Packet pickup was a bit of a mess with cars in lines out onto the street. Not sure if that was still a COVID deal or if that is how … MORE
Packet pickup was a bit of a mess with cars in lines out onto the street. Not sure if that was still a COVID deal or if that is how they always have it. Parking and shuttles for the race start were plentiful and ran smoothly. I really think they should make it mandatory to ride the buses to the start. It was a little dangerous with runners coming down while cars and buses were trying to get to the start. The start was anti-climatic as you just got off the bus, walked over and started whenever you were ready. The course itself was beautiful but be prepared for the long downhill, it will trash your legs if you are not used to it. The finish line and after party were very nice and festive. Everyone was very friendly and patient.
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Beautiful Area
Packet pickup was a bit of a mess with cars in lines out onto the street. Not sure if that was still a COVID deal or if that is how … MORE
Packet pickup was a bit of a mess with cars in lines out onto the street. Not sure if that was still a COVID deal or if that is how they always have it. Parking and shuttles for the race start were plentiful and ran smoothly. I really think they should make it mandatory to ride the buses to the start. It was a little dangerous with runners coming down while cars and buses were trying to get to the start. The start was anti-climatic as you just got off the bus, walked over and started whenever you were ready. The course itself was beautiful but be prepared for the long downhill, it will trash your legs if you are not used to it. The finish line and after party were very nice and festive. Everyone was very friendly and patient.
Gorgeous scenery with fun finish
This was not a total downhill course, there were quite a few tough uphills but loved the point to point. Decent course support. Nice swag - even though had to … MORE
This was not a total downhill course, there were quite a few tough uphills but loved the point to point. Decent course support. Nice swag – even though had to pay extra for the shirt since I missed a very early cut off date. l
Not downhill but still a nice course
First of all, the course: This race bills itself as a good PR race as "one of the fastest half marathon races in the south" and runs “downhill to downtown.” … MORE
First of all, the course: This race bills itself as a good PR race as “one of the fastest half marathon races in the south” and runs “downhill to downtown.” It says it is “sure to bring PRs.” It even provides a course elevation profile. Don’t be fooled. I went into this race expecting to run six miles “gently downhill,” as described on the website, followed by seven miles of perfectly flat course. What I actually ran was six or seven early miles that were a mix of steep but short uphills, mixed with steep downhills. This is NOT a fast race. Nor is it a slow race. You’ll likely finish in the top half of your race times, or maybe top third, but you will not PR unless it’s your only race or if all of your other courses were uphill. This was my 39h half marathon and all of my flat courses in the last 12 months have been faster than this one. And I’ve done a true gently downhill course that was much faster. My race time at a pancake-flat beach course in Delaware two weeks ago was five minutes faster than this downhill course at Jump Off rock. So if you are looking for a PR, this ain’t your race. My splits for my first two miles in the beach race in Delaware were 8:06 and 8:10. For Jump Off Rock they were 9:51 and 9:26. And those were supposedly downhill miles at Jump Off Rock. That’s a huge difference. I’m sure the elevation profile provided online is correct, but you just can’t see all the hills in a 13 mile course on a 13 inch screen. I’d give them a D+ for race course description.
With that said, I’d do this race again. It was a pretty course. I stopped to take a few pictures of the views and I rarely do that. It winds down the mountain with a lot of sharp hairpin turns, and there are places where the downhill is steep enough you are spending more energy to keep from falling down the mountain than on going fast. The second half of the course is a mix of up and down and around a lake. The second half was actually easier than the first half.
Other than Greenville, SC’s half marathon finishing in downtown Falls Park, this is maybe the best course finish that I’ve seen. This was great, and it finishes right in downtown Hendersonville, with lots of little shops around, and lots of seating for family to wait, or runners to sit and enjoy the town. They get an A- for the finish, overall. Why? The post-race food was minimal. Cereal bars and apples was all that I saw. There was a beer ticket on the bib but I didn’t see the beer tent anywhere. I’m guessing you had to actually drive over to the brewery and claim your pint at the tap room? But still, basically no complaints on this, just change how you communicate this a bit.
Parking and shuttle were simple, and I LOVED the rolling start. More races should do this and I’m not sure why more aren’t already doing it. It makes so much sense. No more fighting through the crowd at the start line to work through slow runners or get passed by faster runners. Kudos to the organizers for this. A+ on this, for sure.
The one thing that this race needs to improve on is communication and packet logistics. More and more races are moving to a no-race-day-packet-pickup, and I’m now at the point where I will not do a race that adopts this. I’m not going to stay in a hotel the night before and take extra time off of work to pick up a packet, and I don’t want to pay $10 or $30 more to have it mailed. Set up a table and let people pick up their packets on race morning. It’s not hard, just do it. Races are already expensive enough. So I got to the start line without a bib and was assigned one at the start line. I was actually prepare to just run the race without an official time since I drove 4.5 hours to come to the race.
The thing is that I didn’t even remember that the bib was not available for pickup on race day. I registered a couple of months ago and must have missed this in the registration. I think I got a total of two emails from the race organizers, one confirming registration and one in race week with some race info. I’ve run enough of these to know what to look for, but also enough to probably be more careless in taking time to look through the packet thoroughly. So I did miss this, but race communication could have been more frequent, so I’d give the organizers a C- or D+ on communication. And an F on having no race day packet pickup.
They had port-a-potties on the course, and at the shuttle. They had water and gatorade at all aid stations.
Overall, having run this race once, I’d run it again as long as they had race day packet pickup. If not, I won’t run it again. I am not coming in a day early and don’t want to pay the extra $10 to have it mailed. It’s not the money for me, but for some it is about the money. It’s a position of principal to support those who want to run organized races but cannot afford the ever increasing cost that these things cost. And I’m going to continue to complain about it. But if you don’t mind that, then this is a pretty course, has a good finish, is well-supported, and you’ll enjoy it.
Final thought. If you are a purist, looking for a course that is exactly 13.1 miles, then do some research before registering for this. I’m not a purist and I don’t care if it’s a bit short or long, so I don’t know if it’s a certified course, but my Garmin Fenix registered 12.75 miles.