A couple months ago, after I had signed us both up for the race, he had emailed me about a major detail that I had somehow overlooked - that the last mile of the race was a big, long hill referred to as the Laurel Hill Challenge. This particular hill is such a challenge that they actually give a split time and separate prizes just for that section. This definitely dampened the enthusiasm I had felt at the prospect of running in downtown Chapel Hill, past several of UNC's athletic stadiums.
So, just for this race, I did something I have in the past pretty successfully avoided - hill training. Luckily, there is a nice, quiet, scenic and extremely hilly road fairly close to our house, so we made it our training course. We tackled it together only three times, but in the week leading up to the race, I did it 4 times by myself, 4 days in a row. And I actually kind of started to enjoy it.
Well, it paid off. I ran the 4.7 miles in 44:58 and my hill split time was 8:58. My partner in crime came across the finish just under 50 minutes, with 9:48 for the hill - quite impressive in proportion to the amount of training he was able to do. Passing all the stadiums was indeed inspiring and I think it will end up on the calendar for next year - despite, or maybe now because of, the big scary hill.
