Let's talk about the 11th Annual Asheville Marathon & Half Marathon on Saturday, March 18, 2023 in Downtown, Asheville, North Carolina.
Our Event Guide is a recording of our iDaph Events Podcast, and here we discuss what to expect on Race Day. The host of this podcast is Amy Silvers, Administrative Coordinator at iDaph events with guest Daphne Kirkwood the Race Director and owner of iDaph events. We talk about the course, packet pickup, parking, shuttles and more - along with many other important details.
We look forward to Celebrating 11 years with you at the races. For more info about the race and Course Turn-by-Turn directions and maps, please visit our website here - https://ashevillemarathon.com/
Let's talk about the 11th Annual Asheville Marathon & Half Marathon on Saturday, March 18, 2023 in Downtown, Asheville, North Carolina.
Our Event Guide is a recording of our iDaph Events Podcast, and here we discuss what to expect on Race Day. The host of this podcast is Amy Silvers, Administrative Coordinator at iDaph events with guest Daphne Kirkwood the Race Director and owner of iDaph events. We talk about the course, packet pickup, parking, shuttles and more - along with many other important details.
We look forward to Celebrating 11 years with you at the races. For more info about the race and Course Turn-by-Turn directions and maps, please visit our website here - https://ashevillemarathon.com/
Hello and welcome to another iDaph Events podcast. I'm Amy Silvers, the administrative coordinator, and I have with me today Daphne Kirkwood, owner and race
Daphne Kirkwood:director. Hello everybody. Welcome.
Amy Silvers:Today we're gonna talk about the 11th annual Asheville Marathon and half in downtown Asheville on Saturday, March 18. I ran the half marathon last year, and I'm really looking forward to being back in the saddle, but in a different capacity
Daphne Kirkwood:this year. I'm excited to have you on this podcast, not only as an employee, Amy, but also a seasoned runner and a runner who has done this race, because you're gonna provide all kinds of little nuggets of wisdom to the folks today during the podcast. So thanks for being here and for helping host today's podcast.
Amy Silvers:Absolutely. Okay, so we're in downtown Asheville. Where exactly will
Daphne Kirkwood:we be downtown? Yeah. So the race starts and finishes in two separate location. It is a point to point race, so it starts in downtown Asheville in Pack Square Park, and it finishes at the wedge at Foundation, which is on found E Street in the River Arts District. And they're a couple miles apart from each other. And there's a big hill in between, And they're not right next to each other. No,
Amy Silvers:definitely not. Okay. Just to get us started, we typically have a charity or a non-profit partner for each of our events. We have several for this. For this one, who are we working?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, we have some great charity partners this year for the event. We have Friends of Acoustic Trail which is, we're really excited about. It's a new trail that's being built, rails to Trail system in Hendersonville that will connect Hendersonville Brevard, and so they're part of the event raising funds for the acoustic trail. We have Conserving Carolina, we have Mountain True Sheep Dog Impact Assistance and IRE Athletes Foundation. And to find out more about all of those, you can check out the event guide. You can donate directly to them on our registration platform, and you can meet with them at the expo or the finish line. All right, awesome.
Amy Silvers:So glad to be working with them. Let's talk about what people can expect on race weekend. First of all, what do we have a race expo this year?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, we have the expo at DoubleTree Hotel there in Biltmore Village. That is our race headquarters hotel. And it is on Friday, the day before the race. And there is a packet pickup taking place. There are vendors there. You can buy race merchandise and if you haven't been part of the expo yet, you're gonna wanna come and check it out. It's a, it's an event within itself, there's a lot happening there. If you've already gotten your packet mailed to you, you can still come by. You can get your goodie bag. Just bring your race number with you so that you can get that goodie bag if you've already gotten it in the mail. But yeah, come and check out the expo. It's from 11 to seven, Friday, March the 17th at DoubleTree Hotel. And we're really looking forward to it.
Amy Silvers:Yes. And it's on St. Patrick's Day too. We're gonna have to, we're remember to wear green so we don't get pissed all day. Yes,
Daphne Kirkwood:Oh yeah, definitely. And we have some of those four-leaf clover socks from bga that say Asheville Marathon on'em. They're super duper cute. We'll have some of those for sale at our merchandise table. So if you're, if you wanna get in the St. Patty's stay spirit pick some of those
Amy Silvers:up. All right. That's a guaranteed way to be safe right there. No pinch. Okay. Who are some of the vendors? What vendors can we expect to see at the
Daphne Kirkwood:expo? Yeah, so our list continues to grow. So as of right now, we have athletic upgrade who will be there explore Asheville, Firefly Realty, fleet feed of Asheville, friends of acoustic. We'll have pacers there. If you wanna meet some of the Pacers, we'll have race essentials untapped. We'll be there. They are gonna be the gel partner that's out on the course at our water stations. We will have vitally PT yoga six will be there. And then we'll have some other races that are around the area who will be coming and giving information about their races too. And some other ones as well. The, like I said, the list keeps growing.
Amy Silvers:It does. I can't wait to see who else comes on board with us. All right. All okay. What if they, you mentioned getting your, for those who got their bibs shipped. Okay. What if they've already gotten their shirt and their bib and they need to swap sizes? Can they do that at the race expo?
Daphne Kirkwood:They cannot. Amy. We have accounted for every single one of those shirts, and so you had to pre-order the size that you want, and unfortunately, if it doesn't fit you or you wanna swap it out, you're gonna have to wait until after the race to do that. So that could be done at the finish area. At the merchandise table, you can bring an unworn, unwashed shirt with you. We cannot take back shirts that you wore during the race that you found uncomfortable and wanna swap out. You'd have to buy another one. And I say that because we've had people try to do that, so oh yes. It's just a little bit nasty, but chances are we'll have some shirts available that we can do some swapping after the race. So don't fret, but bring it with you to the finish line. Even if you go back to your hotel and change and shower and then come back, we'll be there till at least 2, 2 30 3:00 PM at the finish area. You can come there and do that. And then I just wanted to mention something, and I know we're probably gonna talk about it later, but if you don't come to the expo, if you don't have your stuff mailed to you and you come to our emergency only packet pickup on race morning, which we'll talk about that. in a minute, but I just wanted to add it here. If you come to that, you're not gonna get a race shirt only, you'll only get your race number. And we cannot guarantee that when you finish the race, that shirt size that you ordered will be there anymore. And that's because we're gonna allow the swapping to take place at the finish line. So if really want your t-shirt that you ordered, you gotta come to the expo or send somebody the expo on Friday to get it on Saturday on race day. Really there's no guarantee anymore that you're gonna get the size that you want. It's just the way that the logistics lie with that. I just wanted to mention that there. I thought that might be important for people to know. Yes,
Amy Silvers:definitely. And if they receive their bib shirt in the mail and they decide to change races, change distances. Yeah. From half to the full or from the full to the half, yes. What do they need to do there?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, so you know that race number is super duper important and most people don't even realize the extent of the importance of the race number. They just think it's a race number. Okay. It keeps track of my time. But there's a lot of parts to that race number. And If you decide, Hey, I am not gonna run the marathon today. I'm gonna run the half marathon, and you show up at the race on Saturday, you need to go and see Amy at the Pavilion in downtown Asheville at the emergency packet pickup time, and swap out that bib for a half marathon bib. If you decide to just run with that marathon bib and you are planning to just do the half, you're gonna be disqualified because you're not gonna go across all the timing locations. It's gonna be a pain in the butt for you because the volunteers are going to be telling you along the way that you're going the wrong way because you will be doing something different than the half marathoners. So dq. A pain in the Bo on the course are just two reasons, but it does co cause a lot of confusion for the police and volunteers and make sure you swap out that bib with Amy at packet pickup on race morning. We prefer that you do it at the expo because we don't want there to be any delays with you starting the race. So if you do get it in the mail and you have a second change of heart, or you're like, Hey, I'm feeling ambitious. I wanna switch from the half to the marathon. Amy can take care of doing that. She needs the race number that we mailed to you or that we gave you at the expo to, to make that happen.
Amy Silvers:Yes. And I do have here, just so you can get an idea of what the bibs look like. Half, half marathon is yellow and. The marathon is blue and the volunteers and course marshals and law enforcement officers along the way are looking for these particular colors for that particular route.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. And we'll talk about the route in just a minute and the differences in those but it's super important that you are wearing the correct bib. Yes. Yes.
Amy Silvers:Okay. Can people still sign up to race at the expo or packet?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, as long as we're not sold out, Amy, and we are close to having the marathon sold out. At this time we only have a couple spots left in the marathon and so I would expect it to be sold out way sooner than when the race gets here. And the half marathon will probably get sold out too. We have, ordered the metals, we've ordered all the equipment, all the stuff for the water stations. And we have a limited number of people on our permit yeah, watch for that cuz we don't want you to show up on race morning and think that you can register. And the way that you'll know is when you go to asheville marathon.com and click on the register button, if it says sold out or no entries, you'll know, don't show up cuz there's no entries And Yeah. So I think that should help with that. But if registration is still open, if we haven't sold out, people can, book that online, asheville marathon.com up until the last second of our emergency packet pickup, which will end at 7:00 AM So they could technically on their phone, at six fifty nine register for the race and get in. But at 7:00 AM it's too late. And that's only if spots are available. Okay.
Amy Silvers:Got it. And you touched it on it before a little bit, but let's do a little bit of the details on the packet pickup on race day. The emergency packet pickup.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. Yeah. So this really is for emergencies, Amy. It's for people who flight got delayed and they got in after the expo hours, something, traffic was jammed up on 26, which probably will happen. something like that, which prevents them from coming to the expo. We cannot have the hotel hold your stuff for you. After the expo hours, we, can't do anything like that. So we have this emergency only packet pickup, which it's not really a packet, I guess it's just your race number and safety pins because we won't have anything else there. And you can check in with Amy from six to seven. It's at the Pack Square Park Pavilion. Up on the hill of college Street and Spruce Street is where it's located. And we'll have that address on the event guide that people can look at as well. But that's where you can pick that up. Again, you know the shirt, there's no guarantee we'll have your shirt size after the race if you come and do the emergency packet pickup. So just note that. Chances are we'll have a shirt for you, but we're not able to guarantee that size after the race has started. Okay. The other thing to note too is if you're at DoubleTree Hotel, if you're staying there and you don't have your race number yet, your race number is your shuttle ticket. So there's not a separate shuttle ticket. The shuttle ticket is your race number. It's included in your registration price. And so if you're staying at DoubleTree Hotel and you're wanting to ride the bus to get to downtown Asheville and you don't have your race number yet, you're not gonna be able to get on that shuttle unless you buy a shuttle ticket that morning. So it's a pain in the butt. So in other words, get there before 7:00 PM on Friday, or send a friend to pick up for you. And yeah. Anything else I need to cover on that, do you think?
Amy Silvers:I think, excuse me. I think that I covered that pretty well. Do you wanna go into a little bit of detail with the shuttles runners versus spectators and
Daphne Kirkwood:how that might work? Yeah. Can you see my screen? No. No. Let me see. Can you see it now? There we go. Got it. All right. I'm just gonna show on the event guide cause it's a lot of details. And if somebody's watching on YouTube or somewhere else, they can just reference this event guide as well. The shuttles start at 5:45 AM from DoubleTree Hotel at the rear of the hotel. And like I said, you just need your race number to board. If you have a spectator, they need a shuttle ticket to be able to get on it. That can be purchased online through race roster where you registered for the event and. Those shuttles will run from 5:40 AM to seven o'clock is the last shuttle to leave from DoubleTree to the start line at 7 0 1. They will not be there anymore and I would recommend that you don't wait for seven o'clock. I would recommend that 7:00 AM is if your alarm didn't go off in the morning and you roll outta bed and go, oh crap, I need the shuttle. Because the race is starting at seven 30 and we have no late starts allowed for this race, we're permitted to start it at seven 30. If you're not on that last shuttle, you know that unfortunately you're probably not gonna be able to experience the race. Last shuttle goes to double to downtown from DoubleTree. The spectators can board the shuttle at the start line with their ticket from 7 45 to eight o'clock. So if you have a spectator that hops on at DoubleTree, they ride downtown to the start with you. They watch you start, then they can hop on the bus at the start area and ride it down to the wedge foundation to the finish so that they can see you down in that area. To most people, Amy, because downtown Asheville has so much parking available, it's not difficult to find parking. There's tons of parking garages, there's street parking lots of accessible park parking. So most people just drive their cars to downtown. And don't worry about, a bus on race morning unless they flew in or something. And then after the race starting at nine o'clock, so if you're a super fast half marathoner and you get finished at eight 30, you're gonna have to wait until nine. Nine o'clock the shuttles start running and they will run, they will leave every 15 minutes, 9, 9 15, 9 30 the whole way up until 2:30 PM from the Wedge Foundation. And they're gonna go back to DoubleTree and back to downtown Asheville. So they'll go two different places. And so you can hop on a shuttle and they'll take you back downtown. Sometimes people have a friend or family member who come to the Wedge Foundation and park there. And just meet them. But something to note is there's no shuttle bus pickup from the finish area at the Wedge Foundation, the finish, there's no shuttle that takes you from the finish to the start line before the race. So if you're thinking, Hey, maybe I'll just go park my car at the finished line and ride a shuttle up to the start line. We don't have that available. There's very limited parking around the wedge foundation. There's enough for our spectators, for the volunteers and that sort of thing, but for every runner to park down there would be pretty impossible. So that's why we have the whole shuttle system flowing and moving. I did wanna just show this map. This is the finish area. While I'm talking about the shuttle pickup. So the finish line is over here on the left. Our tents and everything will be here. Medical is here 12 Bones Wedge Foundation. The restrooms are inside the Wedge Foundation, but the shuttle pickup is here on this side of the building. This is the big parking lot here for your friends and family to park. And they can come in from Lyman Street into this parking area here. There's absolutely no parking at the finish in the front of the building. That's also noted on the event guide as well. The, these are businesses right here and they do not want to have anyone parking there. So did that answer all the shuttle questions? It did. Okay. Yeah,
Amy Silvers:you got'em all. You covered'em all. Great. And you've covered parking. Okay. So after you're parked, what's
Daphne Kirkwood:next? Yeah, so you get downtown, you find a place to park. You might have to pay for parking, just fyi, so bring some cash or a card. So as you're leaving you can pay the, street parking is metered, I believe still on Saturday, that you still have to pay for the metered parking. Do you know Amy, I last I heard
Amy Silvers:that you paid on Saturday, but it was free on Sunday.
Daphne Kirkwood:Okay. Yep. There is a limit on that. You can download the app on your phone and you can, put money on it that way. The parking garage is, it's unlimited time in there, so that might be a better bet for you, especially if you're a longer marathoner to use of the parking garage for your parking. And that information too is on our event guide. We list, the closest parking garages as well. But you park and then hopefully you already have your stuff and you can. Walk over the start line, stress free, find a porta John, get a cup of coffee from bare bones brewhouse, stretch out a little bit and just enjoy your morning and relax and not be in a huge rush. Then check. Go ahead.
Amy Silvers:Sounds good. And then we also have the bag check the gear check bag
Daphne Kirkwood:drop. Yeah some folks like to have, some things at the finish line when they finish the race. And so we have a gear check, bag check. We have some bags. Yep. Amy is showing at the bottom of your race number. That there is a tab that you will peel off of there, tear off, and you will use a safety pin and you will pin it to your bag. We will have some plastic bags that we can provide. They're not huge, but we have some available, if you wanna stick a few things in there and put that, race number on it we'll have a moving truck. It'll probably be a U-Haul truck up at the top of College Street, the top of the start line area. It'll be very visible and we'll have folks there helping, get those bags into the truck and then we will take those to the finish line for you to have at the finish. Yes.
Amy Silvers:And that to me, that's very valuable because I love to have a dry change of. Yeah. If you, hang out and,
Daphne Kirkwood:yeah. I don't post race party and not feel like you have to rush. It's, and there's bathrooms at the wedge, so you can go in and get changed. You can take a little washcloth and just towel off a little and, just enjoy the festivities instead of being in a rush. Yes,
Amy Silvers:absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So we've got our bibs pinned on the front. Yes. Pin on the front of the outside layer. Yeah. As if it's chilly, people are gonna have on a jacket or a sweatshirt or whatever. It's gotta be on the outside layer. And now we're ready to head to the start line. We didn't wrinkle or bend our timing chip on our bib. So where do we head for the start
Daphne Kirkwood:line? Yes. One thing that I just thought about mentioning, because this was a big deal last year, it was chilly at the start, and I know people a lot of times will bring clothes that they don't care about and they are gonna discard. And we have the issue of a lot of people just leaving their stuff all over the park at the start area. Those things, if you are, gonna get rid of'em because basically if you leave'em there, we're giving them to the homeless shelter so you're not gonna get'em back. Those things won't be there after the race. If you're thinking, oh, I'll just stash it here in the bush. We have a whole cleaning crew that will come in and get all that stuff. to get so that we can get out of the downtown area while you're running. don't stash your goodies. Put it in one of those bags, the finisher bags, and have it taken to the finish line for you. But if you are wearing like an old sweatshirt or something like that and you don't care about it, and you're like, I'm just gonna throw this off here at the start line before I start, go over to the finisher bag, U-haul truck, and we'll have a box there that you can just throw your stuff in to donate instead of just leaving it all over the park. It's a lot to clean up and we would just appreciate your help with that. And then along the course, there is no area for you to drop something off. and retrieve it later. Our water stations, our volunteers, they're gonna be picking stuff up all morning long. So I would suggest if you're gonna wear something that's long sleeve, tie it around your waist have your own plan to be responsible for your stuff. And don't plan to get it back, because if you leave something, it will probably be gone by the time you come back and look for it. Yes, so the race number has to be on the front of you. And if it's cold, if it's raining, if it's whatever put it on your shorts, put it on your pants, that it's visible. But that's how we are gonna guide you along the course. And so it needs to be visible the entire race. And we will stop you if we can't see it. And that's a pain in the butt. keep it visible. All right.
Amy Silvers:Do we have pacers
Daphne Kirkwood:this. Yes, we do. We have some half marathon pacers. We have some marathon pacers. Right now we have a 3 30, 3 45, 4, 4 15, 4 30, 4 45, 5 and five 15 for the marathon. And our half we have a 1 45, a two 15, a two 30, and 2 45. Now I always say this, our pacers are human too. And sometimes they get injuries and things prevent them from coming to the race. Right now we have'em all booked, but between now and race day, sometimes things can happen. Hopefully that won't be the case and they'll all be there present. But if you don't see a sign at the start line, it's probably something has happened to that pacer and most pacer groups have at least a couple people pacing just in case. Something like that happened. Yes.
Amy Silvers:Pacers are very valuable too. It, I was going for that sub too last year when I ran it, and I tried my best to hang with them. Yeah. Okay. Tell us a little bit about the
Daphne Kirkwood:course. Okay. I'm gonna actually show my screen because I think it helps if people can follow along with the course, especially if you have done it, it's a nice refresher if you haven't done it. It just helps to see a visual map, view of things. And just so you know this is the pretty map we call the pretty map here that I'm shown on my screen. But if you go to where are we? To asheville marathon.com. Whoop. It's not gonna let me do that. Oh boy. I lost your sound.
Amy Silvers:Daphne. See? There you go. You're back.
Daphne Kirkwood:Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Where did I drop off, Amy?
Amy Silvers:You were, you said this is our pretty map and if you go to asheville marathon.com and then we lost you,
Daphne Kirkwood:Oh, okay. All right. So asheville marathon.com, and if you go to the course information, it's right here. Under event Info, you'll see the pretty map and you will see two options that will take you to the ride with G P S map That looks like this. and this map shows the elevation change. And so you'll see the marathon starts up a hill and runs downhill. And then you can see the elevation all across the marathon. Course. There's a couple little dippers in here and I'll talk about that in a minute. But this is a really handy way to zoom in. You can zoom in on the side and just see all the different elements and stuff of the route. I'm gonna show the pretty map here, just so that you can get a sense of where you're headed and what to expect along the way. So you're gonna start up here. Impact Square. You're gonna start Spruce Street. You're gonna run through the downtown area. and there's some little roller hills through this section right here. I know it's a straight flat line and it is downhill. It's a net elevation loss, but there are a couple little dippers Yeah. Through there. So just know that once you go down Clingman Avenue, it's all downhill. this is downhill. It's not supers steep, but it's a gradual, it's a downhill. You're going to run across the Haywood Road Bridge. You'll run underneath that bridge on a new, on a greenway section that runs over by New Belgium Brewery, which is right here. That's mile two. Then you'll cross over the Craven Street Bridge and when you cross over that bridge, you're gonna need to stay on the right side of Riverside Drive running with. the flow of traffic, okay? And our volunteers will direct you to do that. But last year there were some people who wanted to stay on the left facing traffic, and we don't want you to do that at this intersection. I won't go into all the details of why. Just trust me. Get over Get on that right side with traffic and you're running down Riverside Drive. You're gonna cross some railroad tracks after those railroad tracks. That's where both the marathon in half will do a turnaround. It's very clearly marked. We'll have people there as well. You'll turn around and once you get to white duck taco that's right here, you'll see the little white duck you're gonna get on the sidewalk slash Greenway. Okay? You're gonna get on that greenway and it runs parallel to Riverside Drive. So you're running on the Greenway and you're running along and you get to your first water station, which is about three and a half miles in, I believe, off my memory. That'll be the Boy Scout's water station and you will keep on running along. You're gonna go past the Rad Gear, sign, the really cool yellow and black sign. It's a neat spot to get pictures. We'll have Live of Music DJ there as well, which will be really fun. You'll keep running straight along the Green Wave parallel to the French Broad River the whole way down until you get to Amboy Road. You're gonna cross the Amboy Bridge. and you're gonna take a right and head down into the French fraud river park as you're going across this Amboy Bridge. You need to stay, always stay on the side that's closest to this park. So the police will direct you to do that. But the bridge will have one lane of car traffic. So they keep the cars on the one side and you guys on the other side, they don't want you running on the lip of the bridge. We'll have cones up there. But you'll always stay on that side that's closest to the river park. You're gonna run down this little gradual hill through the parking lot. There's restrooms there. Water station number two is here and that's gonna be, I see. Imagine their cross-country team will be there. We will have some music after them. This is the dog park here in French, broad River Park. You'll run around the park under the overpass and then you will run parallel to Amboy Road on the Greenway and sidewalk area. Wrong way, cabins. One of our hotel partners is new and they're right here in this area as well. So if you're staying there, it's right on the course. You keep on running along and you stay closest to Amboy Road. The third water station is here and that is gonna be Runner Box. They're a local organization here in our area. They're gonna be servicing you at that station. You can run along. There's gonna be, there's restrooms right here, legit restrooms that you could run into if you need to keep on running. Let's see. I was trying to think if you go around this way. I'm trying to remember around coming back on the way back. Okay. Yep. Yep. So you just keep on here on Amboy Road and then there'll be some music through this section. You're going through the RV park here and this is all flat guys all along the river. You get to water station number four, that's gonna be serviced by Asheville. Personal training. We'll have some music over in this area too. And right after the Asheville Personal Training water station. Water station four, there is gonna be the half marathon turnaround. It's about eight and a half miles in. So once you see that eight mile mark, you know you're getting pretty close to it. There will be signs, there's gonna be volunteers, but you have to pay attention to this. This is super important. If you're in the marathon, you don't wanna turn around there because you're gonna Ms. Miles. You're gonna get Dqued because we're gonna know, cuz we have timing mats out there. So the marathon keeps running up. Harmony Creek Road. This is a hill. So you'll run up this road. There's a transfer station here. you end up going on Shelburn Road and then through a really cool tr greenway trail it through the woods. It's beautiful. And then you will turn around at the end of that trail, the marathon wheel, and you come back the whole way back and then you join back into the half marathon route at this turnaround again. So the marathoners go out just for mile nine and 10 and you only do that one, that section, that one time for mile nine and 10. So everybody's back together. Now you go back by that water station, there will be some porta johns here as well, and you run along the river. and you take a right here onto this little single track trail section. And that is there to separate you guys so that there, there's a separation in the path for y'all. You go around the velodrome and then you're gonna hit water station number five, that's Fleet Feet, Asheville, and you'll keep running closest to the river on the Greenway. And then you will connect onto this spot that you've run on before and you'll head back towards French Broad River Park around the park, back up through the parking lot, and then across that bridge, staying closest on this side right here in this area where my cursor is at a bike lane begins in this section. So there's Greenway and there's a bike lane when you're coming back. Half and marathoners coming back this direction, you're gonna pop onto that bike lane so that you're separate from the runners headed this way. You run on that bike path all along here and once you get up here to this area, and this is on Lyman's and Street, there's a roundabout here. There's police, there'll be a volunteer, there's gonna be signs, the half marathoners turn right, cross the road and head back on a sidewalk. And then they take a left on Old Amboy Road into the finish. The marathoners continue. They don't turn right there. They're at mile 15 I think. Yeah, 15 ish. They keep on running back by the ride gear sign. They come along here. They're gonna pass water station one again. There will be Porta Johns there and they will run out on the path. They run a little bit past white duck taco, not the full way over here. We'll have signs, so just pay attention. It's right here. They will turn around, marathoners will turn around here, head back down the green way and the marathoners go and repeat that same route so that they did originally. But here at this half turnaround, that's where they will turn around the second time that they get to this location. So the marathoners don't have to go out and do this two mile stretch that second time. You only do it the first time. So you flip around there, you're at mile 22, 23 over here. You do the same thing. You come back up here and then that second time that you get to this roundabout before the rad gear sign you're at mile 25 in something and you're gonna go across the road, come down the sidewalk and go into the finish. Yay. Yay. I think the biggest thing with this race and with just a lot of our races in general, because we're in the mountains especially it, there's curvy roads, there's Greenways, there's out and back traffic there. You have to pay attention. Nobody's gonna hold your handle on the course and go, okay, what mile are you at You have to be accountable and responsible for yourself. And that's why I went through the whole map today, cuz I feel like, just having a general overview of it is helpful. But ta you can take the map, you can take rapid g p s, you can go out, Thursday or Friday before the race. You can drive around the course and just check out the key elements to it and look at things. But, familiarize yourself and don't just expect to follow the person in front of you. They might not know what they are doing and they might be doing the marathon and you're doing the half. They might be on their second marathon loop and you're on your first half marathon. You just never know. Pay attention to mile markers that will definitely help you along the way to go. Okay. I went by eight, I went by nine, I went by 10 That will definitely help you to clue in. But, volunteers along the way are not gonna be able to tell you this is where you've been and this is where you need to go because they don't know what race you, you're running. The half marathon's pretty straightforward because you're not doing a second loop, but the marathon definitely needs to pay attention to the signs and the volunteers. Yes.
Amy Silvers:And that Stinker Hill you mentioned was about a mile. Eight and a half was the stinker hill.
Daphne Kirkwood:For the half at the turnaround for
Amy Silvers:the full. Yeah yeah. Yeah. The full goes because the full goes a little further past half turnaround up the hill under before you get to the bridge. Is that, that's the stinker hill,
Daphne Kirkwood:yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say that's a little stinker for sure. Yeah.
Amy Silvers:Yeah. Because we always have to have one in our races,
Daphne Kirkwood:yeah. You have to make it, challenging
Amy Silvers:if there's only one, I'm all for it. I'll t I'll take it Okay. What about
Daphne Kirkwood:our course cutoff? The course closes at 2:00 PM so that the race becomes unsupported at that point. So 2:00 PM is when everything starts closing up. That's
Amy Silvers:for the half and the full? Correct. Okay. Okay. So you and I both will love to run with music and we do allow headphones. but we do wanna encourage you to keep the volume low so that you can hear the direction of the law enforcement officers, the volunteers, the course marshals traffic and just really help you zone in and focus and pay attention to your surroundings.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. The other thing too is there's out and back sections on this greenway and there's gonna be a lot of runners. There's also people who are out walking their dogs and. Pushing their strollers if it's a nice day. As you're on the greenway sections, always stay to the right. And, don't take up the whole Greenway lane so that if there is oncoming runners towards you, you're on the right. They're on their right side. And so there's a separation in between. So if you have, 10 girlfriends and you're all running together, you're not gonna wanna be all spread out on the greenway side by side. You're gonna need to be single file, maybe double file. But just be aware that, once you get into the race, especially the greenway sections, you're gonna definitely wanna hug that right side of the road so that other people can pass you and bikes come through, that sort of thing. So watch for that. All right.
Amy Silvers:And you touched on it earlier, we do have two new official partners this year. One would be our official jail partner, and that's untapped, and they will be providing gels at all of the water stations. And I've their gels and I'm a big fan. The foundation is maple syrup. And it's a low glycemic carbohydrate made with maple syrup that doesn't crash like some other sugar gels would do. Yep. Very tasty. Several different flavors. So we're excited to have them this year.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, absolutely. And we do have a water station contest. So you guys will vote on the post-race survey. So it's really important that you take the survey. The winning water station gets$500 for them if they're a nonprofit or they can donate it to a nonprofit. So you're looking for the most spirited water station on the course. That's who we want to win. And so just keep that in mind as you're running. And then we also have another new partner, jam bar who will be providing bars for the water stations as well. The lady who has made these bars originally made the power bar back in the day. So if y'all remember the power bar if you're a veteran athlete yes, that's. And it's featured in this Month's. Runners Rule Magazine is one of the new top bars and their mango flavor is what everybody's raving about. They will be out on the course as well. But I do wanna mention here as we're talking about water stations, if you have something that you feel like you're definitely gonna want or need on the course, carry it with you. I would, never rely on a water station They're there to help. we will have them fully stocked. But I think, in this day and age especially, there's so many mobile things you can handheld carry, you can use a camelback you can, put stash things in your pockets of your tights and your shorts. And like I personally was carrying a lot of my own fuel that I was comfortable yeah. Eating with and stuff along the course and even drinking. And sometimes I'd stop and fill up my handheld thing with the water at the water station. But it helps you to just keep on moving. And just having your own things is a nice safety net too. So just keep that in.
Amy Silvers:All right. And let's see. Restrooms, we covered, you covered all those Yes. When you went through the map. Lots of public restrooms here and there if you're not a fan of the porta-potties, there are options, so that's good. Yes. How about spectators? What are the best cheer zones, places for spectators to set up to look
Daphne Kirkwood:for their runners? Yeah, I'm gonna show my screen again on the event guide. Can you hear me? Still wanna make sure? Yes. Gotcha. Spectator info is here on the event guide and we list multiple places here that are along the green way close to the finish line, or easy for you to access in spectators to get to. I would highly suggest. They park and walk to the, some of these places along the river. Driving around during the race is just gonna cause more congestion and headaches for you, for the other drivers and that sort of thing. So I would suggest that they're not, trying to drive around and see you. And they really shouldn't be on bikes on the course either because it's gonna be congested enough. There's plenty of great viewing areas that are right along the river and close to the finish line. Here's the finish line here. You, they could park here at the Wedge Foundation and walk out and be on the course and see you multiple times if you're doing the marathon. Just right here in this section. They can also see you at mile four and a half. They can see you again before you head into the finish just through this section, which is super convenient. And that's just by parking at the wedge? Yeah. And that
Amy Silvers:was that was such a great feeling. I ran the half and coming through there and the sidewalks just lined with people with signs and families and everybody was cheering and there was, you could hear the music playing and it was, when you're tired, you're close to the end and you come through something like that. It gives you that last little motivation, that last little push to get through. And for the marathoners, that'll be very motivational cuz they're gonna come through there a few times, yeah. Oh, and
Daphne Kirkwood:if you have a really awesome friend or family member that wants to, make it lively, not just for you, but for others on the course, have'em dress up, make a funny sign and bring it, like all of that stuff helps all the runners. We love that sort of thing. So feel free to do that. I had a little group of
Amy Silvers:friends that surprised me. I had no idea they were gonna be there. I just looked up and there they were holding these big signs, Oh, it was great. Okay, so we've finished our run. We've had a fantastic time. We've crossed the finish line. What's the, what's next? After we crossed the
Daphne Kirkwood:finish line? Yeah, one more thing. I just wanted to mention that when you are on the road, part of the course, the roads are open to traffic. So the city of Asheville is still functioning and moving on race day. Obey whatever the officers tell you. Watch for the markings on the road and the signs that will tell you which side of the road to be on. But you know that you can't take up the whole middle of the road going down Riverside because there, there might be cars. So just keep that in mind. All right. What was your question? Sorry, I got off.
Amy Silvers:We, what's the first thing we grab when we cross the
Daphne Kirkwood:finish line? Oh, of course. It's your stain glass finisher metal. And I think you might have one to show us, don't you? I do. I actually
Amy Silvers:have one of each. You're so pretty. The stain glass is just, I don't know if my, I hope my camera can
Daphne Kirkwood:catch it. Yeah, this is, it's you can see it. Okay. Good. Yeah, they're awesome. The Marathon metal's huge. It is I believe how big that is. It's substantial. And the, you earned that big
Amy Silvers:metal when you run a
Daphne Kirkwood:marathon. Oh yeah. And the rule is you have to wear that all day as soon as you can. Oh, your neck, oh,
Amy Silvers:absolutely. Gotta show that off all day. I might never take it off if I ever ran a marathon. I'm, I haven't gotten there yet, but
Daphne Kirkwood:maybe one day have permission to do that. For sure. So you get your finisher metal and then you'll grab a bottle of water from Firefly Realty. They'll be there at the finish. Humana, we'll be close to the finish area for you to grab a snack, a Gatorade some sort of a quick little snack refreshment as you're finishing. And then of course we have the big party. Yes,
Amy Silvers:that's the best part. I remember it from last year. So tell us, first of all, 12 bones of course we know is right there. They're world famous. Yes. And you have a favorite there, what might that be?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, it is the Turkey sandwich. Everybody. It is, I'm telling you the secret, it's not their barbecue, although they're barbecue is really good. But the gem is the Turkey sandwich and that's what everybody needs to order. Promise you, you will love it. You do get a 10% discount with your race number when you go in there. They're open 11 to four on Saturday. So pop in there, take some cash, make sure you have a card or some way to pay with you. They also will have their pork that they're famous for, that I know people love more than the Turkey sandwich. Ribs slaw, potato salad, corn pudding, green beans and some other goodies too. So they'll have that. The chop house will also be open. It's a food truck that's over by the Wedge Foundation. So it will be there too if you're looking for some other type of food. Yeah.
Amy Silvers:Exciting. And 12 phones is opening early just for us. Cause they don't normally, they don't normally open until later in the
Daphne Kirkwood:day. They don't open on Saturdays at this location, not at all. Okay. For the race, for us, just our runners. So show them tons of love you guys, because we want them to continue to open for this race every single year, but we've gotta go in. They better get anyway,
Amy Silvers:they better get that Turkey ready cuz they're gonna sell a lot of Turkey sandwiches. I have a family.
Daphne Kirkwood:Ah, it's delicious. My mouths watering right now. I have, I've not
Amy Silvers:had one. I'm gonna have to try one. I I've had the, I've had their barbecue and they're corn pudding is a favorite. I've not had the Turkey sandwich though. I will have to do it.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, be ready. Okay.
Amy Silvers:And also there of course on your bib, you have your free beer ticket from Wedge Foundation 21 and up. So you can take that ticket in there and get your free beer.
Daphne Kirkwood:We'll have only good on race day. Yes. Yep.
Amy Silvers:We have, we'll have all the backdrops up the photo for photo ops. You can wear your metal. Grab your friends get pictures made snacks from Humana. We'll have the race merchandise for sale. We'll have The new run, a v l wine. We've got long sleeve shirts, short sleeved shirts, new embroidered boco gear hats, i deaf events, hats. We have the run local hoodies. Free to run shirts.
Daphne Kirkwood:We'll have some mugs, beanies, pottery mugs, mugs,
Amy Silvers:beanies with and without the pompom embroidered. Ren a v l. Really nice. We'll have all kinds of stuff, so be sure and stop by and see. That'll be me at the race merchandise tent. Stop
Daphne Kirkwood:by and see us. We'll make about stuff with the expo too. So if you wanna guarantee your size or that you get it and you don't have to order it to get it later on, I would stop by the expo to get that stuff. Yes. yes.
Amy Silvers:Goodie bags. I'll have those at the merchandise tent there. Also, if you had your bid mailed and didn't make it to the expo, you can swing by there and grab one of those from me. Fleet Feet, Asheville will be there. Vital e p t will be doing injury screenings. We'll have yoga and massage doing massages. Yoga six will be there. Conjure Chocolate is providing chocolate milk this year. Yay. One of my favorites. After a long, hard race athletic upgrade, small cakes small cakes have been at our last, yes, our last few events and hashtag we run for cupcakes, we're so excited to welcome them to Asheville Marathon and be on the lookout for the hot pink. I run for cupcakes shirts that they wear. You'll see'em grab a free cupcake after you cross the finish line there. Jam Bar will have some of their bars there. Live music and also worth mentioning if you needed to swap your shirt, your clean Unworn shirt. You can also do that with me at the race merchandise area.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes. It's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait. The party? Yes. First Race party's awesome. Yes.
Amy Silvers:I enjoyed it. It was lively and happening. You would think after a race, everybody would just be tired, but I think everybody came to life after they finished. Every, it was, yeah. It was lots of energy. How about results? Where can we look for results?
Daphne Kirkwood:Results can be found at I daf ida ph.net on the homepage. They can also be found@ashevillemarathon.com. And we will post those, few minutes after you finish. So if you go online and you don't see it, and you finished in 15 minutes and you're not seeing your result you can let us know one of our race personnel and we can try to see if there was something wrong with your bib or your chip. And typically, just to add this in, if something happens with your race number, if you crinkle it or you bend that timing chip, or if the bib is underneath something, that's typically when there's issues with a time not showing up. Just watch for those things so that we can see your.
Amy Silvers:Okay. What happens if your travel plans change or you have a family situation or you wake up not feeling well on race morning? What options do you have?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, so I think the, one of the nice things that happened when Covid came, the silver lining was that we, started virtual events and we've kept that ability for people to do our races virtually. So if something does come up and you aren't feeling well or you can't make it you can run it wherever you are and log that mileage, online through race roster, and you can still have your own experience, get the swag and that sort of thing. When is the deadline for people to switch, Amy? How does that work on race weekend? You
Amy Silvers:you can switch to virtual free of charge up until the Monday before the race. Okay. Beginning race week, Monday there's a$10 charge for that. And you can do that all the way up until I, I know that we've had people email that morning and I try to check the emails keep up with the emails on race morning, somebody woke up sick, it happens. Send me an email and let us know so we can pull your shirt Yeah. And get you switched over to the virtual
Daphne Kirkwood:option. Yeah. Unfortunately, if you do it after 7:30 AM we're not gonna be able to guarantee your shirt or anything anymore. Yeah. Because it's gonna go into the pile of being switchable. So make sure if something comes up that you have sent an email supported I daf.net by 7:30 AM at the latest to be able to, pay that$10 and switch to the virtual race and your stuff will get shipped to you. Yes.
Amy Silvers:How about award ceremonies? Where and what time?
Daphne Kirkwood:Award ceremonies are at the Wedge Foundation. Half marathons, approximately 10:30 AM The marathon's, 11:30 AM we don't give out awards before that time period. So if you need to get a flight at 10:00 AM and you're in the half and you finished at eight 30 and you don't wanna stick around you will need to pick up your award later on at Fleet Feet. And I believe is that on Tuesday? The people? Tuesday after 3:00 PM Tuesday after 3:00 PM at Fleet Feet, Asheville is where you can get your award. These are all glass awards, I will say. So if you want to have it shipped, you can, but it's gonna be more expensive because it's gonna cost more to ship, to pack and ship these things. you can have somebody pick up your award for you. We'll note that they did that. But, I highly recommend if you placed and you are gonna get an award just stay just stay and enjoy the experience and get your award so that you can have it. So I think people they tend to really like the awards for this race, and so I we'd like for you to have it.
Amy Silvers:Yes, definitely. And just a side note really quick a special shout out to Mr. Wayne Boynton helping to sponsor the awards for this event. He's helped us on several of our events so that we can have some broader age increments in our age group. Thank you Mr. Wayne. We're
Daphne Kirkwood:grateful for that. Yeah. See, Wayne is a longtime runner who's local here and participates in a lot of the running events and is very generous and wanted to make sure that we could broaden age group categories for the awards. So thank you Wayne.
Amy Silvers:Yes. And we do have some really unique awards and I happen to have them here with me to show you. Half marathon age group winners overall and age group winners. Get an with the light. I don't, can you see it with the light? Yeah. Oh yeah. Custom pint glasses. And Marathoners. These are just really unique. They're, everyone's different. There's not one that's the same. I picked two colors here. These are smooshed. this one's clear. Smushed wine bottles. this one's kind of a green color. Every one of'em is a different shape, different color, different style, different texture. Very unique, but as such for Asheville, cuz we have so many artists in the River arts district, so they're perfect.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yep. And those were blown in the River Arts district. Those are recycled wine bottles. Just a neat little memento from Asheville, from us to you and something that you can keep the, for the rest of your life. We're really excited about the awards and then we'll have some extra little goodies to, from some of our sponsors for the overall award winners. Some gift certificates from Fleet Feet and some other goodies too. And I happen to
Amy Silvers:have the shirt laying here too that I didn't show, we didn't talk about earlier. So I'm gonna show you that
Daphne Kirkwood:real quick. Please. I love it. They're gorgeous. It's a Brooks dry fit running shirt and can get a lot of mileage, a lot of use out of those. Absolutely.
Amy Silvers:Okay. Speaking of sponsors, we've got a few that we haven't mentioned yet. Who else do we need to thank for their support?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, I wanna thank Asheville's School. They support the local community and they'll have some runners out there on race day. Biltmore Farms has multiple hotels that we partner with for this event. We could not do it without them. So thanks to Biltmore Farms, the city of Asheville it, we have to thank City of Asheville or this event wouldn't even exist, to be in We love city. Double Tree. We talked about them a little bit. Epsom Salt Co Council. We'll have some Epsom salts in your goody bag so you can retire to your bathtub later on in the evening. And take a nice bath with some Epsom salts. Let's see who else. We have May Heck Sports Medicine who will be at the finish line helping with the medical team, Southern Appalachian anglers which if you've not been fly fishing yet and you want a fly fishing lesson, they're awesome. I've gone on one of their excursions before and it's so much fun and I caught all kinds of fish the first time I went. So highly recommend them. They're so much fun. I think we mentioned the rest of'em, so I think we have, yeah.
Amy Silvers:Okay. And as always, we're very grateful and thankful for all of our sponsors for their partnership and their support, cuz we couldn't do it without'em. Yes. And I think I know one more thing that we have to mention, Asheville Marathon in Half is the first event of the 2023 Appalachian Trilogy Series.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, we love the Appalachian Trilogy series. We, how many people do we have? Do it Last year, 180.
Amy Silvers:183. 53 83. It was well over a hundred. 150. I feel
Daphne Kirkwood:like. Yeah. So if you participate in three out of the four half marathons, or you can count the marathon as one of the halfs in 2023, you'll get a gorgeous Appalachian Trilogy medal. And the next race is the Jump Off Rock Race in Hendersonville. It's beautiful. May 13th. There's the Rad Half Marathon, June 11th, same course as the Asheville Marathon in half. Or Asheville Half. So if you wanna try to beat your time from the Asheville half in the same year, it's a great race to put on your schedule. It is. And then black Bear half, which is in the fall. In October. October 8th. Eighth. It's on a Sunday, not in Hendersonville. It's beautiful that time of year here. So you can pick three outta four of those to do and get the medal, be part of the series, be part of the group. And that'll be a lot of fun. And then I did wanna mention just one more thing. We are gonna open the marathon in half registration at the end of March this year. So it will open, I believe a week, a l a week, and a few days after the race. And we'll have some special early bird pricing or bonuses and that sort of thing to go ahead and get signed up for next year. So be watching for that too. Awesome.
Amy Silvers:Perfect. Yay. Okay. Oh, and just I just thought I'd throw it out there, the trilogy, you can do the events virtual too. If there's, if there's one of'em you can't make or you end up your plans, you register and then your plans change. You can still switch to the virtual option and it still counts towards the trilogy.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. I have a friend who actually booked a cruise during the marathon in half date. She's gonna run on a treadmill on the cruise virtually as her Asheville half marathon, and then she'll do the other two races in person so that she can qualify and be part of the trilogy, which I thought was just genius. So yes. Oh yes. Yeah. If you travel a lot or your schedule doesn't allow for you to be in person at all of them, you can totally do them virtually. So
Amy Silvers:yes. Great opportunity. All right. Cool. Okay. Anything else you can, anything else you can think of? Did we get it all? We covered it. All right. Thank you guys for joining us for the podcast today. We're looking forward to seeing all of you and just not, it's very soon, at the 11th annual Asheville Marathon in happened downtown Asheville, March 18th.
Daphne Kirkwood:We'll see you then. Thanks. Thanks everybody. Thanks Amy.
Amy Silvers:Thank you.