Run the New River Marathon in Boone, North Carolina

Please run the New River Marathon in Boone, North Carolina so you can also experience the hills and the beauty.

My boyfriend, Kyle, and I are not big into gifts. We don’t love “things,” so for Christmas 2016 we decided to go for an experience instead. The experience of training for and running a marathon together. If there are tougher Christmas gifts out there, please let me know. It was my second marathon and his fifth. We wanted to travel somewhere cool for it, but not too far (because we’re also cheap). We sorted through all our marathon options and picked the New River Marathon in Boone, North Carolina.

About the race:

The New River Marathon takes you past the New River (no way) and through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It typically happens in May or June. Here’s the site. It’s $85-130 to pre-register for it. The earlier you sign up the cheaper it is! The medal and shirt were great. There were aid stations every 2 miles, and the volunteers were really energizing. The website really hypes up the beauty of the marathon but really doesn’t emphasize how hilly it is.

Running on a road during the New River Marathon, hands out in excitement, surrounded by grass and trees

Taken during a moment when I didn’t feel like I was dying.

We had a few mishaps, so here is our experience:

If you’ve ever trained for a marathon and are also normal, then you know that it can be awful. You have to wake up at the break of dawn on your days off, you have to spend HOURS out running when you’d rather be doing literally anything else, and you have to do this often. I’ll say it… Running can suck sometimes. And training for this race sucked sometimes. Nashville can be really hot and humid. Nashville also has really good brunch that I would have rather been eating instead of running for 3 hours. And I’ll admit that we should have broadened our horizons and run in different areas. We stuck to the same routes which made our long runs a bit more boring. (I’m aware this is not an actual mishap because every single marathon involves training, but I have to whine about the terrible things called “training runs.”) They sucked.
In the midst of our training time, I did a 50 mile backpacking trek in Torres del Paine, Chile. I ended up with Achilles tendonitis and was out of running commission for a month, which was not good. I had given up on the idea of even running the full until about 3 weeks before race day when I asked, “Is it possible for me to do this?” And decided it was. Well, sort of. One is never 100% sure that running a marathon is possible. Especially when you are WAY behind on training.
I ran a half marathon exactly 1 week before the full New River Marathon. I am sure this does not sound crazy to the people who do these long races frequently (seriously, how do you do it?), but my body was not prepared for this torture.
We signed up for our marathon in Boone, NC. I should have known better with this one. I’ve been to Boone. I went snowboarding in Boone. Snowboarding requires hills and mountains. I had full knowledge of the elevation in Boone. Yet we were still surprised by the hilliness of this race.

elevation map of new river marathon in boone nc, lots of hills

Here’s an elevation map that we should have looked at prior to signing up for the race.

The website said you could camp at the starting line. To me, camping > sleeping any other way. I was sold. I thought, “I get to roll out of my sleeping bag and meander to the starting line? A bunch of cool people will be camping together before a run? No worries about traffic or parking or getting there on time?” Sort of. I did not know it would be 30-some degrees. Or that we would be the only marathoners camping. Or that we’d be slogging through mud. We definitely could have gotten a better night’s rest sleeping any other way.
Back to the hills. WHAT WERE WE THINKING. The race started and we were breathless, running up a hill, in the first 30 seconds. My legs became so angry with me. It was constant up and down. And then constant pain. I was convinced that my ankle was broken. I cursed in my head more than I’ve cursed in the last 10 years. I’ll never forget mile marker 19 because I almost had a break-down. I put my hands over my face and almost started sobbing. I could not fathom running another 7 miles. 7 seems like a whole lot when your body is already at its limit. I ended up resuming my cursing and my almost-didn’t-count-as-running pace.

Running up a large hill during the New River Marathon

See, THE HILLS

Because of the rain and wind, the photographers peaced out. And they were out of cookies when we got to the finish line.

Would I recommend the New River Marathon to people? Yes. To the ones who want a little extra pain with the always painful marathon experience. It WAS beautiful, through the country-side, near the river. The organizers were really nice. The people who ran it are obviously badasses. And maybe you will be better prepared for the hills. Boone is a cute little town, and it’s also only a couple hours from Asheville, which is the bomb. You can definitely make this marathon an experience.

All in all, I’m convinced a marathon can never be a totally pleasant experience. It is always going to be painful. I am always going to have to dig deep and find reason to keep moving my legs. Sure, we could have picked an easier race. But now we laugh about it, and we know we accomplished something incredible.

And we finished together, holding hands in the air.

Sorry, no picture proof of that because of the lack of photographers 🙂

Running while Traveling is so awesome, and this is a great option for a destination race.