Up until last year, for the last decade and a half, we typically have not been home for the Fourth of July. Since we are home again this year, my wife and some of her friends decided to do a race on the Fourth. Since it was a Saturday, I decided to join in on the festivities as well. I picked up our packets on Friday since I had the day off. It was at the new Run for Your Life location in "Midtown". Which is just Kings Ave over by CMC.
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| My Girls before the Race |
Race morning, we headed out about 6:30 am, as the race start time was 7:30. We picked up a couple of our friends at the Starbucks and headed into Charlotte. We found parking easily enough on Mcdonalds ave, right before Park Road, where the Ru San's sushi is. Best sushi buffet in town, BTW.
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| I rather like the tanks |
We hung out for a little bit with some of the Fort Mill Fast Feet people, and eventually it was time for me to do a warm up. I started jogging and the legs felt a little heavy. I ran for a mile, and then did some pick ups and moderate sprints. I started feeling better.
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| The Toast Mascot |
The day before they had announce a slight course change. As we started lining up, the RD explained that there were still some pot holes on Euclid street that they didn't get filled in. So I guess that's what they mean when the say the course isn't truly finalized until race day.
They played the national anthem. Then they put all the baby joggers in front of us and gave them a 2 minute head start. We finally got started at 7:37 am. I knew there would be some horses in this race, and they did not disappoint from the gun.
I didn't worry about them, I just wanted to see what I could do. I thought maybe I could run 5:45's. I didn't feel too bad the first mile and came through in 5:48 despite it being a bit uphill. I tried to hang with they guy with the American flag shorts, but I lost him on one of the hills.
After the 1st mile we came on a long straight stretch on East Blvd that was ever so slightly downhill. I tried to get some turnover in the legs and I quickly came upon the second mile marker. My 2nd mile split was a 5:47. I didn't feel great at that point, but not bad.
So if mile 2 was slightly downhill, mile 3 was slightly uphill. My legs felt heavy and I bogged down on on of the hills. Early in the mile the first woman passed me. Stinks to get chicked. Anyways I struggled in that mile and split a 6:08. That kinda killed my average.
I tried to push the last mile. It wasn't hot, but pretty humid. I was sweating a little and had to keep wiping my temples. I guess I'm used to wearing a visor and sweat doesn't pour down like that. Anyways the last mile was a net downhill and tried to get back on pace and push to the finish.
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| Finishing Stretch |
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| Finish Line |
Anyways, I got some water and a banana at the finish. I kinda figured from what I saw that I was about 10th overall. I gathered myself after a couple of minutes and jogged back to the car. I grabbed my camera and a t-shirt and then went back to the final home stretch to get some pictures of the girls coming in. They all came in faster than I had thought.
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| Kary Finishing Strong |
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| Jayne Cheering on Laura |
I got a couple of good pictures of Kary. A not so good one of Patricia. But then I got a really good one of my wife and Jayne. I found them at the finish and they were all pretty happy. We hung out for a while and finally looked for some results.
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| Post-Race |
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| The Band |
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| The Fort Mill Fast Feet Group |
They did have a results tent setup that you could check your finish on a laptop. It just had time and overall place, but not awards placing. I saw I was indeed 10th overall (male). A bit later they had all the awards posted up on a board on the side of that same tent. Then I saw I was 1st Overall Masters. So then I was pretty happy. I mean there wasn't much chance for me to be in the top 5 overall awards, so first masters was the next best thing. Full Results Here.
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| I beat Mark Carbone! |
We hung around for just a short while for the awards. I got a small apple pie and a pie server. Or is it a spatula? Anyways I kinda like unique prizes so I quite enjoyed that. It was definitely a fun way to start out the Fourth of July! So I celebrated by doing a interval bike ride in the afternoon. Kona waits on no one.
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| Edible Awards |
