Race #568 - Wilson Creek Half Marathon - Lenoir, NC - 07/13/24


What a blessing to once again run a half marathon with my grandson, Ryan! This year, he's exactly half my age—36, and I'm 72! This was the first half marathon we've run together since 2016 when we ran the Knoxville Half Marathon for the fifth straight year. Ryan's a great athlete, having been an outstanding football and baseball player in high school and going on to play college baseball. He's still in great shape but limits his running to no more than 5 miles. That's probably not ideal training for running a half marathon, but I appreciate his willingness to humor his old grandpa. 

This race replaces The Scream! Half Marathon, which was one of my all-time favorite races. In that race, we parked at the same place (Brown Mountain Beach Resort), took a bus to the top of the mountain, and then ran down the mountain, making it one of the fastest races around. 

We started the race together, and he seemed happy to join me in my normal run/walk routine. The race is almost entirely on a dirt road, an out-and-back course. The first half is mostly a 1- or 2-degree uphill run, and the last half is the same amount of downhill. We reasoned that once we turned around at the halfway point, we would be able to do a little less walking and more running, and that turned out to be true until Ryan's lack of long-distance training caught up with him. At 9 miles, he started struggling and told me to go ahead. I still felt okay, so I reluctantly left him so he could run his own race for the last few miles. He still did great for someone who hadn't done a training run of more than 5 miles, finishing in less than 2-1/2 hours. I won the 70-and-over age group but was the only guy over 70 who ran the race. 


Race Name:  Wilson Creek Half Marathon

Location:  Lenoir, North Carolina

Date: July 13, 2024

Course:


Mile Splits:


Run/Walk Detection:


Walking only 16:58 during this race is a huge improvement over my last two half marathons.
You can see on the graph that the run/walk ratio remained fairly consistent during the race.

Weather at Start:


Click Here for Race Results


My Stats:

  • Time:  2:15:02
  • Pace:  10:21
  • Age Group:  1 of 1 
  • Overall:  64 of 134
  • Age Grade Percentage:  61.19%


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