See Raleigh Sweat

The City of Oaks Marathon committee did another great job with today's second annual City of Oaks Marathon (and half-marathon). Pretty much all the changes -- course, medals, expo setup -- went over really well and were definitely improvements from last year. Last year the expo was in the wind-swept Holshouser building at the fairgrounds, but this year it was indoors at the McKimmon Center, which provided a nice environment both for the runners and for us volunteers who worked there all day. Next year, the new convention center, right? :-)

Moving the start/finish area to the Centennial Campus was a good move, I thought, because of the extra access and parking that should be available close by. I didn't have any trouble when I got there about 6:15 a.m. -- large parts of my parking garage were still empty at race time -- but I heard some stories from folks who had to walk more than a half-mile to get in from their parking location. No problems getting out, either.

There was a big hill leaving the Campus, but that meant we got to come down the hill at the finish. I liked the course changes; it meant we went through downtown earlier in the race, and we got the benefit of the early downhills on Ebenezer Church Road. The hills in Umstead were brutal, of course, and it was also tough running along the greenway past the horse farms on Reedy Creek Road (uphill directly into the sun). There were knots of great supporters downtown, in Glenwood South, and especially in Cameron Village and at the Hillsborough Street / Blue Ridge Road intersection, where the half-marathoners turned around. Spectator support was much lower on the marathon course, but we did have some out-of-the-way places to run. Thankfully, there were a few spectators left on the way home, including the great folks from the Raleigh Galloway Group, who staffed the aid stations on Hillsborough Street. The overall downhill grade coming back through NC State and the big downhill after the bell tower helped tremendously.

This year's medals were a big improvement on the inaugural ones, which were nice but didn't have a lot of personality to them. This year they used the race logo with the big oak leaf, and the marathoners got medals that were a slight bit larger than the half-marathon medals. The post-race party was pretty much partied out when I arrived, but that's to be expected when the half-marathon is so much bigger than the marathon and you're near the end of the pack anyway.

Congrats to my friends Lee, Laura, Kim, Kenny, Andy, Mike and Jason, who all finished their first half-marathon, and to Chris for knocking out his first marathon! And to Maxine, Chris B and Caitlin, plus the NCRC crowd, for their usual great performances. I saw lots of friends cheering us all over the course, too, which was much appreciated. Overall numbers from 2007 may not have increased a lot this year, but I think Raleigh's still got a good marathon on its hands that can grow more over the next few years if they take care of it.

I ran much better than I ever anticipated and knocked seventeen minutes off my marathon PR, down to 5:22. It was just one of those days where you feel good and enjoy the run. I was suffering at times on the hills, but overall I had a really great day.