The course took us on a tour around the RBC Center then past Carter-Finley Stadium before heading out onto the roads before making the turn back to the RBC Center. The finish line was right in front of the lawn outside the arena.
It was great to see Hurricanes play-by-play announcer John Forslund service as host and leader for cheering every runner to the finish. He made sure to recognize everyone he could. He gave my wife a nice shout-out as she approached the finish line. I was cheering her on from one side and she had friends on the other side cheering for her too. Forslund proceeded to say to her, "Number 187 is the crowd favorite". That was great to hear.
I ran the race with my good friend Jon. We booth ran wearing Team 413 shirts. Started out on a good pace and took advantage of an early downhill stretch to pick the pac up. As we made our way past mile 1, we started up Trinity Road which is nothing but a steady incline all the way to mile 2. After making the turn onto Westchase Road heading back to the finish line, I looked at my watch and knew breaking 30 minutes was reachable if I picked up the pace a little. I proceeded to put in a little extra and was able to cross the line in 29:30. My buddy Jon was also able to break 30 minutes.
Overall this was a great event and I have to say thank you the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes and NC Races for putting this on. It would be awesome to see this turn into an annual event. Even though the All-Star game will not be here, we could still have this event.
Below are a couple of pictures from today's event and the medal given to the first 500 people that registered for the race..
