So you like Strava Challenges? We have another for you! If you haven’t already, join the Sir Walter Running Strava club!
The 2026 Tour de Walter is off and running! We’ll announce a new challenge every Monday (or maybe Sunday night), and it will run through the following Sunday at Midnight. All of these are in celebration of the 2026 Sir Walter Miler, which will be held Friday, August 7th at Meredith College. We’ll talk about these Strava Challenges of upcoming episodes of the Summer of Miles podcast, so make sure and subscribe!
What exactly is the Tour de Walter? This is the first of a 4 segment Challenge called the Tour de Walter, in honor of the Tour de France. Everyone that competes all 4 segments will get a Tour de Walter koozie, and the Male and Female with the lowest overall time will get VIP seating at the 2026 Sir Walter Miler. We’ll also do a random drawing every week for free race entries, Sir Walter swag, and more!
NOTE: These runs are unsupervised, so please run at your own risk (and be careful). We recommend the buddy system!
2026 Tour de Walter – Week 1: Valley Ranger Mile
What is it? The first segment of the 2026 Tour de Walter is the Valley Ranger Mile. A quick google for the toughest hills in Raleigh landed us here. You start with a nice gentle downhill, then hit a steep uphill, followed by a steep downhill. Ultimately you’ll have a big final climb before the finish edges slightly downhill!
Where is it? The segment starts on Rangecrest Drive and you can street park near the start, which is near 2200 Rangecrest Rd, Raleigh, NC 27612.
Where is the start (and where do I run)? Start at the big white stop line on the corner of Rangecrest Road and Valley Drive, and head down Rangecrest Road for about 0.6 miles before turning left on Valley Lake Drive, You’ll follow Valley Lake for almost 0.3 miles before turning left onto Valley Drive and then finishing at the Oakcrest Court sign.
Where do I finish? In line with the Oakcrest Court sign. That should give you a mile! You’ll be about 0.1 mile from the start.
When should I run? The segment is shady, but it’s been hot lately, so plan accordingly. Don’t run in the middle of the day. Be careful. Take some Tailwind or Blanks Nutrition in advance! You have between now and Sunday at dusk.
Where will I see the standings? See below and filter accordingly. And we’ll update the cumulative weekly!
After you run the segment, enter your results here into the Google form!
Update your Privacy Settings! If you want your run to register on the segment standings below, you must go into your run in Strava after it populates and adjust the privacy settings on that run (to not hide the start and finish). Make sure and join the Sir Walter Running club on Strava, as we will filter for that and the current week.
The Official Strava Segment: strava.com/segments/41695548 (Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3506394336199543958)
What do I win? We will have a random drawing for 2 entries to the Raleigh RunDown Downhill Mile on Saturday, August 8th! We will post with next week’s segment.
Have questions? Let us know: SirWalterRunning@gmail.com