CHARLOTTE, N.C. - NC Wesleyan cross country runner, junior Nick Green, participated in the Tread Nightly Half Marathon last Friday, at the US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC.

According to Green, the USNWC has over 50 miles of mountain bike trails, making for a very interesting course. He said the start time was originally at 8PM, but runners were allowed to start anytime between 6 and 8 for social distancing. Also, all runners had to use a headlamp, as the race course is not well-lit and has plenty of tripping hazards (rocks and roots).

Green says the course is like a maze, since it has many turns, but the course was marked by arrows, however.

"I started at about 7:40 so that I could run in the dark, which would help me compare my time to last year's time of 2:27:40.9," commented Green.

Green said "overall the race felt good," but that it took him longer to run than he had planned, as there were no mile markers. To make matters more complicated for Green, his GPS watch was inaccurate because of the terrain and trees and he ended up going the wrong way with about a mile left, wasting several minutes, but he eventually got back on track and placed 9th out of 78 with a final time of 2:25:20.6. The winner came in at just under 1 hour 58 minutes and was the only runner to break 2 hours.

"This particular race was probably the hardest race I have ever run, since it seemed to keep going like it would never end. I actually felt sick and had chills for over an hour after the race and barely ate anything until after 1 am," said Green. "I plan to race again next year and hopefully place in the top five."