Missing actual road races?
I'm directing an actual in-person road race in 7 weeks time! Just got the green light!
The 1st annual Ashland City Half-Marathon will take place on Saturday March 6th in Ashland City, TN (20 minutes west of Nashville). The pancake flat, USATF-certfied course (being measured on Tuesday) will go from Riverbluff Park and then take you alongside the Cumberland River on Chapmansboro Road, return via the beautiful Bicentennial Greenway. This is a loop many of the faster runners in the Nashville area have been using for time trials and tempo runs and is about as flat as you can get without doing a boring out and back race.
I will cap the field at 500 runners and may require a Covid test of all runners in the week before the race (more on that as we monitor local Covid numbers).
Aside from the elite runners (sub-1:10/1:25) who can start together (but definitely WILL require Covid tests), everyone else will start in one of three lanes at 5 second intervals.
The course will only be open for 2 hour and 30 minutes (11:26/mile).
This race is intended to cater more towards competitive runners, rather than rookies. To that end, there will be four waves of registration opening - somewhat akin to the Boston Marathon registration process.
The first wave (opening Thursday January 15th (today) at 12pm CT) will be for runners who can run at a 75% age graded level. The next wave to open will be for runners who can run at a 70% age graded level (opening Monday January 18th at 12pm CT). Wave 3 will be for runners who can run at a 65% age graded level (opening Thursday January 21st). Wave 4 will be for everyone else and will be on a first come, first serve basis until the total entry cap of 500 is reached. That wave will open Monday January 25th.
There will be NO day of race entries. No exceptions.
Listed below are the half-marathon entry standards. You are expected to have achieved these standards within the last 24 months. Comparable times for 10K, 10 miles, or Marathon may also be used. An age graded calculator to compare performances is linked below (scroll down).
75% age grading Standards (Male/Female) - Open 1/15
Open: 1:19:00/1:27:45
40-44: 1:24:00/1:32:15
45-49: 1:27:15/1:36:30
50-54: 1:31:15/1:42:30
55-59: 1:35:15/1:49:30
60-64: 1:40:00/1:57:30
65-69: 1:45:00/2:06:45
70+: 1:51:00/2:17:30
70% age grading Standards (Male/Female) - Open 1/18
Open: 1:25:00/1:34:00
40-44: 1:30:00/1:39:00
45-49: 1:34:00/1:43:30
50-54: 1:38:00/1:49:45
55-59: 1:42:15/1:57:00
60-64: 1:47:15/2:05:45
65-69: 1:52:30/2:15:00
70+: 1:59:00/2:27:00
65% age grading Standards (Male/Female) - Open 1/21
Open: 1:31:00/1:41:15
40-44: 1:36:45/1:46:15
45-49: 1:40:45/1:51:15
50-54: 1:45:15/1:58:15
55-59: 1:50:00/2:06:15
60-64: 1:55:15/2:15:30
65-69: 2:01:00/2:26:15
70+: 2:08:00/not applicable
Everyone else: Open 1/25
Do not enter unless you are 100% confident you can cover the entire course in 2:30. The course will have a rolling re-open to traffic at 2:30 (11:26/mile) pace.
Here is the link to online registration:
https://runsignup.com/.../Ashland.../AshlandCityHalfMarathon
A website and Facebook page for the race will go live in the next couple of days.
Here is the course that will be used:
https://www.strava.com/routes/2749285849756243678
Linked below is an age graded calculator to use to see when you can register:
http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html
Dave Milner