I first learned about this race from my friends’ Facebook posts, a few friends who had done it the past couple of years. I asked one of them in person about it, and she highly recommended it. She explained that there were two races, one for men and one for women, that the field was small, and that there would be many fast runners. But she also said there were runners of all paces, and that her strategy was just to start in the middle/back of the starting pack, to stay out of the leaders’ way, and to enjoy a one mile PR.

My husband and I decided to sign up for it. I had a previous one mile PR, and I thought it would be fun to see how much faster I could go on a smooth, straight, downhill course.

I registered us about a week ahead of the race for $20 each. Race entry included a Sir Walter Running / Raleigh RunDown coozie that we would receive at bib pick-up.

The women’s race took place at 7:00 pm, and the men’s, at 7:25 pm. At the bib pick-up tent, we got our bibs, coozies, and (a nice surprise) some free t-shirts that were left over from other Sir Walter Running events. We pinned our bibs on and walked back to the car to deposit the swag (we were able to find free parking easily both near the start and the finish line; we chose the finish). Then we walked back to the start line. Our warm up consisted of walking to and from the car, and then we did some skips, high knees, and other running drills to further warm up before the start.

About ten minutes of seven, they announced for all the women racers to gather in the start ‘corral.’ We had timing chips on our shoes, but there was no electronic device at the start to clock our actual chip time (the only device to clock us was at the finish). With such a small field, (fifty-eight women), times would be recorded as gun times only.

At seven, we were off. The race directors had marked each quarter mile with a paint line across the road, and I clicked them off painfully but happily as I crossed each one. I was so glad to see the finish line: a PR for me!

At the finish, they cut the timing chip off our shoes (apparently for future use), I received a bottle of water, and I tried to walk a little to cool down and to stretch. During these few minutes, the sky was turning black, the sun was going away, and a cool breeze was picking up. They decided to move the men’s race up five minutes, in order to hopefully complete it before any storm started.

We were told the men were off at the top of the hill, and I moved to a spot in front of the finish line so I could see my husband’s finish and also his time on the clock. The weather was quickly worsening. The four minute milers started to come into view and then crossed the line. There were 102 men in the field, and I cheered on many of them as they approached the finish line. My husband came into view eventually, and a glance at the clock showed me he was going to also have a nice PR. When he was about thirty feet from crossing the finish line, there was a loud crack of thunder and lightning simultaneously; the timing clock blanked out and displayed 88:88:88:88. He crossed the line, and we booked it to our car in the pouring rain.

The finish line party and rewards ceremony took place at Trophy Brewing, which is located not far from the finish line. This was a fun, summer Friday night and a well organized, small race, at a distance that is not common in this neck of the woods. The downhill elevation loss is an attractive feature. I will do this one again, and I hope more of my friends will join me next year. I’d like to see more runners of all paces come out and participate. While I was initially intimidated by the thought of running in a field composed of so many younger, faster runners, the actual event and the people running it were professional, open, and friendly. It felt as welcoming as any other running event I’ve ever participated in, accommodating of people of all paces and depths of running experience.

The event website can be found at this link: http://sirwalterrunning.com/raleighrundown/.

The link of the organizing group, Sir Walter Running, can be found here: http://sirwalterrunning.com/.

For more race reviews and other running posts, visit my blog, therunningfrenchprof.wordpress.com.