Running Along Route 12, Without Getting Killed

Fitting our long run in while on vacation at the beach is never a problem.  Deciding just where to run it is…

Yesterday we decided to try running along Route 12 so we would have a consistent running surface, and a change in scenery.  Running along the shore at low tide is beautiful, but the scenery doesn’t really change and it gets boring after a few miles.

We drove to Corolla, and parked at the Currituck Lighthouse parking lot.  As soon as we got there we saw this sign.  A 5K every Wednesday morning – how cool is that?  Registration is $38 for adults; unfortunately, we drove down last Wednesday and are heading home early this Wednesday, so we won’t be down here to run it.  I have to remember this for next summer!

Anyway, back to our long run!  We headed north for 1.5 miles to the cattleguard and turned around there.  The cattleguard keeps the horses in the 4-wheel drive section of the beach, and it’s always amazed me that they don’t try jumping across it.

Heading back south we could see the lighthouse in the distance, and our 3-mile mark.

I stopped to snap a few pictures along the way when I saw something particularly interesting.  In keeping with the wild horse theme from the 16th century Spanish ship wrecks where horses swam to the shores of the Outer Banks, there are horse statues all along Corolla, each painted and/or decorated differently.  This one is painted to look like the sea horizon.

And I assume this one is supposed to be Pegasus, only painted blue…

And this bronze horse is rearing up in dominance…

The great thing about running where you know your way around is knowing where the porta-potties are!  This one is hidden in the alley behind Winks.  They used to have a guest restroom, but now it’s for employees and they send their shoppers out back!

As we got into “town,” I snapped a picture of Bill running along Route 12.  Here it’s not too bad as long as we were really careful watching for cars to turn in and out of the shopping centers.

The mile markers were handy, but didn’t correspond with our starting point, so we stuck with tracking our run on RunKeeper.

We ran facing traffic and once we got south of Corolla, traffic got much heavier.  We stayed as close to the outer side of the pedestrian lane as possible, but at times I was nervous I was going to trip on something that would send me flying into traffic.  I can be quite klutzy without even trying!

The Outer Banks are pretty narrow at this point and here we were running very close to Currituck Sound.  I snapped this picture of the Sound right as a biker rode by.

Heading south we were in the shade much of the time which was great considering the sun had come out and it was getting pretty warm.  Once we got to 4.5 miles south of our car, we turned around to finish our 12-mile run, mostly in the sun at this point.

Back up in Corolla, we stopped in front of Wings so I could hang with the pirate.

And then we stopped at Ace Hardward for me to refill my water bottles, and then channel my inner Edith Ann and sit in the big chair!

We finished our run in 1:54:06 (9:30 pace), stretched, and then hopped in the car to drive over to visit Julie’s aunts, cousins, and sister who were also vacationing near by.

They greeted us with a bevy of delicious post-run treats.  I chose the blueberry crumb cake and it was the best I’ve ever had!  It hit the spot, which really surprised me because usually, I don’t want sweets right after a long, hard run.

Back at the beach house, Bill took his shoes off and showed me his foot.  This happened through a band-aid and two pairs of socks…

On Thursday afternoon, Bill ripped a chunk of skin off of the bottom of his foot on that nail sticking up on the left.  I told him to suck it up and come run with me!

You can thank me for not posting a picture of his foot!

• Questions:
• What do you like to do on vacation?
• What is your best vacation memory EVER?
• What are your plans for the weekend?