About the Event
This race is held on a combination of horse trail and dirt road. You will run on a large section of the King's Highway that has gone virtually untouched. You will run on a looped course no shorter than 11 miles. Aid stations will be made available on course as well as at the Start/Finish Line.
Packet Pickup will be held before the event between the hours of 7:00-7:30AM at the Start/Finish line.
There is no camping available on site for this event. This course is held on private land and no access will be granted to run the course prior to the event.
Refunds will not be issued for this event. Registrations are not able to be transferred to other events or bumped up a year.
The Year was 1660...
Shortly after being crowned King, King Charles II asks the governors of his colonies to establish a line of communication between the colonies. The entire length of The King’s Highway did not become a continuous wagon road until about 1735. Incorporating the Boston Post Road (opened in 1673), the route traveled over 1,300 miles, from Boston, Massachusetts to Charles Town, South Carolina. Along the route, there are numerous communities today with a King Street, King’s Road, or King Avenue, all remaining from the days when it was called the King’s Highway.
The longest remaining stretch of the original King’s Highway can be found at Hobcaw Barony. You will run on this dirt road.
Hobcaw Barony
In 1670, the English created the first permanent settlement in Carolina at Charles Towne. By 1711, Hobcaw Point, at the mouth of the Waccamaw River, was surveyed and named Hobcaw Barony By 1716, an English/native American trading post had been established at Hobcaw Barony. Within a few years the English were also exporting enslaved Native Americans. In 1718, King George I, appointed John Lord Carteret as Lord Proprietor over Hobcaw Barony.
Carteret sold the undeveloped land in 1730. Divided and subdivided into a number of individual plantations, most of Hobcaw Barony’s new boundary lines ran from the river to the sea, across the Waccamaw Neck.
Fast forward a couple hundred years…
By the mid-19th century, Waccamaw River plantations averaged 1000 acres and 100 slaves. By 1850, Georgetown District was the world’s second largest producer of “Carolina Gold” rice and nearly 85% of the area population was black. Enslaved Africans’ knowledge of tidal cultivation of rice, skills and strengths in diverse areas of plantation work resulted in millions of pounds of rice produced annually in the Georgetown District.
After emancipation, many former slaves and their descendants remained on lowcountry plantations. Rice production continued until the early 20th century and low wages were offset by subsistence farming, employee housing and food from the woods and waters. Several former slave villages at Hobcaw Barony were occupied until after World War II.
Event's current local time: 7:50 AM ET
