Special K
Running the trail at the Whitewater Center kicked my butt.
On my last hike, I fell head first while skipping along a trail on Looking Glass Mountain in the Pisgah National Forest. Not graceful. So when I approached the trail for the 5K Walk/Run Fitness Series at the U.S. National Whitewater Center, I knew the next 3.1 miles would be interesting.
Running the trail at the Whitewater Center kicked my butt.
On my last hike, I fell head first while skipping along a trail on Looking Glass Mountain in the Pisgah National Forest. Not graceful. So when I approached the trail for the 5K Walk/Run Fitness Series at the U.S. National Whitewater Center, I knew the next 3.1 miles would be interesting.
Usually accustomed to the stomps of hiking boots rather than 200 pairs of New Balances, the trail is set along a modest hill among the 307-acre Whitewater Center, within earshot of its rolling rapids. It’s not my usual thirty-minute jog up and down The Plaza.
Though the registration Web site states, “The majority of the course will be on wider, smooth sections of trail,” the entire track is positioned up and down a mountain, and tree roots and rocks don’t move for feet. The track is not passer friendly, so if you prefer to run with music make sure your iPod is on a low volume so you can hear “on your left” as others pass by.
Running this course was challenging. To put it into perspective, just two nights earlier a participant clocked a sixteen-minute 5K, but finished just after the twenty-two-minute mark here. The finish times determined a male and female overall winner, and then results by age group. I finished seventh in my age group, coming in shortly after the length of an episode of Scrubs. And for the first time in a long time, I truly experienced exercise-induced endorphins.
You don’t have to be a warrior, though. It’s a great event for the whole family, as several kids passed me left and right. If your general fitness routine hasn’t prepared you for a running hike through a small mountain, consider grabbing a brew and snack at the Eddy Restaurant and Bar, overlooking the whitewater on the “world’s largest man-made recirculating river.
Run for it
The third leg of the three-part fitness series takes place August 14. Registration, 5:30 p.m.; race, 7 p.m. Adults, $15-$20; children, $5-$10. U.S. National Whitewater Center, 820 Hawfield Road. 704-391-3900, http://www.chfmag.com/EventRegistration/5kFitnessSeries.html.
