Race Review: Asheville Half Marathon at The Biltmore

It seems an appropriate time to rehash a race we ran a year ago, The Asheville Half Marathon held entirely within the grounds of The Biltmore Estate.  The race is held in mid-March each year, so this year’s race was held last weekend, and I was bummed not to be joining in!  For that reason, I’m going to re-live my memories of the fun we had during our brief visit in 2016.

Asheville is just close enough to Ohio to make this a driveable weekend getaway.  Dan and I reached The Doubletree, the race headquarters hotel, in the late evening hours on Thursday night and stepped out of the car to find that, sure enough, during the six hours we had spent in the car, something about the air had changed.  Instead of emerging from the car and finding ourselves in winter in Ohio, we stepped outside and directly into spring in the South.  The sweet smell of the air and the absence of a biting wind reminded me that this is where I really should live.

Already present and waiting for us were both of our sets of parents and his brother – our first multi-family vacay!  It was late enough, and there were races to be run that weekend, so we said some brief greetings and headed to bed.

 

Friday was “pre-race” day!  And since we were just doing a long-weekend trip, we needed to squeeze in as much fun as possible.  We started with a walk through the Biltmore Village to find a perfect spot for breakfast.  Well-Bred Bakery & Cafe fit the bill nicely for a full fuel-up before heading back to the hotel to scope out the race expo.   Egg dishes, fruit, and baked goods the size of your head lined the counters inside.

 

 

And what a race expo it was!  I’ve never been given so much free hummus in my life!  Honestly, I was quite enamored with the swag bags for some reason.  Long-sleeved tech shirts, little knit gloves with the Asheville Marathon logo, and more.  This was my first experience running a smaller half marathon, and I found it to be exceptionally charming, beginning with the expo.  For some reason, they made a sign with the name of each race entrant listed on it.  And for some reason, I found this appealing.

We wanted to spend the rest of the day exploring the city a little bit, so next, we hit the town!  We headed out first to downtown Asheville where everyone got their own version of chocolate (I went with gelato) at French Broad Chocolates.  We got a little lesson in spinning wool into yarn at Earth Guild.  We shopped around in a local book store.  And then we perused a few more shops and were tempted to buy hand-made rocking chairs in the Grove Arcade.  Finally, we decided to push for one more stop before calling it a night. We thought we’d be cool and trendy and walk down to the River Arts District.  After consulting no one about how to get there or where we needed to be, the seven of us, tired adults from out of town, randomly set off in the general direction of the district assuming we would just find a place to eat dinner when we got there.  Perhaps it didn’t seem important at the time, but we were basically signing ourselves up for miles of walking the rolling hills of North Carolina the night before our half marathon… Why?  Who knows.  So we finally arrived in what was likely not the cool part of the River Arts District that we were looking for, we found like three open galleries, and zero open restaurants, and then we shamefully gave up and headed back to Biltmore Village to enjoy dinner at The Cantina. The server suggested tequila shots for the table, but we’d already made enough bad pre-race decisions, so we declined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On tired legs, we retired to bed, but it wasn’t so bad waking up the next morning to gorgeous weather, and a beautiful sunrise on the scenic Biltmore Estate.  The second reason that this race caused me to fall in love with smaller races was the starting line situation.  We could just walk around and meander, and we would find each other easily when we got separated.  We could wait in a short line and use an actual bathroom.  Oh, and this donkey…

This was my first trip to The Biltmore, and it was STUNNING!  And I didn’t even go in the building!  I had no idea how vast the estate was and how many miles we could cover without ever leaving the grounds.  And did I mention the hills?  I mentioned the hills, right?  Yeah, it was hilly, but I found that I didn’t mind so much because when you’re exploring a new setting on foot, the miles pass a little more easily.  The views of the house itself, the gardens, the river, they were all worth the hard work.

The post-race festivities were another factor that made this race worth running.  We were immediately rewarded with our customary post-race beer, and a plethora of other snacks.  While my dad lined up to get massaged, the rest of us proceeded directly towards the on-grounds winery to enjoy a complimentary wine tasting.  (This is a good way to replenish glycogen,  no?)  Ok, don’t follow my lead.  I don’t always make perfect decisions when I’ve just finished running 13 miles.

Despite our even more tired legs, we spent the rest of the day trying to soak up as much Asheville fun as possible.  My parents headed off for a tour of the innards of the Biltmore mansion while the rest of us perused the gardens and headed back towards town for the most satisfying refueling brunch/lunch at Corner Kitchen.  After a restful afternoon and a stroll through the Olde World Christmas Shoppe, we just dragged ourselves right into dinner time.  Our final big meal for the weekend and our final indulgent reward for a race well-run was some seriously delicious, cutting no corners, real collards and cornbread barbeque at Moe’s Original BBQ.   It was the only proper way to end our brief excursion to the south.

On Sunday morning, when we woke up to miles of gray sky and steady rain, it didn’t seem luck such a pity that we had to leave.  Until next time, I’ll be dreaming of Asheville and making a long list of all the things I want to do and places I want to go when we return… I want to hike the mountains.  I want to see the Biltmore at Christmas.  I want to run this race again!  Asheville, North Carolina in March > Ohio in March.  Worth the drive.