Oskar Blues 4-mile race report

Lately I’ve been signing up for races on the fly. It’s so unlike me! Last week, Julie had messaged me about doing the Oskar Blues 4-miler on Saturday. It hadn’t even crossed my mind, but the forecast was looking decent and I thought it would be a lot of fun (maybe a new favorite distance for me?) to run and also meet Julie in person! (By the way, she’s even nicer in person. And she’s an excellent runner!) So I signed up on Wednesday, I believe. The deadline was midnight Friday, so I was almost cutting it close.

Let’s fast forward to Saturday morning. My Garmin led the way, but I was distracted by my music playing and missed turns several times. (The brewery really is fairly simple to get to, and it was about 45 minutes from my house.) I got in line to get my bib number and met Julie in line. They ran out of race packets right before I got to the table, but I did get a race shirt and was all set to go. I do have to admit that I was slightly disappointed in the race shirt. A friend of mine agreed with me. The shirt is a nice quality and will be good for training, but the front just says “Pisgah Running” – the group that helped organize the race, I think. I would have expected at least the race logo on the front of the shirt.

(Photo credit: Julie)

We met up with another friend and her friends, stretched and before we knew it, it was time to run! Someone sang a great rendition of the national anthem and then we turned around and were off. I don’t remember anyone counting down to the start – we just ran. It was a tad weird.

Mile 1 was quick. For me, at least (and later I found out, it was fast for Julie, too.) I think I was just disoriented from the start and taking off. Also, there was a lot of green, since this race was technically St. Patrick’s Day weekend. I love when people get into holiday spirits and dress the part in races!

Towards the end of mile 2, I told Julie that if she needed to go ahead, do so. I didn’t want to hold her back! There was one hill towards the end of the second mile.

Bye, Julie!

And what goes up, must come down.

Mile 3 was pretty. I felt like I was maintaining a decent pace, I wasn’t hurting, and I probably could have pushed a little harder. I even saw these fly fishermen in the river. (Look hard. The trees were blocking the view a bit.)

The area really was (mostly) pretty. And flat. One of the flatter courses I think you can find in western North Carolina, home to all. the. mountains. I enjoyed looking at the horses, this church (which I saw twice – the first time, I couldn’t snag a decent photo) and some of the older houses. I started thinking about what these buildings looked like years ago when they were probably in their prime.

I finished pretty hard, as one guy FLEW past me! He had way more left at the end. Or maybe he just wanted a beer?

My RunKeeper app showed I finished in 39:10 and had run 4.3 miles. I think I did do a bit of weaving, and also there wasn’t a start “line” so I started my app when I started running.

The post-race festivities were pretty fun. Everyone (of age) received a beer. Lucky for me my husband, they were in cans and I could take it home for him. There were a couple of vendors selling lunch, and I know there were a few other things that were going to be taking place, but I was a little anxious to get home. I think I left around noon.

Winners won these mugs (Photo credit: Julie)

It was a good race! It was well organized, the packet pick-up was easy (even though they ran out of “packets”) and there was one water station on the course at mile 2. The course even had a few spectators, and that was encouraging. It was well marked, and the volunteers were really great. I’m definitely keeping this in mind for next year!