All American Marathon/Half/5k – March 22, 2015 – Ft Bragg – Fayetteville NC
I have a special place in my heart for Ft Bragg where I spent four formative years of my life from 1976 until 1980 in the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division – known as the All Americans. I did plenty of running there both in the context of our daily “PT” (military for Physical Training) and as part of my recreational training (some great trail running at Ft Bragg). On any given weekday morning you’d see dozens of running formations calling cadence while “double timing” (military for running). One of the most common cadence calls at Ft Bragg:
C 130 rolling down the strip
Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip
Stand up hook up shuffle to the door
Jump right out and count to four
If my main don’t open wide
I’ve got another one by my side
If that one should fail me too
Look out below I’m a comin’ through
If you’re at the right place, at the right time and hear the sound of a low-flying plane, you might see this scene about 700 or so feet above you:
But enough of my little trip down memory lane, there’s three races in all of this.
FROM THE RACE ORGANIZERS
The All-American Marathon and Mike-to-Mike Half Marathon will start in downtown Fayetteville, NC at Festival Park. Festival Park is a four acre concert/entertainment complex located in the heart of Fayetteville.
market-house. Racers will run up Ray Avenue to Hay Street where they will run through the heart of historic downtown Fayetteville past the Market House. The route will then take runners up past Veterans Parks, and the Airborne and Special Operations Museum which is the home to the historic Iron Mike Statue. Runners will continue running up Morganton through the Historic Haymount District of Fayetteville, traveling rolling hills until reaching the All-American Freeway. For Half-Marathoners the race course will run approximately two miles on Fort Bragg via the All-American.
Half-Marathoners will exit the All-American onto Normandy and run to finish the race at the Main Post Parade Field with scenic views of Fort Bragg’s replica Iron Mike Statue. After running on the All-American freeway for about four miles, our full marathon racers will enter the installation on Gruber road. The race course will then lead runners past the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and past Pope Airfield. Marathoners will finish their course with scenic views of FORSCOM headquarters and past Fort Bragg’s Iron Mike statue finishing at the Main Post Parade Field.
INFORMATION/REGISTRATION
