Saturday, I was in Charlotte, NC, visiting with Jeff and Andy before guitar camp starts on Sunday. Since I was in town, we figured we'd locate a race so I could test my mad Gazelles skills against the Carolina locals. I've run a 4 miler and a couple of 5K's in and around Charlotte and Asheville, so it would be interesting to see if I had really improved.
I had not been told where the race was, but they did tell me that it was a 5K. We prepared accordingly by gorging ourselves on pasta on Friday night like we were running a marathon the next day. What the heck, right? Saturday, Jeff and I left his house pretty early, and picked up Andy on the way (he lives in Concord, NC). After some driving around, we ended up at a grade school (or maybe it was a middle school) in Salisbury, NC, for a club 5K. There were around 200 people in the race, so it was a decent crowd. This was only one of 3 or 4 5K races available to Jeff and Andy this weekend! Coming from Austin, where the summer racing pickin's are pretty slim, this was astounding to me.
We got signed up quickly, and after a quick drink of water to top off the tanks, we went out on the course for a brief warmup. The course was along a greenway for a little while, with a loop through a neighborhood for most of mile 2, followed by the return on the greenway and finally a 2/3 lap tour of the 300m track at the school for the finish. Our reconnaissance run only showed me the flat greenway start, but I understood that there was a hill during mile 2, the only bump on the road, so to speak. I was comfortably warmed up after our mile jog, and even got in some strides to further loosen up. I had no real race goals except to run how I felt. I ran about 22:10 at the Silicon Labs relay, so a time around there would be good for summertime racing.
We popped into the crowd (it was a tear tag race, so no chips) with minutes to spare, and I lined up about 2 yards from the start line. No national anthem, but we had a prayer, and we were off. Weather was just fine, compared to Austin. It was in the lower 70's at 8:00am, conditions with which I was unfamiliar this time of year. I ran alongside Kathy, the 60 year old woman that beat me last year at the James K. Polk 5K, knowing that she traditionally goes out too fast (thanks, Jeff and Andy, for that bit of scouting!). She was pretty fiesty, flashing some elbows going around some early corners. I was more amused than annoyed. The guy from last year who pushes his two kids in the stroller, complete with boombox attached to his stroller, blaring away, was just ahead of me the whole race long. That music was mightily annoying. Arrrrrrrrgh!
Soon enough, I was at the first mile marker, ahead of Kathy for good, and with an eye on Steve, the stroller guy. After letting a bunch of people go out hard in the first mile, I had started to reel a bunch of them in by that time. Cool. First mile was 7:07, about what I like to see at that mark in a 5K.
Mile two started right away with that hill. It wasn't awful, but it took its toll on a bunch of my fellow runners. I passed a lady pushing a stroller and some younger runners (high schoolers and young college) on the hill. Coming down the other side, I entered the out and back portion, so I saw Jeff and then Andy going the other way. I was encouraged that I wasn't a hideous distance behind them. The turnaround was clearly marked and was a wider turn than normal on a turn like that, which felt more comfortable. I skipped the water stop entirely, and chugged along. I kept passing people, and was not caught by anyone during mile two, so that was pretty cool. We turned off the street and back on the greenway, and there was the mile two marker. I sort of had a shot at a PR! Mile two was 6:58, even with the hill. Was that a mistake?
I still could see and hear Steve with the boombox stroller ahead of me, but couldn't close on him. We retraced our steps, and just when I was thinking about really dogging it home, I could see and hear the finish area commotion, so I had to keep pressing. It was still a solid half mile away, but much nearer if I could go hop that fence! I tried to pick up my turnover through the homestretch, and turned onto the sidewalk for that final ramp up to the track. There was pretty good crowd support here, and I turned right onto the track, with only some 200 yards to go. I may have caught one more person on the track, but I was sort of hazy by then. Driving to the tape, I finished in 22:12, with a final 1.11 miles at 7:19/mile pace. I guess I slowed up more than I had thought on that last mile, which isn't how I like to run a 5K. Still, my overall time was within 15 seconds or so of my PR, so I have to be satisfied with that.
I got my finishing card (56, I think), and turned that in to the timer folks. Percentage-wise, I think I ended up about where I do in Austin races, top 30-40%, so that was okay. They had a great post-race snack spread (Chick-Fil-A nuggets, Krispy Kremes, fruit, Cheerwine, water, cookies), so I scarfed a banana and an orange slice, and grabbed a cold bottle of water. Catching up with Andy and Jeff, we strolled away from the post-race hubbub, and started out on a cooldown jog. I estimate we covered 2.5 miles, but I didn't have the GPS watch on, so that was a guess. I felt better after the cooldown run, even though that course was tougher than the actual race course. :-)
We got back in time for the post-race raffle, but didn't win any prizes. Andy and Jeff both narrowly missed winning a trophy in their age groups. I discovered a locally produced soft drink while we were catching the awards ceremony, called Cheerwine. It's sort of like a cherry Dr. Pepper or a Big Red, but it was mighty tasty!
It was fun to chat with some of the locals that I recognized from last year's Polk 5K. Once that was over, it was time to get out of there for the rest of our day's travels. We visited a palatial YMCA to get cleaned up, and it was really a nice facility. The ladies at the front desk got all excited and took us on a tour of the place, too. As a result, I didn't have to pay a "day member" fee, which was nice of them.
We finished off the day with some hiking and a tour of Salisbury, a visit to the Dale Earnhardt memorial shrine in Kanapolis, some pizza, and some beer. All in all, a fine first day of vacation.
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