This was my first marathon relay, as well as my first time organizing....not one, but TWO teams. I expected major headaches with registration, assigning legs, and coordinating transport to exchange zones. Luckily, I was wrong! Registration for this race was a breeze; one person started the process as captain (and put down the full cost), and then had a link to pass to teammates to join in. For our team(s), we assigned legs based on our goal race distances (ie. our marathon runners got the "longer" legs of 5.8 or 6 miles, and filtered down the chain likewise). We didn't really factor in elevation, which may have been important in hindsight...as this course is HILLY. Typically I try to avoid races in Charlotte as I personally despise hills, but I had a killer team that I couldn't say no to! I may have assigned myself the least hilly leg!

Day of race, we arrived nice and early in order to avoid any road closures, and ensure we had time to use the available indoor (so rare!) restroom facilities across from the race start. The one downside is that Charlotte lacks plentiful street parking, like any major city, and for the start and finish, we had to park in garages and pay. For being in the south, it sure was a frigid day, with tons of wind. Obviously we cannot control the weather, but it definitely was a low point of this race. We used two SUVs to transport our runners; some of our team ran multiple legs to get extra milage in, so we were able to coordinate drop offs and pick ups fairly easily, without having our runners stand too long in the cold! The exchange zones were clearly marked and easy to get to. I did feel that the logistics left a little to be desired, the person handing off exchanged the velcro bracelet, and then the next leg runner would pass the timing mat...in my mind I would have expected it to be opposite, but maybe this caused less traffic at the exchange zones? The aid stations throughout my leg looked well staffed and offered water and gatorade. Towards the end of my leg, one of the stations also had gels being on the full course.

Timing was my biggest complaint, as the race didn't have their own tracking; they relied on an app called RaceJoy. I've used this app before for both the Charlotte Half, and Kiawah Half. I knew that I had to physically press start on the app in order to be tracked, but it was a pain to have the phone out, hand off a timing bracelet, press start, and store phone on your person. Some members of our team did not hit start on theirs, not remembering, so it added a little guess work to our timing.

At the finish, they allowed the full relay team to join up and run the last leg through the finish line prior to the finish corral, giving us some nice finish shots! We were all handed medals promptly and got in a separate corral for a team photo. I haven't gotten word that photos are ready for viewing yet, we are only 5 days out though! After funneling to a side street, we were able to grab goody bags with an array of granola bars, fruit (bananas or fruit cup), water, gatorade, and chocolate milk. In the finisher area held in the park, there was a designated drinking area for the post-race beer with heaters...welcome after the windy finish. I did not imbibe myself, but my husband (our race driver) got my beer, which was from a local well known craft brewery, and enjoyed it himself. I made sure to drive us home after :).

All in all, it was a race that I would do again. I had previous experience running the half two years back, and I can't say that I didn't wistfully pass the split of the half/full at mile 13 looking longingly at the finish line as I had 2 more miles in my leg. Every race I run in Uptown I say is my last, and that the hills are too much and I am never doing this again. But I always lie. I'll see you again next year Novant Health Charlotte Marathon Relay!!!