You should need an alarm clock to get up at 5:15. Or at least a dog. Or a cat, or whatever is going to jump on your face and scare the crap out of you, hurling your nervous system from 0 to “oh shit” faster than an indy car. It’s wrong to wake up at that hour unassisted. That’s why I did not wait for 5:15. I woke up at 5:08, fearing that I was as late for the Biltmore Estate 15K as I had been for the Maundy Thursday vigil. 5:08, or 5:15, or 5:anything should not be considered late on a Sunday morning. Ever. But I was sufficiently freaked to not need any assistance from the lesser species of the Animal Kingdom. (Yeah, I said it.)
I started the coffee and attempted a MP which seemed to be leading to extremely deep meditation — very hard to distinguish from sleep — so I stopped that. 40 minutes later, I was in the car and passing through the Valley of Love and Delight on my way to the Estate. The organizers had been rather emphatic about getting through the front gate with plenty of time to spare, and apparently it did get hectic after I got through, but everything was chill as I proceeded up the main drag. Bamboo, Hemlocks, and the River of the Suwaree were enshrouded in fog as I rolled up Frederick Law Olmstead’s carved turns and twists. There is no getting around the fact that the Biltmore Estate is fracking gorgeous.
Right down to the bathrooms in the area we had been given access to. (Going off the reservation at the Estate is harder than seeing Elivs’ toilet at Graceland.) In addition to the polished faux granite vanity tops, the crapper had a brushed aluminum lock that had a subtle occupancy indicator on the outside. Not like an airplane, cooler than that. Or maybe like on a cool airplane. Virgin airlines or something. Anyway, the bathrooms were nice and virtually line-less. That means you too ladies! We were all peed and pooped out when it was time to line up.
I’ve been in plenty of races where everyone is at the start and you hear a “mumble mumble mumble” that is understood to stand for “instructions” and then they fire a gun or set off a horn or whatev. Today’s race organizers took this to the next level by dispensing with the mumbling and just firing a gun somewhat randomly. Given that this event included a 5K and a 15K, they actually had two starts, and so did a few guys who took off for the 15K when the gun was fired for the 5K. There is something to be said for mumbling. At 7:19 they fired the gun for the 7:20 start of the 15K and we were off.
I get passed a lot early in a race, and I usually think , “see you in a little bit.” Most people start too fast. I probably start too slowly most of the time. People did start to slide backwards around the beginning of the second mile which coincided with the beginning of the day’s two primary climbs. This one, up to the Deerpark, appeared to be the steeper of the two. Maybe because it was the first? I don’t think so. I think it has more to do with this probably not being a road designed by Frederick Law Olstead. The older parts of the Estate were, of course, as were Central Park in New York, the Emerald Necklace in Boston, and the park system in Louisville which includes Cherokee Park. I have been able to run in all of these places and remember them all for the way their roads arc and climb such that the roads themselves are beautiful. They become a part of the landscape rather than an intrusion necessitated by my desire to travel on them.
The roads on the Estate, or at least the ones close to the House, are these kinds of road, meant for carriage travel by people of leisure. I am a man of leisure, or at least one who appreciates what men of leisure appreciated. Turning in front of the massive oak doors, I could appreciate their grandeur, but I also appreciated that it was all downhill — or flat — from this point in (another 3.3 miles or so.) I should say that my performance up to this point had been somewhat reserved out of concern that I not wreck my legs on the first descent. Now I was ready to open it up a bit.
The walled garden, bass pond, lagoon, and French Broad River are all probably worth spending time viewing individually. They are not things I took the time to gander on my way through. I did appreciate that the early 8:30 splits were being counteracted by later times in the neighborhood of 7:30. Descending grades help, of course, but there was more in the tank than there should have been. Nothing to decry too heavily, however, as my result (1:13:11ish) was plenty well within the target zone. I’m not even sure what the target zone was, other than to run well. A slightly sub-8:00 pace over 9 miles in running well.
And well it was to run this, the last Biltmore 15K. Or so they say. My hunch is that we will see a proprietary race from those marketing whizzes over at the Biltmore Co. (This race was put on by the Kiwanians.) Prior to today, I would have said that it was not worth the scenery to buy an entry that would surely be more expensive and likely not a charity fundraiser. When the Estate comes out with its own 15K, or better yet Half or Full Marathon, it still won’t be worth the scenery, but it will be worth the roads. Damn well worth it. Buy them entries now, because they won’t be getting any cheaper.