Charlottesville Marathon/Half/8K Report
The Eight Annual Charlottesville Marathon, Half Marathon and 8K took place under sunny skies and perfect, cool weather. At 3AM, the weather was warm and the air muggy, but by 5:30, the breeze had picked up and the cool front was sweeping through Charlottesville.
The new course, which covers the Charlottesville Downtown Area for the Marathon runners, allowed all runners to see some of the most beautiful parts of Charlottesville, including two miles along the Rivanna River.
The 8K Race was fast and exciting, with Bedo Worku finishing in 23:58 (4:50 pace!). The cash prize attracted many fast runners. The Half Marathon also went off without a hitch, with runners enjoying the camraderies and post race athmopshere.
The Marathon was an exciting race, with the new course both challenging and delighting runners and volunteers. I had plenty of help from all sort of volunteers out there (The HOPE Cente, the Bike Factory Racing Team, State Farm, The Stars Program, Keller Williams, and many other countless folks), but a new course always brings new challenges. Everything worked very smootlhy. Some Marathon runners were wearing headphones, which we do not allow, and could not hear volunteers instructions, but at the end the volunteers worked it out, and everyone did two loops and came home.
The male winner was Kevin Kemmerle from Dover in 2:36:32 and the female winner was Nicole Solana in 3:13:43
Thank you to all the local runners who have finished this race multiple times (Hosni Haghighian, Beth Cottone, James Grady, and all the others!) for making the race feel so much at home.
