I woke up bright and early this Sunday morning to run the North Face Endurance Challenge. It was a half-marathon trail run from the scenic Great Falls, VA to Sterling, VA along the Potomac River.
My synopsis of the race... it was terrible. As Mckayla would say, I was not impressed. 772 people competed in the race, (which is not very many), so I expected it to be a fun, non-crowded event that I could run quickly & finish w/ a decent time.
What I did NOT expect, (but what actually happened), was for 75% of the race to be along a single-file path, meaning you could only go as fast as the person in front of you, had to maneuver around walkers and couldn't pass the out-of-shapers who didn't run up hills. I was hoping to run an average mile time of under 10 minutes. I ended up running closer to 11.5 minutes/mile because of the single-file paths. I also saw 7 people face-plant because of the tree roots and rocks all along the course.
But the WORST part of the race was the actual distance. Paying over $70 for a race hosted by a respected company, I expected the course to be 13.1 miles long. However- according to my GPS watch and the watches of those around me, the course was 14.5 miles long! Whoever mapped out the course should have his/her head checked, (or should stop smoking on the job).
On a more pleasant note, I did end up getting pretty decent stats! While my time was abysmal, (2:34:05), I finished 223rd out of 772 runners, (the top 28% percentile!) I also finished 69th out of the 333 female runners and finished 12th out of 71 runners in my age group! Not too shabby considering the circumstances.
Needless to say, I will not be running this race next year. Nor will I be shopping at The North Face any time soon.
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