The Outer Banks
Run where the Wright Brothers took their first flight, through North Carolina's remote, unspoiled coastal wilderness
Outer Banks Half Marathon
Nags Head, N.C. | Sunday, November 7, 2021
Known for its mixture of fast and flat stretches through the island where the Wright Brothers made aviation history, this race unfolds along a remote stretch of North Carolina’s Atlantic coastline. Starting from the midway point of the full marathon course — which won’t be run this year, but will return in 2022 — you’ll run the first couple of miles through Jockey’s Ridge State Park, home to the largest sand dune anywhere on the East Coast. Later you’ll make your way through miles of unspoiled coastal wilderness and make a brief, steep run over the bridge that links the long, narrow Outer Banks with the mainland, taking in views of marshes as far as the eye can see and fishing boats chugging out to sea.
$70 and up
A great running read
Why Were So Many Running World Records Broken During the Pandemic? A fascinating look at how when circumstances changed — no races on the schedule, nothing to plan their training around — professional runners shifted how they trained and what they trained for. In the process, they opened up the range of possibilities of what they could accomplish.
“As the months went by, running fast became not just a goal but a reason to keep going. ‘It appears like I was just dialled in and training and not affected by all this,’ Albertson said, ‘but it was actually the opposite. All of these results came because I was trying to keep myself from going insane and trying to find something to do and occupy my mind with. I was just struggling.’”
Words to run by
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
— Henry David Thoreau