Tag: NC Road Races

Race #93 – Freedom Run 5k – Oakboro, NC – 06/26/10

Posted on by Richard Hefner

The Freedom Run 5k is part of Oakboro’s annual week-long 4th of July celebration. Oakboro is a small town in rural Stanly County with a population of about 1200 residents. We had never been there before and were surprised that it didn’t seem nearly as small as it sounds, apparently because being in a rural area without a lot of towns it brings in quite a few visitors from outlying communities. Albemarle is up the road about 15 miles away, and we were happy to find out that Peter Asciutto of Vac & Dash was doing the timing for the race (although the race was actually managed by the local fire department).
As described on the Active.com race page, the course was “pretty flat,” with just a few little hills along the way. It was hot as usual for any race this time of year, but much of the course was along the trails of the Oakboro District Park and provided some much needed shade. I heard a few complaints from runners who didn’t like running along the crushed gravel pathway, and it’s not my favorite surface either since I’m used to running on asphalt mostly all of the time, but other than a little feeling of mushiness under my feet it didn’t bother me much. I was much more concerned about getting my nearly new “Karhu Racer” racing flats dirty with the dust I was kicking up! I’m happy to report my shoes remained relatively unscathed throughout.
I was happy to finish sixth overall in the race with a time of 21:37, which was 16 seconds slower than I ran last week’s Summer Breeze 5k but I actually felt better in this race, although I did take about a 20-second walk break in the third mile.
There was one problem along the course that affected some runners. It was a loop that was to be done two times. The first time around you were supposed to go to the right to repeat the loop; the second time you went to the left to exit the loop. It wasn’t a problem for me as I was lapping some slower runners and there were some going right and others going left just ahead of me. There was a volunteer there but they weren’t really directing the runners. I yelled as I approached, “Go left second time around?” and the volunteer nodded that was correct. It would have been much better to have a volunteer there who would keep telling people which way to go. I was in the top 10 runners at the time and I saw at least one person ahead of me skip the second loop, most likely not on purpose but of course things like that affect the outcome. When Linda came along everybody was going to the left and she did too (she wasn’t even sure where it was) and she finished about 5 or 6 minutes faster than she should have. We did report it so they could adjust her time or do whatever was appropriate, but I’m pretty sure it was a fairly widespread problem for other runners as well.
The race shirts were “ringer” T-shirts, which was kind of cool, and in 93 races it’s the first time I remember getting a ringer. There wasn’t any food at all, which was kind of disappointing, but volunteers met the runners at the finish line with a cold bottle of water (I heard there was Gatorade too) and a cold, wet hand towel that said, “Vac & Dash Racing Team — Freedom Run 5k Finisher.” That’s the first time we’ve gotten towels like that at the finish line and they were great for cooling off and a nice souvenir of the race as well.
When the Oakboro race was mentioned on Facebook the other day somebody responded that they didn’t know anything about the race but the Wayside Diner was a great place to eat, so after the race Linda and I stopped by there with Steve Austin and Jerry Sofley and had breakfast. Wow… best gravy on earth! I had a gravy biscuit, 2 eggs, 2 pieces of sausage, and 1 giant hotcake. Lucky for me I don’t live closer to this place, but I’ll try working it off during my Sunday long run.
Race Rating:
8 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
7 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
3 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
4 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
7 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
8 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
0 – 0-10 Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
0 – 0/5 Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
7 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
5 – 0-10 Other (Added 5 for the post-race towels!)
TOTAL – 80
My Stats:
Time: 21:37
Pace: 6:58
Age Group: (55-99) 1 of 7
Overall: 6 of 100

Race #91 – China Grove 5k Main Street Challenge – China Grove, NC – 06/11/10

Posted on by Richard Hefner

It was a hot, steamy night in China Grove for the 13th annual Main Street Challenge. I dislike cold weather so much that I really don’t like complaining about hot weather at all, and since we all knew it would be a steamer before we got there, it’s all part of the adventure. Like it or not though, the wheels don’t seem to turn quite as quickly when you’re running on a hot summer night with a temperature of 85 degrees and I think quite a few folks ran slower times than they normally do although Jordan Kinley, the overall race winner, blazed the trail at 15:05.
I’ve been stuck in the 21-minute range in 5k races for a while and didn’t feel great going into this one, so I was happy to finish in 20:57 and win my age group just ahead of Steve Staley. Steve always provides me with a little extra motivation and since I knew he was right on my heels it helped me stay focused. Other than one or two gentle inclines that are barely noticeable it’s a flat out-and-back run all the way with the only turn being the halfway point of the race where you run around a barrel to head back in the other direction. This year’s race wasn’t nearly as dark as the one last year. I remember last year not being able to see where I was stepping but that wasn’t an issue this year. I think they had enough temporary lighting set up to eliminate the problem.
It was still dark enough though that I couldn’t read my Garmin, even when I turned on the backlight. I could wear my glasses and see it, of course, but what fun would that be? I’ve been monitoring my heart rate in races for the past few months. When I first started experimenting with it I would raise my heart rate to 166 — about 92% of my Maximum Heart Rate — then try to stay right at that level throughout the race. Over time I’ve begun to fine tune my 5k heart rate, finishing the first mile at about 166 beats per minute (bpm), then building up the second mile to around 168 or 170 bpm, then gradually going up to 172 or 173 bpm for the third mile. Of course, not being able to read my Garmin I had to go by perception instead of actually looking at the numbers, so I was surprised to find that it worked according to plan in the race, with my heart rate averaging 169 in the second mile and 173 in the third mile.
This is a fun race and one of my favorite local races. I’m using the term “local” loosely because it’s about a 40-mile drive but I consider anything within 50 miles or so local since we can get there within an hour. The town of China Grove really gets behind this race with support and it’s a first class event all the way. The word is apparently spreading about what a great race it is, and this year there was a record crowd of 531 finishers as opposed to 390 in 2009.
Before the 5k race begins at 9 p.m., there is a Tot Trot that starts at 8:00 for the toddlers, followed by a half mile fun run for bigger kids. Other pre-race activities include several inflatable bounce houses for kids (I think there were three of them), lots of music, and a free Krispy Kreme donut booth where you can design your own by dipping them in chocolate or add sprinkles or whatever.
The post-race food is some of the best you’ll find at any race including fresh watermelon and cantaloupe, free Pizza Hut pizza, cookies, bagels, bananas, oranges, sports drinks, Cheerwine, and more.
This year’s T-shirts were nice as well — gold colored tech shirts. There were nice trophies for the Overall, Masters, and Grand Masters, and nice custom-made medals for the age group winners as well as gift certificates from Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I still prefer morning races but the change of pace to a nighttime race is nice occasionally, and this is one that I’ll keep on the schedule for next year.
Race Rating:
3 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
8 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
10 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
9 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
9 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
10 – 0-10 Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
5 – 0/5 Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
7 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0-10 Other
TOTAL – 98
My Stats:
Time: 20:57
Pace: 6:46
Mile Splits: (1) 6:35 — (2) 6:51 — (3) 6:46
Age Group: 1 of 10
Overall: 52 of 531 (9.8%)

Race #86 – White Lake Water Festival 10k – White Lake, NC – 05/16/10

Posted on by Richard Hefner

Linda’s best friend from college has been going to White Lake her whole life, and in fact, now owns a cottage there, and when they recently got back in touch for the first time in many years we looked for a race in the area so we could do a little multitasking by visiting and running a race on the same weekend. It worked out nicely this weekend, so off we headed the approximately 180 miles to White Lake, North Carolina, which is about 30 miles east of Lumberton near Elizabethtown. We didn’t really know what to expect in the area but were pleasantly surprised that the area is a beautiful and laid back summer hideaway that time seems to have forgotten. There are no big hotel chains but quite a few mom and pop motels and cottages that line the shore, many with a private beach of their own. We rented a really nice cottage for the night at Carolyn’s Cottages, much more than we needed as far as space (it slept 10 but there were only two of us) but the price and location were perfect.
We had a nice visit on Saturday evening with Linda’s friend Jean and her husband Jimmy, then went back to the cottage and watched TV on the screened in porch then got a good night’s sleep. In the morning we were able to walk just up the street to the starting line.
This was a tiny race, possibly the smallest we’ve ever been a part of.  During the previous two weeks there had been a half ironman and a sprint triathlon on the lake, both with several hundred competitors. This race, associated with the upcoming water festival was a much smaller affair. As we left the starting line I found myself near the front of the pack and soon there were only two runners in front of me. I stayed in back of them until about the 0.75 mile point of the race and then I decided they were probably running defensively instead of offensively, saving their energy and going slowly as long as they could, which might have been smart since the temperature was already close to 80 degrees. I decided to step it up though and passed them both, and for the first time ever I was the overall leader of the race! I didn’t get overly excited though, because I knew it wouldn’t last, but it was pretty sweet having the police escort for about a half mile until I was overtaken, finally finishing in fifth place overall with a time of 43:39.
I’ll save us all some time by cutting it short. I’ve got work to catch up on, and even more importantly, t’s Survivor finale night and I’m hoping to see Russell finally get what he deserves, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
By the way, the trophies for this race were spectacular — some of the nicest we’ve ever won.
Race Rating:
3 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
9 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
6 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
4 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
7 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
10 – 0-10 Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
0 – 0/5 Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
5 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0-10 Other
TOTAL – 79

Race #69 – Running of the Lights – Clemmons NC – 01/01/10

Posted on by Richard Hefner

Early in the afternoon on New Years Eve as I lay on the bed recovering from one of my numerous daily “power naps” (I feel less guilty describing them that way), in a moment of weakness/laziness I asked Linda if she’d rather just skip driving 90 miles to this race. We talked over the pros and cons for a few minutes. We had planned to run it last year and I pre-registered then and even got a prepaid hotel room, and wouldn’t you know it, we both came down with a stomach virus and were in no shape to run, so it cost me $150 or so and we never even made the trip. This year I didn’t pre-register for anything, but we both felt fine and decided the pros outweighed the cons so we headed up to Tanglewood Park for Running of the Lights.
The description of the race on the web left little doubt that by missing this race you’d be missing a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It read like this:
Start the New Year off on a healthy note! Join us for a night of fun and celebration that will begin with fireworks and end with a hot chocolate toast to the healthy New Year! This run course will be an experience of a lifetime. Runners will wind through the park at midnight and experience the Tanglewood Festival of Lights in a whole new way, on foot! This will be by far the most scenic run course in Christmas history. It will be a Christmas wonderland of lights and action. Don’t miss it!
This event is quickly becoming a family favorite. There’s no better way to spend New Year’s Eve than with a group of family and friends running and supporting a great cause!
This unique event is like no other running event in the state of North Carolina. Never before has anyone had the opportunity to marvel at the Festival of Lights outside of their vehicle! Now participants can stroll through the Christmas wonderland at whatever pace they choose, and then relish in hot chocolate provided at the finish line.
The race starts at the stroke of midnight. We will celebrate the New Year with a fireworks display and a Live Feed to New York’s Timesquare to count down the New Year and start the race!
The fireworks show will be near the front entrance of the park, so participants will be able to run through the lights (the best lights displays are towards the front of the park) while watching the fireworks go off! It’ll be a 6-8 minute display of fireworks!
All of that is true, of course, but reality sometimes gets in the way. It’s great to run through the lights and the fireworks, but when you’re in a race it’s really hard to concentrate on anything other than the act of running, so the lights are probably better appreciated from the comfort of a car. There were some nice lights that really did add to the atmosphere, but there were some places that the road was so dark you couldn’t see where your next step was landing at all. At those places you had to pretty much depend on blind faith, hoping there wasn’t a pothole or speedbump or some other obstacle. Bobby Aswell, who finished 2nd overall in the race, told me afterwards that he stepped on a speedbump that he didn’t see and almost fell but managed to stay on his feet. My wife Linda had a similar experience. I think we can all agree that falling on your face onto the cold, hard asphalt would be an unpleasant experience. I didn’t get tripped up at all but felt a little jumpy about the fact that I was guessing part of the time where my feet were landing.
I have to say the beginning of the race was pretty cool as there was a big screen TV set up showing the ball dropping at Times Square. We counted down as the ball dropped and precisely at the stroke of midnight the race began.
One thing that strikes me odd about this race is the 3.2 mile distance, which of course is just a tenth of a mile longer than a 5k. Before the race I imagined that it was just too hard to make the course a 5k so they just worked with what they had, but that wasn’t the case at all. At one point during the race there was a turnaround at a guard house. It was a fine place to turn around, but it would have been just as easy for the runners if the race directors would have placed an orange cone about .05 miles closer in, which would have resulted in a 5k race. That’s a standard distance, easily understood and compared by runners. For me personally, I log all of my runs through RunningAhead and my Personal Records are automatically generated from my race times. I don’t really want an odd distance race in there like 3.2 miles so I had to enter the race as a training run instead. No biggy, but this might be the only 3.2 mile race I ever run and I don’t want it showing up every time my PRs are generated for the rest of my life.
As far as relishing in the hot chocolate provided at the finish line, uh… not so much. There were packets of hot chocolate and you mixed your own. That’s not ideal but it’s do-able. Problem here was that there wasn’t enough hot water for people who wanted to make hot chocolate. There were two big coffee urns filled with hot water. I’m not sure what each would hold… 50 cups… 100 cups? Maybe. That’s not quite enough for 722 runners plus the spectators they brought along. Also, if you did manage to get water, it wasn’t really hot. Mine was lukewarm at best. There was other food. I wasn’t that hungry at 1 o’clock in the morning so I didn’t get too deep into the food section but I did get some pretty good chocolate chip cookies.
One other problem I should mention: the registration, entertainment, food, and awards were all set up in a big grassy field. Luckily it wasn’t raining during the race activities, but it had been rainy for a day or two beforehand and also the big snow of last week had been melting. With hundreds of people walking around it didn’t take long for it to change from a grassy field to a muddy field. It wasn’t terrible, but there was enough mud that my favorite racing shoes are now a mess. Maybe they’ll clean nicely.
The best part of the whole race was probably the T-shirts: dark red, long-sleeved tech shirts, and nicely designed. I never get enough of the long-sleeved tech shirts.
My Race Stats:
  • Time:  23:00
  • Pace:  7:12
  • Overall:  35 of 722 (4.8%)
  • Gender:  34 of 325 (10.5%)
  • Age Group:  2 of 12 (16.7%)

Click Here for Race Photos by Carolina Snapshot

Click Here for Overall Race Results

Race Rating
5 – 1-10  Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
4 – 1-10  Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
6 – 1-10  Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
6 – 1-10  Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
9 – 1-10  T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6   Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
5 – 0/5   Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 – 4/6   Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7   Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
4 – 1-10  Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10  Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
6 – 1-10  Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
10 – 0-10  Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
0 – 0/5   Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
5 – 1-10  Bathroom Facilities
0-10  Other
TOTAL – 82

Race #42 – Mill Grove Cancer Awareness 5k & 3k – Matthews NC – 06/27/09

Posted on by Richard Hefner

Thanks to GPS technology, we didn’t have any trouble finding the Mill Grove 5k race that I think was somewhere between Matthews and Mint Hill. The race took place in the lovely Shannamara neighborhood, which is adjoining The Divide Golf Course. It was an out-and-back course so it was nice to be able to finish by running down the long hill we ran to run up at the beginning of the race.
It was a hot morning, probably somewhere around 80 to 85 degrees at race time, and there was some type of a logistical problem that caused the 5k to be delayed for about 30 minutes, until the 3k race, which had started earlier, was finishing. I’m not quite sure of the details, but it probably did affect race times a little bit since 30 more minutes of midsummer sunshine can heat things up pretty quickly.
The hot temperatures did allow me to once and for all test out my X-Bionic shirt, which, according to the recent segment on the Fox Sports Network show called “Sports Science,” is supposed to keep your core body temperature lower when running in extreme heat. I’ll post a more complete review of my results under the original blog message, but to make a long story short, there are no magic shirts that will make you run faster, at least not for me. Guess I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way if I want to get faster.
The post-race food was good, and the awards for the overall winners (top 3 male and top 3 female) were exceptionally nice. I didn’t see everything but noticed they received a really nice running backpack along with some other stuff. All of the age-group 1st place winners received a medal in both the 5k and 3k races, but it was a little disappointing that there was nothing given to 2nd and 3rd place.
I took some photos of some of the runners as they were finishing, and as usual, you can download the large original photos (3000 x 4000 pixels) for free by clicking on the slideshow and downloading them from my Picasa photos page.
Race Rating
4 – 1-10 Website (Informaton, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
7 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
5 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
6 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
3 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
6 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
6 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
7 – 3/7 Age Groups (7 if 5-year groups; 3 if 10-year groups)
5 – 0/5 Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
3 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0 – 0-10 Other
TOTAL – 69

Race #37 – China Grove 5k Main Street Challenge – China Grove NC – 06/12/09

Posted on by Richard Hefner

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
With a start time of 9:00 p.m., the biggest challenge I faced in this race was seeing where I was going. Not to worry though… it was a straight shot down Main Street in China Grove with no deviation onto side streets, then run around the cone and straight back to the finish. Once you get out of the main part of town (maybe a quarter mile or so) there are no more street lights, so the later it gets, the darker it gets, and on the way back up the course I found myself thinking that I’m glad it’s a straight shot on a good road because I literally couldn’t see where my feet were landing.
It’s an extremely fast course due to the fact that turns do slow you down, and also there are no discernible hills, although you can sense a little rise and fall in elevation along the way. The overall winner, Ryan Woods of Boone, finished in a blistering 14:58, and I think a lot of PRs were set despite temperatures that were probably 10 degrees warmer than most morning races.
I finished in 21:51, which is just 10 seconds off my PR, but still didn’t place in my age group, finishing 4th among 12 runners (67th overall out of 390 finishers). My mile splits were: 6:38, 7:16, and 7:11, so I was happy to at least run the third mile faster than the second although I actually took a 20-second walk break in both the 2nd and 3rd mile. Interestingly, the 3 top finishers in my age division all finished within 1 second of each other at 21:24.
Theoden Janes, whose excellent Charlotte Observer running blog I’ve been following lately, was out to set a new PR, according to his blog, and about a quarter mile into the race I looked up and he was right in front of me. I stayed behind him for a while and then passed him when he was slowed down a little by a couple of runners who slowed down directly in front of him. Before long he passed me again and was gone, finishing in 21:39 and getting his PR.
Overall it was a great race and a lot of fun, with lots of good food and entertainment before and after the race, and the awards (one of which I didn’t get) were really nice as well. There were also technical material T-shirts, which is a rarity for the 5k races.
I got a few photos but as it grew darker that became more of a challenge, so it’s kind of limited, but I’ve included about 15 in a slideshow at the top.
Race Rating:
5 – 1-10 Website (Informaton, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
8 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 4/6 Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No)
0 – 0/5 Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
8 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
5 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
8 – 1-10 Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
7 – 3/7 Age Groups (7 if 5-year groups; 3 if 10-year groups)
5 – 0/5 Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
5 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0-10 Other
TOTAL – 92