05/20/2026
🇺🇸 Every step. Every mile. In their honor. 🇺🇸
This Memorial Day, we remember why our race starts in the shadow of a legend.
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) earned 15 battle stars across the Pacific in WWII — but the cost was paid in lives. Ten of her sailors were killed in action, including five lost on September 15, 1942, when a Japanese torpedo tore a 32-by-18-foot hole in her port side near Guadalcanal. Her crew counter-flooded the compartments and kept her in the fight.
When the war ended, North Carolinians refused to let her be scrapped. Today she stands watch over the Cape Fear River as our state's memorial to the 11,000 North Carolinians who gave their lives in World War II.
That's the ship you run past.
Every mile of the Battleship Half Marathon is run in the shadow of sacrifice — and we wouldn't have it any other way. 🌊⚓
This Memorial Day, we honor the fallen. In November, we run to remember them.
