Tar Heel 10 Miler Recap

Saturday morning started very early for me. At exactly 3:01 AM my alarm went off and I was quickly out the door for the drive to Chapel Hill, NC and the Tar Heel 10 Miler.

This is a race that I had circled on my calendar as one that I wanted to do. But like any good race, the view looked a lot better 2 months ago than when I rolled out bed at 3:01 AM for the 2+ hour drive to Chapel Hill, NC.

And what would life be without a little stress. Just above Spencer, NC, I am humming along at 70 miles per hour when traffic suddenly comes to the halt. This is not what I needed with a 7:30 start time and another hour or so of driving still to do. All I could see was row of big rigs ahead of me.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the line started to inch forward ever so slowly. My eyes seemed be jumping from the view ahead – a semi trailer to the clock on my dash – ticking ever so closer to 7:30. Finally, after another 10 minutes of sweating, we passed the state trooper and the construction area. Definitely getting back to 70 mph was nice feeling and according to my navigation system still left me plenty of time to reach the race.

Rolling into Chapel Hill a little after 6 AM, the streets were still pretty deserted. Hard to believe that in less than 90 minutes nearly 5000 runners would be flooding them.

Picked up my shirt, hit the rest room, and snapped a couple of pictures of Kenan Stadium in the predawn hours for Facebook posting before heading back to my car to change.

If you are not familiar with the Tar Heel 10 miler, the parking area is roughly a 10 minute walk one way to the packet pick up area.

That means, there is roughly a 10 minute walk back to your car.

This doesn't leave runners a lot time to fool around.

Checking my clock, I had time for a quick mile and then the racing flats needed to go on my feet.

Gathering for the start, they introduced Meb Keflezighi and gave him an opportunity to share some words of inspiration. They say the TV adds 20 pounds and 6 inches to a person. I don't know about the 20 pounds, he looked pretty thin to me. However, he was definitely shorter than I expected. I noticed the same thing when I saw Ryan Hall. This must be the key to being a really fast runner. Oh, but I digress.

The start for the 10 miler was not on the field but in the walk way around the field. We got a final countdown and were off.

We left the stadium through the tunnel and made the mile long circle before coming back through and around the stadium. We ran through the upper level and out the other side.

Between the wear from the relay and the blister on my right foot, my motivation was to just survive the day. Two miles passed and I was settling into a decent pace. There were 3 other guys running around me at the time. They seemed to have a plan that fit my goals so I stayed with them. As the miles wore on, one guy and I worked really well together – I later learned his name – David Schwerbrock. Never once during the race did we exchange any words, but we played off each other's efforts. Where I hit a bad patch, he would pick it up and vice versa for me.

6 miles were in the bag and we were just over 36 minutes. We made the long downhill run on Raleigh before making a short neighborhood loop. Then, it was a quick left and then right for the final couple of miles to the finish.

David and I had been working to rein this group of 4 or 5 guys in front of us for several miles. At 7 miles, we joined in with them. We also joined the crowd of 4 milers headed to the finish.

Having run this course before I knew Laurel Hill loomed just ahead. A hill can take the wind out of anyone's sails, but Laurel Hill can leave a runner in the doldrums with nothing but burning quads and calves. This is the point where I tried to make a break from the group. Key word here is "tried". Nothing was cooperating.

I remember hearing someone along the course saying "you are almost to the top. It is just around the corner". Really, there must have been another ½ mile of uphill running.

David was just behind me and I really didn't think much about if I could hold him off, but rather how much more time was it until I crossed the finish line.

The course is flat to downhill heading back to Kenan Stadium. This was just doing wonders for my blister and I was reminded of it with every stride.

David passed me just before we entered the tunnel to the field. I tried to fight back, but he definitely had more in the tank.

Going under the clock my time 62:13 and I finished 28 overall. According to Allen A. who was in the finish area; I finished 2 USAT&F-NC Masters.

Then, what some might consider a cruel joke on runners, we were directed to climb up the stairs and out the stadium to where the refreshments awaited us.

Going into the 10 miler, my goal time was 62 minutes. I knew the course was tough and I wasn't in as good of shape as in previous years. So all things considering, I was walking away pretty happy with the effort. Further encouraging, I climbed Laurel Hill in 5 minutes and 34 seconds. Maybe my hill work isn't has bad as I thought.

Before wrapping up, I do want to talk about a few things from the race.

First, the race was started in the 8 foot wide area between the stadium and the field. While it was cool; we started in the stadium, I believe it took over 10 minutes before some people were clear of the stadium. Runners were over half way around the field when we lined up. When we circled back by the stadium after the start, people were still exiting and this was probably 7 to 8 minutes into the race. I liked it much better when it was on the road.

Having the finish in the stadium is nice but it too can be difficult when you have both 10 milers and 4 milers finishing at the same time.

Leading up to the race one of the key points taunted about this race was the "no waiting on results or awards". Runners could get this finish time and place immediately after the race. Then, they could pick up their award.

Honestly, they have some kinks to work out of this system. Yes, we could get our time and place but it didn't break it down by your age. We still had to wait until the results were "finalized" before anyone could pick them up. I waited probably 40 minutes before giving up and heading back to my car. The other puzzling point was to get your place, they had these two guys punching in your bib number and giving you a print. One would have thought, they could just scan the bib number and give me a print out.

The last point has to do with the running through and around the stadium. Kenan Stadium wasn't build with having a 10 mile race in mind. There are lots of twist and turns and blind corners. The group that I was in nearly collided with a woman walking across in front of us. She had no idea that we were coming.

Every race director wants to show case the area where they are holding their race and I completely understand wanting to utilize the stadium as much possible. I am completely for it as long as it doesn't jeopardize runner safety.

Finally, I want to give a "shout out" to the people that I saw at the race: Jeremy Wood – he reads my blog. He ran a smoking 58:25. Dan Matena – saw him before the race and at the start, but that was it. He took care of business with a 57:13. Alex – whose is coming back to CLT soon ran 70:25. Gordon Bynum also made the drive from Charlotte to tour the streets of Chapel Hill in 66:22. Jocelyn Sikora made quick work of the course in 70:08. Eric Bilbrey handled the hills equally well with a time of 60:06. Robert Heck got himself an excellent time with a 65:52. I actually felt like I was running CLT with so many familiar faces.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

 

The Cool Down Runner