RACE REPORT: Hiddenite Festival Road Race

Submitted By: Ron Flemming

I had vacation planned for last week and was spending some of that time at Lake Norman so I searched online for nearby races. I found the Hiddenite Festival Road Race about 45 minutes away, which is a half marathon and 10k they have as part of their fall festival. I arrived at the Hiddenite Elementary School around 7:15am to pick up my packet, greeted by temps in the high 50's and a light rain/heavy mist. The course is a point-to-point route starting in Taylorsville, NC and ending in Hiddenite, NC (never heard of Taylorsville or Hiddenite??? Me either).

There is a 1 mile out and back starting at mile 6. We took shuttles to the Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Taylorsville to where the starting line was. Even though we did not take the course route to the start, one thing I noticed was that we were in much more hilly country than the way the elevation chart appears. The course is currently pending certification and as part of the certification, they had to move the starting line about two hundred yards down the road to meet requirements, whereas it has started from the church the past two years.

Start time was 8:30, but we didn't get started until about 8:50, which was a little annoying because we were standing out in the cool rain. One of the shuttles was late getting to the half marathon start and then they were also having to coordinate the start of the 10k at the same time, 7 miles down the half course.

After getting started, I immediately began feeling the aches and pains of the weeks hiking and running activities...definitely not recovered. Butt and shin pain were prevalent and I was wondering how this was going to play out and was thinking I probably should not even be racing this...Given how uncomfortable I was and the hilly terrain, I thought my goal of sub-1:45 was unreachable.

Lots of ups and downs and the course ran through some beautiful countryside of pastures and some huge granite outcroppings. Finally around mile 6 when I hit the out and back section, things got warmed up and some of those aches and pains were subdued and I decided I was going to be able to push through. The downhills definitely helped my pace, but the uphills did just the opposite.

Getting closer to the finish, I had heard about two major hills and they were just that...After peaking the last hill and with the finish in site, I knew I had hit my goal and that was great. The finish line was the start of the Hiddenite Fall Festival and immediately after the finish the street was lined with tents and vendors selling food and drink and arts and crafts. We were met at the finish line with a medal and t-shirt. My watch time was 1:43:40, which got me 1st in the 25-29 age group and also took about 9.5 minutes off my half marathon PR.

Other than the delayed start, the entire event was great...I love the small local races (50-60 half runners here). I feel you get on a much more friendly and personal level with other runners and the volunteers and the locals seem to really enjoy it. Hiddenite is known for a special gem called "hiddenite" and also emerald and sapphires. The slogan on the back of the t-shirt is "a gem of a race".

One last cool thing about this race is a special guest was announced at the start...Doug Dawkins ran with us. He is the Boogie races director and also completed a cross-country run from North Carolina to California.