Things I like about the Wilmington Historic Challenge: When you combine the half marathon and 5K, you get a 16 miler suitable for pre-WDW Marathon Weekend training only somebody else handles your course and water stops. It’s reasonably priced. The start/finish line is close to my parents’ house. The medals are the size of my face.
A thing I do not like about the Wilmington Historic Challenge: while the weather is usually pleasant, sometimes it is decidedly NOT.
Admittedly what constitutes pleasant weather amounts to a personal opinion. In my personal opinion, 21 degrees at the start of the 5K is NOT PLEASANT. Then again, I’ve had worse, and given that I flew all the way to North Carolina for it I figured I might as well go.
THE WILMINGTON HISTORIC CHALLENGE: PRE-RACE
Thanks to my new suite of pre-race anxiety coping mechanisms, I managed to get some decent sleep the night before the race(s). I popped out of bed a little after 5am, piled on my three layers of running clothes, downed a Honey Stinger stroopwaffel, and piled into the car.
I’d be fine to drive myself, but my dad likes to chauffeur me to the race start. We took the turn onto the Riverfront Park road just before race organizers coned it off; once again arriving hella early pays off! Of course that did mean I had about an hour to kill in the chilly weather, but I also didn’t have to panic about making it to the race start on time. Feels like a fair trade per my individual metrics.
The start area was pretty quiet for the first half hour, with runners trickling in slowly for last-minute packet pickup. There was a food truck selling hot drinks, an unmanned bag drop, and as per usual, not enough porta potties. Back when this race was put on by Coastal Race Productions, you had access to real bathrooms, but since Race Bash took over the Not Enough Porta Potties thing has become a signature. Another good reason to show up early.
One thing I appreciated was a lack of super loud music or overwrought pre-race shenanigans. I was surprised not to even hear the national anthem over the course of the day. An announcer periodically blasted out instructions about lining up and such, but that was it.
THE WILMINGTON HISTORIC 5K
The Wilmington Historic 5K start is unassuming, with nothing more than a tracking pad laid across the street to mark its beginning. No arch and no corrals. The race director did some brief instructional shouting, and then we were off!
The 5K course is a sort of amuse bouche for the half to come; you run a lot of the same roads. We spent most of our time contained to downtown Wilmington proper, with the arguable highlight being cobblestoned Market Street in the first mile.
After bopping past a series of shops and restaurants, we moved further inland and loped past larger, decidedly less quaint business and education buildings along a regular paved road. This portion culminated in a water stop, which is always nice for a 5K to provide, and then we looped back around to downtown Wilmington to land on the riverside boardwalk. We spent a little under a mile on the boardwalk, I think, before circling it back around to the finish.
And I felt pretty good! Not fast, mind you, but given the cold temperatures I wasn’t looking to spend a ton of time standing around between the 5K and half anyway. You may recall that last year I knew as soon as the race started that this was gonna be a tiring one. No such sadness in 2024; my energy was decent, and as yet my patellar tendinitis wasn’t flaring up. I didn’t even need a bathroom break, which was good because the porta potty line was loooooong. So far so good!
THE WILMINGTON HISTORIC HALF
The Wilmington Historic Half start is one street over from the 5K start. There are still no corrals, but you do get a proper archway to start under. Similar to the 5K, there was no fanfare or even a rendition of the national anthem. We did start right on time, though, which I appreciated. I fired up my 2024 Top Songs playlist and off we went!
The half course, as alluded to above, begins in much the same way the 5K does: you run through part of downtown Wilmington and up through Market Street. From there, however, things start to split off. We turned onto some larger roads and then crested the Isabella Holmes Bridge. Nobody likes a bridge incline; what can ya do.
For the first couple miles it was mostly those roads. The sun coming up was helping the temperatures, but we were still holding steady in the 20s. So tell me why during mile four I saw a man who was already wearing shorts removing his shirt??? I myself was wearing a turtleneck AND a quarter zip AND a jacket AND a hat AND gloves.* I was absolutely flabbergasted.
* None of which I removed at any point during the race. True story. I don’t think my body knows how to regulate temperature.
This gave me something to think about for the next few miles, but it wasn’t enough to distract me as we tackled yet another steep incline in the form of the Cape Fear Bridge. I was at least pleased with myself for running both in their entirety. I can’t decide if I like it that the race organizers put down cloth over the grating. It’s a good idea, but it tends to bunch up. I wonder if anyone tripped.
This took us to a more residential, even suburban portion of Wilmington, and after a brief stint through neighborhoods we found ourselves circling Greenfield Lake. For us Wilmington Historic Challenge runners, this marked over halfway into our sixteen mile day. My energy was admittedly starting to flag, and I stopped at a couple points to take some fuel at a leisurely pace. In between those breaks I kept on chugging along.
Having inspected the lake thoroughly, we were finally back on a main road and headed toward downtown Wilmington again. We spent less than a mile on Front Street before zooming downhill for more time on the riverfront boardwalk. This in fact constituted the remainder of our race! It being so cold, we had fewer pedestrians to contend with, and we made our unobstructed way back to Riverfront Park and the finish line.
THE WILMINGTON HISTORIC HALF FINISH
Wilmington Historic Challenge finishers get both their medals after the half. I was able to pick up my 5K medal at a table a little past the half medal distribution area. In addition, challenge finishers get an extra medal ribbon attachment (see image at the top of this post).
There were also volunteers handing out water and bananas. I saw a kid declare “This banana is frozen!” if that gives you an idea of where we were weather-wise.
If you wanted more robust options, our race bibs had tabs you could turn in for food from Tropical Smoothie Cafe and two free beers from Wrightsville Beach Brewery. The beer lines didn’t even look that bad this year, but I was far too cold to linger. I couldn’t even feel the tips of my fingers. I wonder if Shirtless Man made it out alive?
Anyway, I called my dad to pick me up so I could turn in my imaginary bib tab for a hot shower. Also I pet some dogs. All in all, not bad for a race that took place inside the Arctic Circle.
WILL I BE BACK FOR THE WILMINGTON HISTORIC CHALLENGE IN 2025?
Having now knocked out four consecutive Wilmington Historic Challenge race days, I’m officially in a pattern. As I said at the beginning, I like having my pre-WDW Marathon Weekend long run largely taken care of by somebody else – consider me a lifer!
I would definitely recommend this race day for anyone who’s looking for a similar race-to-train for early January race marathon weekends. Aside from the bridges the course isn’t terribly hilly. Water stops are fairly frequent, and the scenery is enjoyable should you dig a good waterfront. Also they give out medals the size of your face, if that’s something you’d be into.
But if we could warm things up a bit for next year, that would be much appreciated…
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