Venture outside your comfort zone: the rewards are worth it! KSellers88’s Journal (Comments Welcome)

Asheville Half Marathon Race Recap

Spoiler Alert: This race was GORGEOUS!
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I had never been to Asheville, NC or the Biltmore before and when I found this half I knew it would be the perfect one to mark NC off my 50 State List! My best friend from elementary school and I drove up on Friday afternoon (about a 5 hour drive) and just ate dinner at a local restaurant before falling asleep.

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to the Biltmore Estate for our tour. Y'all, this place felt like it was straight out of Downton Abbey. I am obsessed with that show and I loved it! It was freezing cold, but a beautiful day. We ate lunch in the old horse stables and then took the 1.5 hour tour of the house.

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After the tour, we headed back to our hotel where the expo was being held. My friend is not a runner so I just got all my stuff and we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We ate at an adorable Italian restaurant in Downtown Asheville with one of my teammates from Run Across Georgia who was running the full on Sunday. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where I got all my stuff together for the next morning. Below is basically what I wore, along with about 5 other layers. LOL. It was St. Patrick's Day so of course I had to wear a little bit of green (and those new Brooks shoes came in very handy)!

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Sunday morning I got up and got ready as quietly as possible so I didn't wake my friend up. This race is awesome and offers shuttles to the start line so I just had to walk out of my room and straight onto a bus. We did have to be on the Estate an hour before the starting time, but they had the buildings open so I was able to hang out in a coffee shop under my Mylar blanket and get some more rest.

I met up with my friend again before the start and we were able to stick together for the first few miles. He was running a lot more conservatively since he was running the Full, so we split up around mile 5. This course is so pretty. All 13.1 miles are run on the Estate and my only complaint is that around 5 miles were on a gravel path that my knees did not appreciate.

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I was supposed to run the first 11 miles at EA pace and then pick it up the final 2 miles...and I was somewhat successful. The first 6 miles have around 600ft of elevation gain and that combined with the gravel path kind of wrecked my legs. I was afraid of rolling an ankle on the gravel, so those last two miles I gave it what I have left in the tank while being super careful.

Splits were:

  • 11 EA Miles: 10:08, 10:18, 9:40, 9:51, 10:09, 10:06, 9:35, 9:58, 9:53, 9:47, 10:18
  • 2.1 Faster Miles: 8:44 and 8:44
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I got my medal, hopped back on the shuttle and headed back to the hotel where my amazing friend had this waiting on me!

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This is a race I would definitely recommend, they even have two challenges you can run! The Backyard to Backyard Challenge (Saturday half and Sunday half) and the Backyard to Vineyard Challenge (Saturday half and Sunday full). It was so beautiful!


 




Looks like a great runcation. I will have to remember that race when I start checking states off my list (somehow I seem to keep rotating between MI, FL, & IL). :)

Those shoes are fantastic. :love:
 
That race course looked beautiful! I’d love to visit Asheville someday. Maybe when my kids are older and in college so I can leave them at home alone. They’d think looking at mansions is boring LOL!
 
Looks like a great runcation. I will have to remember that race when I start checking states off my list (somehow I seem to keep rotating between MI, FL, & IL). :)

Those shoes are fantastic. :love:

LOL! Well I am knocking out the close, cheap states first. Alabama is somewhat centrally located to cross of the Southeast so that is nice! Thank you!

Congrats on the race! Looks like a gorgeous place to run ... although that gravel part sounds terrible.

LOL, thanks! The gravel was horrible. It wasn't even small pieces, it was those huge golf ball size pieces of gravel. Very dangerous for the ankles!

Congrats on a great race!

Is it just me or does the Biltmore dining room look like the Haunted Mansion dining room?

Thank you! Yes, it does! I can imagine that house is pretty dang creepy to be in at dark. They could do some sort of haunted Halloween special event and scare people to death, but someone would probably mess something up.

That race course looked beautiful! I’d love to visit Asheville someday. Maybe when my kids are older and in college so I can leave them at home alone. They’d think looking at mansions is boring LOL!

LOL! It was beautiful! Surprisingly there were a lot of kids there, but they did not look thrilled with the concept. I thought it was amazing, but it still didn't take us as long as other people to tour the house. I'd love to go back when the flowers are blooming or the leaves are changing!
 
March 2019...aka A Complete Blur

Life has been an absolute whirlwind recently, but I am still running! LOL. In March we listed our house with a realtor, I got a promotion and went on my first business trip (eek!), we bought land and picked a builder and are currently deciding on house plans. Not to mention I went on two vacations and checked another two states off my 50 states list. I somehow still managed to maintain my streak of 100+ mile months and make it to 27 months in a row! Barkley also got his highest mileage month in March!

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WOW! What an amazing March!! Congrats on the promotion and on building a new house. So exciting.

Your running totals inspire me! Barkley is no slouch either.
 
Asheville Half Marathon Race Recap

Spoiler Alert: This race was GORGEOUS!
View attachment 390679

I had never been to Asheville, NC or the Biltmore before and when I found this half I knew it would be the perfect one to mark NC off my 50 State List! My best friend from elementary school and I drove up on Friday afternoon (about a 5 hour drive) and just ate dinner at a local restaurant before falling asleep.

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to the Biltmore Estate for our tour. Y'all, this place felt like it was straight out of Downton Abbey. I am obsessed with that show and I loved it! It was freezing cold, but a beautiful day. We ate lunch in the old horse stables and then took the 1.5 hour tour of the house.

View attachment 390680 View attachment 390681

After the tour, we headed back to our hotel where the expo was being held. My friend is not a runner so I just got all my stuff and we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. We ate at an adorable Italian restaurant in Downtown Asheville with one of my teammates from Run Across Georgia who was running the full on Sunday. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where I got all my stuff together for the next morning. Below is basically what I wore, along with about 5 other layers. LOL. It was St. Patrick's Day so of course I had to wear a little bit of green (and those new Brooks shoes came in very handy)!

View attachment 390682

Sunday morning I got up and got ready as quietly as possible so I didn't wake my friend up. This race is awesome and offers shuttles to the start line so I just had to walk out of my room and straight onto a bus. We did have to be on the Estate an hour before the starting time, but they had the buildings open so I was able to hang out in a coffee shop under my Mylar blanket and get some more rest.

I met up with my friend again before the start and we were able to stick together for the first few miles. He was running a lot more conservatively since he was running the Full, so we split up around mile 5. This course is so pretty. All 13.1 miles are run on the Estate and my only complaint is that around 5 miles were on a gravel path that my knees did not appreciate.

View attachment 390686 View attachment 390687
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I was supposed to run the first 11 miles at EA pace and then pick it up the final 2 miles...and I was somewhat successful. The first 6 miles have around 600ft of elevation gain and that combined with the gravel path kind of wrecked my legs. I was afraid of rolling an ankle on the gravel, so those last two miles I gave it what I have left in the tank while being super careful.

Splits were:

  • 11 EA Miles: 10:08, 10:18, 9:40, 9:51, 10:09, 10:06, 9:35, 9:58, 9:53, 9:47, 10:18
  • 2.1 Faster Miles: 8:44 and 8:44
View attachment 390684

I got my medal, hopped back on the shuttle and headed back to the hotel where my amazing friend had this waiting on me!

View attachment 390683 View attachment 390678

This is a race I would definitely recommend, they even have two challenges you can run! The Backyard to Backyard Challenge (Saturday half and Sunday half) and the Backyard to Vineyard Challenge (Saturday half and Sunday full). It was so beautiful!


I was really thinking about doing the HM or marathon this year, but decided in favor of the very flat Shamrock marathon (on the same day). But I'm happy to hear that it's as pretty as advertised - maybe next year! Those challenges are intriguing. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
 

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