than I wanted to because of the way the race goes down the street at the beginning and hangs a left and everybody falls into single file until we hit the greenway. Somebody warned me ahead of time that you could get into trouble if you ended up behind some slow people so I wanted to get a good spot. If you watch the video you'll
Read more

Race #20 – Park Ridge Hospital’s Frostbite 5k – Fletcher NC – 02/22/09

It was a rare Sunday afternoon race, and to paraphrase an old Bible Passage, “Many were cold, and a few were frozen.” As a devout coward when it comes to cold weather, I religiously checked weather.com all week, hoping the Lord would smile upon us with warm weather for this race, but despite it being in the afternoon the temperature never did warm up — at least not enough the suit me. Temperature at the 2:30 race time was about 32 degrees with a 20 mile per hour wind, making the wind chill around 24. I’m not really complaining because there’s nothing anybody can do about the cold — it’s one of the fringe benefits of running in the winter in the mountains. According to the race director, there were 420 runners for this year’s 17th annual running of the Frostbite 5k — 100 more than ever before. True runners it seems, unlike myself, laugh in the face of cold weather, and possibly also in the face of those of us who are praying for some warm weather to come soon. We arrived about an hou
Read more

Race #57 – iRecycle Half Marathon – Spartanburg SC – 10/10/09

Image
The iRecycle Half Marathon was my 4th half marathon in the past 28 days and probably won’t be going into my highlight reel. Of those four half marathons, this one was my slowest, with a finishing time of 1:42:10, a 7:48 per mile pace, which is about 30 seconds slower than last week’s HM. I definitely can’t blame it on the hills. There were a few hills in this race but actually less than in either of the three previous ones. Great course too, and scenic, winding around a local lake and through nice neighborhoods as well as a good portion of the Spartanburg greenway system. It was an unusually warm day for the middle of October, with the overnight low temperature about 70 degrees and the humidity above 90% at race time. I heard a few other people mention that they were bothered by the humidity and their times were a little slower because of it, so maybe that could have been part of my problem as well. Strictly Running was in charge of the race timing and they seem to always do a great
Read more