Added: Tobacco Road Half Marathon

Disclaimer: I’m promoting Tobacco Road Marathon & Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

Here’s me and my running buddies on Sunday past, training for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon on March 18th in Cary, NC. We’re putting on our best smiles for the camera, but this was probably one of our toughest runs in a while.

Tobacco Road will be my first official half marathon race and I’m already suffering some pre-race nerves. Does anyone else get these?!

I felt really confident coming out of the Hot Chocolate 15k a few weeks back, but this one run knocked me back a bit. I know some of the crew are feeling the same way.

So our route on Sunday was quite hilly, and the Tobacco Road route is “fast, flat & fun”, right?! At least that is what I’m going to keep telling myself for the next couple of weeks, despite knowing that there are some (deceptive) hills on the American Tobacco Trail.

I am excited about finally getting to run a half marathon race, and I’m fairly confident still that I’ll get a PR (check out my profile on Athlinks to track my results).

My Garmin Race Predictor reckons I can complete a half in 1h46m (8:05/mi) — which would be awesome! Personally, I’d be very happy with 1h51m (8:30/mi). I just need to restrain myself at the beginning and not start out too fast.

There are pacing groups available and I am considering joining one of them to keep my pace consistent.

The best thing about this race is that so many of my friends (from MRC, Story Church and BibRave) are running it as well and it will fun hanging out at the after-party with everyone. Unfortunately, my wife Liz is still recovering from a stress fracture and had to defer her bib until next years race. 😦

The Tobacco Road Marathon is run on the American Tobacco Trail, a hard-packed gravel and paved trail converted from an old railway. It spans 22.6 miles – not quite long enough for a marathon, which is why the course is an out-and-back (same for the Half).

The course is known a Boston Qualifier, but I have a while to go before I think about chasing a BQ. For those that do, and achieve it, you can collect a special Boston Qualifying t-shirt at the after-party.

If you’re thinking of registering to run it and haven’t quite made up your mind, maybe a discount code will sweeten the deal. Use code “bibrave1” to save $20 on Tobacco Road race registration!

A few of us are planning to head over to the American Tobacco Trail this weekend for our long run. I’m really hoping to feel a lot better about race day after that.