North Carolina Triumph: Oak Island Half (West Route)

Tina Torun (HF16109, MM15672, DA3665) – Oak Island Half (West route) to check off North Carolina! I had heard about the Coastal Race BAM- BigAssMedals! Their medals got me interested in this race, but they have a series. Too bad, I don’t live closer or I would do the BAM 3 race series. I met one of the RD Jojo at the end of the race and heard her story about how she is runner with her son in law had a bad race experience and they decided to make a list about what runners want at a race! This was the 10th year for Oak Island. They have a ultra 26.3, full, Half, 10k, 5k, mile. I chose the west route because the time limit was 6.5 hours. The east route started with the ultra and full, but had 3.5 hour time limit. The west route started 15 minutes later with the 10k. We had to get to the race 1 hour ahead to get parking on the island, but my parking lot was about 0.5 mile walk to race area. It was dark still at 6am arrival. 48F, windy at start, but would warm up to 63F. Sunrise at 6:53am. Pretty flat route, just a bigger uphill up the bridge, which is about mile 9. The east route didn’t go on the bridge, but back half of Full did. The full winner passed me at mile 8.5 or so because he finished in about 2:45. I knew I would get passed, but didn’t know when! I enjoyed seeing the full speedy runners! Aid stations every 2 miles, but really limited spectators. I just kept looking at all the beach houses. After race, water, banana, bbq, and beer garden or soda was nice! I hung around to see some on my Marathon Maniac friends finish. I didn’t really know that anyone was going to this race, except for Pascal Radley and Michael Hall , but I met more Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics there! I just missed seeing Gregory Rouson , but I see he had another race today! We closed down the beer garden! Successful finish of Half Marathon 81 and state 35! I kept myself entertained, only took 436 photos during the race, and beat my 3:30 time goal! I didn’t hit the wall, which was a win. I didn’t get blisters. It didn’t rain. The weather was perfect for me, because after 30 minutes of running I got warm. But others were wearing so many layers because of the wind and 48F-63F. But at home it was 20F. HF16109 MM15672 DA3665