Thursday, July 13, 2017

Ready to race the Scream Half Marathon !

 Ok sports fans, I am ready to get serious about racing again. In another 6 weeks. But in the meantime it's time to run my first time at THE SCREAM this Saturday, July 15th !

 This will be the fifth year for the race but my first time. It's always looked like fun but didn't fit my schedule for whatever reason This year I thought it would be fun to go run it a week after having a great race at Grandfather Mountain. Well, we know that plan fizzled out with the injury but  I'm hoping to go up there and have some fun this weekend. And yes, I do plan to race it as hard as I can !

  The race is a certified distance but it is not your normal race. It is held in a national forest  beginning not too far from the Blue Ridge Parkway. And its almost all downhill from there being a point to point event from Jonas Ridge down to Mortimer with a net loss of about 2,368 feet according to a strava segment here at this link. (segment shows 12.9 but it is 13.1 and several runners gps tracks show a wide range as usual).

 My plan when I signed up was to use the gravity assist and my great conditioning to go for my fastest half since a 1:38 back in 2006. With my 1:40 at OBX last November it seemed like a reasonable goal. But now not so much. I'll be happy just go see the sunny side of 1:50. Things have been going well with my comeback so who knows, I may surprise myself.

 Here is a link to the race website

 Stay tuned for a recap as soon as possible 

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