Let's talk about the 4th Annual Black Bear Half Marathon & 8k presented by Hunter Subaru, which takes place in Hendersonville, North Carolina on Sunday, October 8, 2023.
Our Event Guide is a recording of our iDaph Events Podcast, and here we discuss what to expect on Race Day. We talk about the new Black Bear Market, the race courses, packet pickup, parking, the post race party, Recovery Zone and more - along with many other important details.
We look forward to seeing you at the Black Bear races just outside of Asheville in Hendersonville, North Carolina soon! For more info about the race visit our website here:
blackbearhalfmarathon.com
Let's talk about the 4th Annual Black Bear Half Marathon & 8k presented by Hunter Subaru, which takes place in Hendersonville, North Carolina on Sunday, October 8, 2023.
Our Event Guide is a recording of our iDaph Events Podcast, and here we discuss what to expect on Race Day. We talk about the new Black Bear Market, the race courses, packet pickup, parking, the post race party, Recovery Zone and more - along with many other important details.
We look forward to seeing you at the Black Bear races just outside of Asheville in Hendersonville, North Carolina soon! For more info about the race visit our website here:
blackbearhalfmarathon.com
Hello and welcome to another iDaph Events Podcast. I'm Amy Silvers, the Administrative Coordinator, and today I have with me Daphne Kirkwood, our Owner and Race Director, and today we're here to talk about the fourth annual Black Bear Half Marathon in 8K presented by Hunter Subaru, and it's on Sunday, October 8th in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Both start and finish in Jackson Park, run through Hendersonville, and on to the gorgeous Oklahoma Greenway.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, I'm so excited about this race. It is marking the last half marathon in our Appalachian Trilogy series where we had 200 participants this year. So it just is like the bookend of That series so excited to be able to hand out those medals to folks. And then it's just beautiful this time of year in Western North Carolina. And it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be amazing. Can't wait. Yes. The
Amy Silvers:colors on the trees, especially the reds are just now starting to pop out. And they're so pretty.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yep. Yeah. Fall here's hit or miss. You just never know when it's going to be. Vibrant, but I'm already seeing the red colors and Hendersonville. And so I think by race day, it should be really looking beautiful. Yes.
Amy Silvers:I know all the pictures from last year's race or all the fall colors and the scenery, it's just beautiful. Okay. And we have something else really big happening this year. We have the inaugural black bear fall market. Yes.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah. We're at the really cool Jackson Park in Hendersonville. And there's so much room to have other folks join us. And so we're going to have a market. It's an artisan slash farmers market ish type event. And we've got so many people coming and setting up and selling their Their food, their snacks, their jewelry. And everything has been curated and handpicked from our team. So the people who are there. We've asked them to be there and we really feel like you're going to love what they bring so bring money support them. This is I know it's October, but it's a great time to go ahead and get Christmas presents for people. Some of this stuff is so unique to Hendersonville, Western North Carolina. And just supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurs is really just an awesome thing to do. So we're excited.
Amy Silvers:Absolutely. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it when we talk talk more about it here in just a minute. Okay, let's talk race. What what time do the races start?
Daphne Kirkwood:We split them up this year because the race has grown. We'll have almost a thousand participants this year. So the 8k is starting at 8 a. m. and the half marathon starts at 8 20 a. m. And yes, we have fast people in the 8k. So half marathoners are going to scoot out of that start line quickly before the 8k folks start coming through that finish area. It is a mass start. You have to start right on time. We cannot do late starts for this event. So be ready at both of those start times. All right,
Amy Silvers:we're looking forward to bringing this back to the community locally and regionally. We have a lot of people joining us from out of town. So local and out of town. So we're excited.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, we had started this event and, we wanted to add an event. Distance to the half that was a little bit different that we didn't have a ton of in the area and an AK is such a cool distance that complements it well and people really have loved that. So we'll have the AK again this year with some special things just for our AKers.
Amy Silvers:Wonderful. And I do we have cash prizes again this year
Daphne Kirkwood:for the yes, cash prizes for the fastest folks for male female top three for those folks 175 and 50 bucks, but you do have to be present at the award ceremony to take that with you. You can't get that later. Yes, great.
Amy Silvers:And one of one thing I've really loved about this event is the swag and the unique awards. Of course, Allison always does a great job with our logo or a little black bear. And the finisher medals. Of course, I have those. We have the half marathon and the
Daphne Kirkwood:8K. Those are awesome. I love the ombre look that's back behind that. That's awesome.
Amy Silvers:Yeah, they're gorgeous metals. And then we have The prints from Amy Kokenauer, local artist Amy Kokenauer, has the hand drawn colored pencil prints for age group prizes for second and third place. And then you have something special to show for our overall and first place age group winners. Yes,
Daphne Kirkwood:so these are new this year from a local potter. And if you haven't seen this on Instagram yet, I've been... I got this last week and I've been sipping on it every single day. I took one for myself. I asked Amy if that was okay. And she said, yes. But it has on the bottom, the name of the race and then the inside is all speckly. It's so cool. This is just absolutely stunning. I would say it's the most unique and cool mug that we've ever had. But you gotta race. To win that. So that's right.
Amy Silvers:Yeah. All special thanks to Wayne Boynton, Mr. Wayne, who helped sponsors our award categories. So we can get those broadened a little bit and Fleet Feet Asheville, special thanks to them for providing gift certificates for the overall and master's winners in the half
Daphne Kirkwood:marathon. Yeah. Yep. Thanks to those folks that really help us. And if anybody's listening and they want to help support with any of the awards, we give out a lot of things, as you guys know, and it's expensive. Anybody who ever wants to help their business or company with those, we would appreciate it for years going forward as well.
Amy Silvers:Absolutely. We have the long sleeve shirts. This is our half marathon shirts. Oh, I love that. So gorgeous. And they have the black bear, half marathon down the side. An eight K down the side. That one's dry fit, right? Yes. That's the dry fit. And then the eight k shirt. I'll just stand up here. shirt. It's the super soft. Yes. Super soft, comfy Bella canvas. Love those. And this year we gave the option for both. So couldn't decide. You just got both. And a lot of people did. I was surprised, but yeah, shirts.
Daphne Kirkwood:You have a usage for both, right? You can run in the short sleeve, of course, especially in the fall or casual wear shirt. And then the dry fit long sleeve shirt is just perfect for fall running. Yeah.
Amy Silvers:All right. Let's talk about packet pickup. When and where will that take
Daphne Kirkwood:place? You should tell us about it because you are the packet pickup queen. So you tell us. How about that?
Amy Silvers:Okay. We will be at Hunter Subaru across from the airport on Saturday, October 7th. And we originally had that scheduled from 12 to 3. We've added an extra hour 12 to 2. We had originally we've added an extra hour. So it is now 12 to 3 and hopes that we might be given our out of town folks a little bit of extra time to get in there and grab that. And we really want you to come to that packet pickup session or send a friend send a family member. Send us fellow runner anybody you can to come get your things on Saturday. It will make it so much easier for you on race morning. The packet pack a packet pick up on race morning is 630 to 730. And it will be at Jackson Park at the picnic shelter adjacent to the playground right near the start finish hub. We did offer the pre event shipping option, which a lot of people took advantage of. So for future races, always keep that in mind. It's super convenient. We'll pack and ship your race bib and your shirt. It'll be on your front doorstep and then race morning, you show up ready to go. No lines, no
Daphne Kirkwood:stress. Yeah, we started that during COVID and people have just loved it. And so we've kept it. And while it's a lot of work for our team and for Amy to get those things shipped, it really is a way for you to just. Roll in on race morning, do your warm up, do your routine, go to the bathroom and not have to stand in a line. And yeah, that's a great addition. But folks who want a goodie bag, they're not getting that mailed.
Amy Silvers:Correct. Yep. Correct. So they can swing by on race morning if they want to swing by and grab a goodie bag after the race, we'll have them at the merchandise tent. And they can swing by and grab that and we'll have them ready for them. Okay, perfect. How about parking? Let's talk about parking.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, let me pull up my screen here. I'm going to show it so that everybody can follow along. And if you are listening to this and you're in your car and you don't you're not watching this on YouTube, then you can go to the event guide and see this map. This is the hub map. And so there's two ways to get into Jackson Park. You can come in. Where my cursor is at here on the left, on Glover Street that's also, I believe, 4th Avenue. So the name changes along the way. So there's an entrance to Jackson Park on this side, and then there's also an entrance that's down here by the Mountain Community School. So there's two ways to get in through, into this park. So I'm going to talk about up here. Off Glover Street. First the market parking is the first lot that you see. That's also Ola, Carolina. If you're familiar with the park. So there's no parking here for runners. This is reserved just for folks who are coming in for the market. And so you will scoot on in, keep driving into the park and Okay. If the closest parking lot to coming in from this side is if you just keep on driving straight, there are a big field here, baseball field there's a big gravel lot down here as well, if you can still see my cursor, and it says runner parking, here. There will be a little bit of parking here across from the race hub where the finish line and the start line is at. But there's no parking in this huge parking lot. where the market and the finish line are at. So there's just a tiny bit right here. I wouldn't bank on being able to park that close. And it's also difficult to get out of that lot. So it's not, yeah, it might be close to the start line, but it's not awesome getting in and out of. So we've got parking down here. There's if once those get full, if you've come in from this side, you're going to be directed to just follow along Jackson Park Road here and then come over to this side. There's several different parking areas. We will be parking folks 1st down in this. parking lot. It's a back lot. There's all kinds of parking along here. There's some on the field and then there's parking here and parking here. So there's tons of parking at this park. There's no shortage of it. You will have a parking space. If you're coming in from this direction by Mountain Community School you will be directed to go to the right To go down here and do the parking back here. The nice part about these back parking areas is you literally this will be closed right here. So that there's no traffic going into this area, but you literally have portage on a portage on house or it's not portage on. It's like a mobile bathroom unit. That's right here. And you literally can just walk right up here to the start area. So it's really convenient actually to park back in this area, I think and to get to and from your car. So there's this one. This one's great too. Nothing is super far away. There are bathrooms. Over here. So if you're parking you'll see restrooms as you're walking over to the start finish. There's also restrooms here by the packet pickup area. That's right here on the map. There's also restrooms in some of these baseball field areas that you can dip down into if you're parking over in this area. So there's lots of different restrooms in the park as well. So that's the main areas for runner parking. If you have a friend who's just coming in later for the market, there's going to be some reserve market parking here and then up top, like I showed you at this area. So that's what that looks like. Any questions on that, Amy?
Amy Silvers:It looks pretty straightforward. Lots and lots of
Daphne Kirkwood:parking. Yes. Yep. And there'll be parking marshals and volunteers. So just follow along with them as well.
Amy Silvers:All right. Let's talk about the courses. Let's start with the half marathon.
Daphne Kirkwood:Okay. Let me pull that up here. And again, if you're Not able to see my screen on the YouTube video and you are just driving along. You can always look later on the event guide.
Amy Silvers:We're super excited that these are USATF certified and sanctioned as
Daphne Kirkwood:well. Yes, they are. Okay this is a map of this, the hub area, a little different look than the map that I just showed you, but this is ride with GPS, so you can pull that map up and look at this just like I am. The start finish areas here in this huge parking lot you will run out onto Jackson Park Road, which turns into 4th Avenue, and you'll head Out of the park here on Glover Street that turns into 4th Avenue you'll take a right and then a left and this is Market Street here, Maple Street Maple Street, I believe by the railroad area. You'll take a right, you'll head down 7th Avenue, and you'll be hugging the right side of the road as you go down. There will be a lead biker as well for both events, so if you're fast, you'll be following along behind them. Here, once you get down to the greenway you will follow the greenway straight. And hopefully you guys aren't getting dizzy as I do this. Past mile 2, about mile 2. 4. That's where the course split is at. So right here, and I'm zoomed in as much as I can on this map, but there's a kiosk here for the Oklahoma Greenway. It's a beautiful flowerbed area. They have a kiosk with a map that shows more about the trail. So half marathon runners, you just keep going straight. the whole way to the end of this greenway and it's absolutely beautiful through here. It's flat until you get to right here and then this is a stinker hill. Amy, I know you're going to ask me about that. So that's the stinker hill right there.
Amy Silvers:It's not a long one though. It's a, it is a stinker hill, but it's not very
Daphne Kirkwood:long. It's not long. It's just a stinker. You got to keep those in there to make it interesting. We don't, we're not in Florida. We're here in Western North Carolina, so then you keep rolling along, you'll pass an aid water station, there's port a johns here as well you'll pass that, and you will do a turnaround before you get to Balfour Road. Do your turnaround and then you follow your steps, and... You run back to this kiosk, you'll run around this side of the kiosk here, it's like a big triangle, and then you take a right after you've gone around it. And then you come here. There will be a timing map along the way to check your splits. Make sure you've done the course. And you will go around, take a right and go around the William King Memorial Park ball field. There's Port a John's over here and you will run around this ball field. And as you are running. You'll see 7th Avenue where you came down before. You'll see that on your right and you're on this little path here. It's narrow. And when you get to this spot by the water station by 7th Avenue. This starts your second loop. So the half marathoners are going to go and repeat what they just did that first time. So they did a whole loop of that green way. They're going to go back and you're going to do it again. So you're going to go back down. To that kiosk, stay straight, keep running on the greenway, go up the stinker hill, go past the aid station, turn around, come back, follow the greenway, take a right at the kiosk, take a left here, and then a right, so you're basically just going around that kiosk, and then you come back down towards this ball field. At the Greenway, you take a right here, go around the ball field by the Porta Johns, and after you've done that loop that second time, you're finished with the Greenway, and it's time for you to take your right turn. And that's about mile 11. 7. We will have signs out there that say check your watch. Make sure you've done your 11. 7. And just so you know, volunteers there volunteers will be out there, but they have no way to tell you if you've done two loops or not. You have to know if you've done those two loops because there's no way for them to know that. What you've done. We had some people last year asking some of the volunteers. And if you get to this point and you are at mile 6. 6, that means you have not gone far enough. You need to go back and do that loop one more time. Okay. Because you're going to cheat yourself and we'll end up disqualifying you once we look at the timing locations on the course. Once you're done, you're about 11. 7 11. 8. You're going to cross the street and you're going to run up the side of the road facing traffic the same side you came down because there's a sidewalk over there. So you're going to run on that side of the road. You'll come back down Maple Street by the train depot. You'll do a couple little side streets here. You'll come back fourth Avenue and here's where it's a little different than when you started the race, you're going to take a right and you're going to hop on the greenway here. There'll be a volunteer. There'll be signs. There's another little stinker hill right here. Don't hate me. Please. You're almost done. You'll take a right onto the street. You'll stay within the cones that we have out for you to protect you from the cars and then Jackson Park Road to the finish. Okay.
Amy Silvers:Downhill finish. Little stinker hill, but downhill finish.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes. Yes, absolutely. The difference between that course, hold on just a second. Let me pull the other one up. And the 8k. Okay. Can you see that, Amy? Got it. Yep. The start of the race, exactly the same, the difference between the 8K race, you're doing the same, going by that same water station in the beginning, running along the greenway here. When you get to this kiosk, 8Kers, when you get to the kiosk. You're going to take a left, run around that kiosk, and head back. The half marathoners don't do that. The half marathoners, when they get to this kiosk, they keep running down the greenway, straight. So this is a very important course split, right here. And if you have a chance to run it ahead of time or go down there and look, we'll have signs, but it's up to you to make that turn 8K folks. We'll have volunteers, but our volunteers, they've practically tackled runners before because they'll have headphones on. They're not listening. You're in the zone. I get it. Like I've raced. I get it. You just get in your own world. But it cares if you're not wanting to run the half marathon course, I suggest you take a left here and come back because your loop is finished. So you come down, back down the greenway here, you're at mile three, and then you come around that ball field, just like I marathoners. There's the port a johns, you run around here, and instead of going back, like the half does, to do the loop again, you don't have to do that. You just take a right, and you come up 7th Avenue to the finish. And so those are the two differences of the 8k. The ending is exactly the same as the half, but those are the couple differences that you need to know about that are very important. Any questions on that, Amy?
Amy Silvers:The 8k doesn't have that big stinker heel that the half has.
Daphne Kirkwood:The elevation was 213 for the 8 K and for the half, it's 400 feet of which I mean, for our area, that's
Amy Silvers:good. Nothing.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, absolutely nothing. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah. And I would just reiterate that the Greenway is open to the public. The paved parts are open to cars. So just because we're doing this race doesn't mean the world stops in Hendersonville for us. So we want to be good stewards. We want to be able to come back. So it's important that you stay to the right of the road. Don't hog the whole thing. In the beginning of the race, we're going to take up more space, but as the race gets going, stay to the right, especially as you're doing the half marathon, you're starting, 30 minutes later. And so eight K folks are going to be coming back towards you. So you really want to be separated and let them have their space scoot over, stay to the right as they're coming back so that you both have room on the greenway and on the road. That would be the biggest thing I would say with this one and cheer them on, that's one of the really cool things about this double loop half marathon course is it's a very spectator friendly very runner friendly. From the standpoint of, you're not going to be out there on your own or alone. Yes, it's a boutique. It's a smaller race. It's not 40, 000 people through a city. But it's a great chance to give people high fives and encouragement along the way and see people and just be out there for your community.
Amy Silvers:Yes, that's 1 of my favorite things about running our races now is I've gotten to know so many of our people to be able to run by them and high five them and call them by name and cheer for them. It's that's 1 of my favorite things to do about running our races.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, Amy, she part of the deal when I hired Amy was. I want you to still race our races because Amy loves to race. And so she does, she is a woman with multiple hats and she will do packet pickup and then put her race bib on and go out there and run with you. Give Amy high fives, too.
Amy Silvers:I love it. It's so motivational. It spurs you on to keep going when somebody, when you hear somebody cheering for you and know that you're being supported. It makes a difference. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. How about a time limit? Is there a course cut off?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes, 1230 for both races. Yep.
Amy Silvers:All right, great. You talked about spectator friendly. Yeah. Do you have any favorite places?
Daphne Kirkwood:I would say, around the water stations are spots that a lot of spectators seem to hang out. There's some spots along the greenway that you can get to from various roads. If you study the map that you can hop down, there's some parking and you can hop down onto the greenway and I did see some spectators do that last year with some signs and stuff. So you're actually like on the course. Yeah, I think that there's. Places to cheer people on perfect.
Amy Silvers:Course markings, what colors do we need to look for colors that separate the half and the AK?
Daphne Kirkwood:Yep. So the yellow markings would be the separating for the AK and the pink Pink markings are for the half. So if you see pink markings those are going to be half marathon. And then the yellow stickers are 8K. That
Amy Silvers:will be great for the 8K people to remember because their bibs are yellow. Perfect. Yeah. So if you're wearing a yellow bib, look for the yellow markings. So that's perfect. Awesome. Yeah. Okay. And the course maps, you mentioned they're on ride with GPS, if anybody wants to study those and get the turn by turn. And you can also if you have a Garmin, I know you can upload it to your Garmin, which is pretty cool.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yep, you sure can.
Amy Silvers:Let's see, you mentioned the Greenway would be open and to watch for other foot traffic. How about post race
Daphne Kirkwood:activities? Yeah, there's all kinds of stuff that's going to be going on this year. So if you came before, you're just going to be blown away this year. We're going to have so many different market vendors. Like I mentioned, we're going to have a recovery zone. I'll just read through them really quickly. We've got Athletic Upgrade, Asheville Personal Training, Bare Bones Brew House, Brian Byrd with Flat Rock Cinemas, our MC, we've got Chick fil A, Hendersonville, Fleet Feet, Asheville, Hendersonville Co op, Hunter's Subaru, Jam Bar, Movement for Life, Physical Therapy, Oklahoma Brewing Company for your free beer, Shredded Smoothie. smoothie truck, we've got yoga and massage, also known as YAM, Blue Ridge Community College, Eat With Purpose, she's a new nutritionist, definitely meet up with her, Bright Branch Farms is going to have your apple cider slushies, the apple cider donuts, they're going to have apples you can buy, you definitely want to stock up there. By the way, their salsa is incredible if they have it and their apple butter. It's so good. Maggie Valley Band is the band, live band that we'll have on stage. So they're going to be awesome. So much fun to have. And then we've got Lana Love Knot that makes jewelry and all kinds of beautiful items for your home, for gifts, for birthdays, for friends. Amazing. Sharewell Coffee which is a local coffee company in Hendersonville, will have a coffee table they'll sell their coffee as well, which is bags of it so you can take that home. The Rainbow Studio has fairy hair, so if you want to get some sparkles in your hair or for yourself, for your kids they're going to be doing that. They've got all kinds of fun stuff for kids as well and families. Black Dog Flower Farm. You have to get a bouquet of flowers for your person who is finishing the race. So if you're listening to this on the way to the race with your husband, wife, significant other, friend, go over and get them a bouquet to give them when they're finishing. We're so excited to have them. They're a local Hendersonville farm. Sea of Sweets Bakery. Delicious conjure chocolate. So good. Julie Bird creates. She's an artisan as well. Honey Bee Bliss will be there. Taylor Farms with handmade soaps. Make in York Press with all kinds of really cool print items with papers. And what else do they have? I was trying to think. Paper and. Stationery, things like that. And some pictures you can frame. Mini batch bakery. Listen carefully. Oatmeal cream pie.
Amy Silvers:Homemade. Homemade oatmeal
Daphne Kirkwood:cream. And they are delicious. Just save me some.
Amy Silvers:I'm going to have to be sure I get one of
Daphne Kirkwood:those for sure. They're so good. Everything they have is good. But the oatmeal cream pie and brew tea has delicious tea. They will be there selling packets of tea tins of it, that sort of thing, creative gifts by wild beehive and Mickey Stravelli designs with prints. So yeah, we've got a ton of stuff. So bring cash, bring your credit cards, be prepared to hang out and shop and just. Have a good time. One more. Tell
Amy Silvers:me about that blueberry candle. I know you're raving about it, too.
Daphne Kirkwood:Oh, yeah. Do we have them on here?
Amy Silvers:Appalachian rain.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, Appalachian rain is oh, I have it here actually. I'm surprised it's not burnt to the bottom. It smells amazing. I've never smelled a blueberry candle like this and it, there's something about it. I just love this smell. She is a Youth entrepreneur. She's in high school here in Hendersonville. And so definitely stop in there and she will have all kinds of candles, but the blueberry one is my absolute favorite.
Amy Silvers:So I gotta be, I gotta be sure to get one of those.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah.
Amy Silvers:Okay. All right. You said Bright Branch Farms is going to be providing our apple cider doughnuts for the runners. And we have Oklahoma Brewing Company providing the beers. How do we, how do they get those two things?
Daphne Kirkwood:Show us the bib again if you don't mind.
Amy Silvers:Yep. We have white for half marathon, yellow for 8k.
Daphne Kirkwood:Awesome. So the beer ticket's right there on that bib. For 21 and up, it's good for race day only. And you take it over to Aqualaha Brewery. It's a few streets away on 1st Avenue. You'll probably want to drive there. Instead of walk, but that's where you can go and redeem that ticket. We're not able to have beer at a park in Western North Carolina. And they'll be over there, but they're ready to service you and you can redeem that there on race day.
Amy Silvers:And their donut, they just stop by and see Brent Bright Branch and show them their bib. Correct.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yes. Yep. Until they run out. So they have a certain number of them that are free. And then once those are gone, they're gone. They will have some for sale as well. Okay.
Amy Silvers:Got it. And caffeine fix you mentioned. Sharewell
Daphne Kirkwood:coffee will be there and Bare Bones Brewhouse. So you've got two opportunities to get your caffeine fix before and after the race.
Amy Silvers:Awesome. All right. What is there anything else? What else is happening? Of course we have the awesome market,
Daphne Kirkwood:but how about the merchandise because we have some new merchandise, right? Do you have anything
Amy Silvers:to show? Yep, that's a little further. We have that in there. But yeah, we can do it now.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, I think we talked about the other stuff pretty good.
Amy Silvers:This is our new Run Asheville beanie. Oh, I love that. Is that
Daphne Kirkwood:Boco? Boco brand? It is, yep.
Amy Silvers:And so is the hat. Yeah. And they have a version of the city the Asheville City skyline on it. And this one is also embroidered in the back. Love it.
Daphne Kirkwood:I wore it last night to the run group and it's a really comfortable running hat. I love hats. I cannot do it like it will bother my ears and that one it's adjustable. It's not too tight. I just, it's so comfortable. I have one
Amy Silvers:hat that I wear that doesn't give me a headache until we found until we, we got these Boko hats. These also are great. They don't, I don't get a headache with these. I don't know what it is with me and hats, but the Boko are fabulous. They're adjustable. They fit perfect and they don't give me a headache. So I love them. Let's see, what else? Here's our run Asheville crew
Daphne Kirkwood:neck. Okay. It's a little hard. I see it now. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, so cozy. Yes.
Amy Silvers:And here's the new long sleeve run Asheville. I love that design. It's gorgeous. And the color is perfect for fall too.
Daphne Kirkwood:And then, it's more of a cottony shirt, so if you like a, you got your dry fit long sleeve part cottony, comfy style for casual wear, you can run in that too. Yeah
Amy Silvers:they're a blend. They're a cotton poly blend. And so they're they, you can run in it and be okay. It's not 100 percent cotton or anything like that. They wear well, they don't shrink and they're so soft. And here's the short sleeve. Yeah, I
Daphne Kirkwood:love that blue. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Yes, that's fun. We got new stuff. And then don't we have Appalachian Trilogy? We
Amy Silvers:do. Here. Oh, I didn't grab any of the Appalachian Trilogy merchandise, but I did grab.
Daphne Kirkwood:Love it.
Amy Silvers:Yes, we have a lot of people who this will be their fourth one. They're gonna, they've done all four. That's awesome. So yeah, and the merchandise we have left for it. We have the cream colored Appalachian Trilogy crew neck. We have the teal long sleeve Appalachian Trilogy. And then we have the purple short sleeve Appalachian Trilogy. Those are. Limited pretty limited and limited sizes and quantities, but you can get those in the store or on the black bear. Registration. Yeah. Okay.
Daphne Kirkwood:And the all that stuff is going to be under the big blue IDAF merchandise tent and the trilogy medals will also be under that tent. So after you finish the half you'll get your normal metal, your race metal at the finish line, but you'll need to walk over to the merchandise tent to get your Appalachian trilogy. You'll get marked off a list. That's where you'll pick that up from.
Amy Silvers:Yes. And we can do cash or card. I'll also Apple Pay and Google Pay. Awesome. We're growing with the technology.
Daphne Kirkwood:You have to,
Amy Silvers:so many people don't carry, I don't carry cash or card with me when I run, but I always have my phone with me. It's easy. Yeah, it's worked out convenient for people who just have their phone. They have Google Pay and Apple Pay. It works now. One quick thing. Thanks to Hendersonville Community Co op for providing our snacks and drinks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Daphne Kirkwood:What else? Rewards ceremony. Oh, yeah. So the awards will do the overall awards 8k around 10am and then the half around 1130am. So again, 8k overall folks if you want the cash prizes, you'll need to be there for that award ceremony. The age group folks will just be, saying who those winners are and you'll get that after we do the overall award ceremony from the merchandise tent. So you'll go over there and you'll pick up your stuff. And you don't have to all rush at the same time. You can still hang out at the market. We'll have that stuff there until 1 p. m. You can look online. And see if you are an age group winner and you can pick it up anytime after we're done with those two overall award ceremonies. That's how we've started doing it with the ceremonies. And that's how we'll do it for this race as well.
Amy Silvers:Quickly, should people bring their own fuel and hydration? I know I've had already had one question. I got an email about the water stations. What? Tell us a little bit about the water stations.
Daphne Kirkwood:We'll have jam bars and some other snacky stuff. Some little fruit chews. And some water and Gatorade at the aid stations, but if you have something that you typically run with and train with, which, when I was racing, I did I would carry your own, then you don't have to stop. And you know that your stomach will handle whatever you're going to put into it. There is water station number one. It's at the 7th Avenue Greenway. I showed it on the map a minute ago, but for the water station folks or for the folks in the 8K and the half, it's a mile one and a half, six and a half, and 12. You won't hit that in the 8K. Or I guess you could hit it before you head back to the finish at Mile 4 or 4. 3, something like that. Water Station 2 is Balfour Road in the Greenway, and that's the one at the far end for the half marathon. And so that is Mile 4. 4. 3, because you basically go by it, go to the turnaround and come back by it 9 and 9. 3. You have a good mix of when the water stations are available, but again, if you're used to doing something different in training, I recommend you have your own stuff. There are port a johns that will be close. I showed those on the map by those water stations as well. And then restrooms are in the park area. That's where the legit restrooms are located.
Amy Silvers:Yeah, and you did, you showed those on the map earlier. So we. Got that covered. So that's good. Yeah. Okay. Who are our nonprofit partners? We always like to support local nonprofits and charities who we and we have several for this one. Who are
Daphne Kirkwood:we? We've got conserving Carolina, Jackson Park, the Greenway Flooding Cleanup Project, Friends of Acousta Trail, Friends of the Oklahoma Greenway, and I Dream Athletes Foundation.
Amy Silvers:Fantastic. Love that our events can help towards these local organizations and great causes. Let's hear from our friends at Conserving Carolina real
Daphne Kirkwood:quick.
Conserving Carolina is thrilled to benefit from the Black Bear run, which will allow us to create new places for you to enjoy the outdoors. We're spearheading the 100 plus mile hickory net Gorge State Trail leading efforts for 50 miles of new rail trails and creating new local parks in natural areas. So everyone has a place to connect with nature. To become a member, go to conserving carolina.org.
Daphne Kirkwood:Yeah, they're all great organizations. We're really excited to have so many nonprofits this year. So looking forward to seeing them out on race day too. Great.
Amy Silvers:Okay. Other sponsors and partners that we can think that we might not have mentioned yet.
Daphne Kirkwood:Hunter Subaru, they are Supporting this event. They support so many of our events in this community and we just couldn't do it without them. So huge thanks to Hunter Subaru. Asheville school is an annual partner and they support community athletics and we are so grateful for them as well. And then let's see, downtown Hendersonville, city of Hendersonville and Hendersonville. Our Henderson County Parks, again, wouldn't be able to have this race without all of their support. So yeah the, those are all individuals and organizations that we want to thank. Perfect.
Amy Silvers:And we're so grateful for all of our sponsors that support us. Yes. Okay. Is there anything else you can think of? Did we cover everything?
Daphne Kirkwood:I believe so. Yeah, I looked at my list and I think we checked everything off that I wanted to mention. So
Amy Silvers:all right. All right. I think that's it. We'll see you guys for the Black Bear Half Marathon and 8K Sunday, October 8th and the fall market. So we're looking forward to seeing everyone. Thanks,
Daphne Kirkwood:Amy. Thanks everybody. We'll see you soon.