In a fit of weakness I decided to run 3 half marathons in two months. Usually I run two a year. The first race in the lineup was the Bethel Rural Half Marathon on Cold Mt., NC. If you've read the book or seen the movie, it's the same Cold Mt. The race was on a Saturday so I headed up the Friday before. Turns out the wrong address was in the GPS so it was more a 7 hour drive than a 5 hour drive. There weren't exactly hotels in rural NC and Ashville was 45 min further so I had the "brilliant" idea to camp. The sweet couple who ran the campground stayed up late to let us in. After annoying every RV in the place by blowing up the air matress for a good 20 minutes I finally crawled in the tent. Less than two hours later I woke up on the hard ground, air mattress deflated into a pointless sheet of plastic. The roosters in the field nearby started crowing about the time the alarm was going off so after a breakfast of banana bread, a protein shake, and a 5 hour energy I was off.
The race started and ended at Bethel Middle School. Although the temperature was only 35 when we started, we knew once the sun came up things would be considerably warmer. It took the first three miles for my toes to thaw out to the point I could actually feel them. We ran out on rural highways past farms, cows, horses, and donkeys galore. The fog rising off the fields was breathtaking. Every fireman in the tri-county area was recruited to come cheer us on, from engine, car and tractor. The route was flat with slow, rolling hills. I wasn't sure I had trained enough to finish the entire race, but at the split I was ahead of my normal time by a good 22 minutes. No way I was quitting! Around Mile 9 a lawyer from Ashville joined me and we talked about everything from law to music to telling jokes. We ran by my pathetic blue tent and he couldn't believe I had camped out the night before a half marathon. As we approached the finish line we realized we could beat 2 hours. He started slowing down so I cheered him on and kicked it into high gear. We didn't quite make it under the two hour mark but sure enough, I set a personal best in this race.
Finish Time: 2:00:43
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