Race #188 - Midnight Flight 10k - Anderson, SC - 08/31/12

Generally I'm not a fan of nighttime races, but this one's an exception. One of South Carolina's top racing events of the year, the Midnight Flight (10k, 5k, and 1-mile) brings out several thousand people to run, cheer, volunteer, or just watch. It's the fourth year in a row that we've participated and it's one I always look forward to. Part of what makes it special for me is that it marks the beginning of the Running Journal Grand Prix, which is nine races throughout the Southeast. I'm hoping to run most of the Grand Prix races this year.

One of the drawbacks of traveling to a race that's out of the Charlotte area is that there aren't as many people there who we know, but it was good to see several of our friends from the Gaston County Runners as well as several other friends from our area who came down to get a start on the Grand Prix season. Most notably for me was Bob Nelson, who's not only a friend but my age group competition most of the time when we race.
Linda and me at the registration table before the race.

The weather was warmer and more humid than I remember from past years. I noticed at the beginning of the 5k race at 10:00 p.m. the temperature on the bank clock near the starting line said it was 87 degrees. I'm not sure of the humidity level but it felt like it was 90% or higher. The 10k race started an hour later at 11:00 p.m. and it may have been a little cooler, but not much.

I made sure to wear my glasses this year because I remembered that last year without my glasses I couldn't see my heart rate in the dark, and I always like to monitor my effort by my heart rate as I run. This race is an out-and-back course with almost a complete mile of downhill in the first mile of the course, which means that the 6th mile is almost all uphill. One thing I like about an out-and-back course is that you can see where you're at in relation to everybody else. I tried to count the runners ahead of me and there were about 40 as I made the turnaround at the halfway point. I hadn't looked back to see who was behind at all up until that point, and as soon as a turned I spotted Bob Nelson not far behind. Over the past several years I think Bob and I have agreed that he's usually faster than me up hills and I'm usually faster down hills, and both of us knew that the last mile of this race is one big uphill climb. Ordinarily I try to keep my heart rate between 165 and 170 but I decided to nudge it up to 171-172 to stay ahead of Bob. I looked back at around 5 miles into the race and he was maybe 20 yards behind. After that I waited for him to pass me but he never did. When you get back to the starting line there's a right turn that goes about a quarter mile to the finish line and it's a pleasant gently sloping downhill finish. I wasn't quite sure where Bob was and when I didn't see him behind me I wondered for a minute if maybe he had passed me and I just hadn't noticed. It turns out that he had a harder time with the final hill than I did this year and he ended up a minute or so behind me, and we finished 1st and 2nd in the 60-64 age group.
A lot of people chose to wear their cool yellow tech T-shirts in the race!

It was a good start for the Running Journal Grand Prix season. This year my wife Linda, who just turned 60, is competing in the Grand Prix for the first time, and in her first race she finished in 2nd place in the 60-64 age group.

For me, it was nice to win the age group, but in the Senior Grand Masters category I was 2nd to a well-known speedster from Louisiana, 65-year-old Sherman Stanford, who finished about 2 minutes ahead of me, and who will most likely mow down all of the 60- to 69-year-old runners if he decides to run all or most of the races this season. Butch Holt was also absent as he was running a marathon in Bend, Oregon this weekend but he told me recently that he'll be back to run several of the GP races including the Rocket City Marathon, so it should make for a fun and interesting season.


Click Here for Race Results

 My Stats:

Time:  45:09 (chip time)
Pace:   7:15
Age Group:  1 of  7
Overall:  35 of  308
Age Graded Equivalent Time:  36:19
Age Graded Score: 73.94%

**************************************
* RACE RATING  (100 Possible Points) *
**************************************

Note: With my new rating system (started in December 2011) there's not a chance of any race scoring near 100. If it's important to you, look at each individual category to see how points were earned (or not). Just trying to be more objective with the details. I generally like all of the races I run. If there's something that really rubs me the wrong way I'll mention it in the summary above.

RACE COURSE  (20 possible points)
3 - Chip Timing: (3 points if yes)
2 - Starting Mat: (2 points if yes)
2 - Water Stops: (at least 1 for 5k, 2 for 10k, 4 for half marathon) (2 points)
1 - Course Marking:  (0)bad  (1)good
1 - Course Scenery:  (0)bad  (1)good
2 - Mile Markers: (0)poor or none  (1)normal  (2)with clocks or time called out
2 - Volunteers:  (0)too few  (2)good
2 - Finish line: (0)mediocre  (2)pretty good to excellent
2 - Certified Course: (0)no  (2) yes
2 - Correct Distance: (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Partly or fully on unpaved roads:  (0)yes  (1)no

REGISTRATION  (6 possible points)
1 - Cost:  (0)expensive  (1)reasonable  (3)cheap!
3 - Race Day Registration:  (0)no  (3)yes

RESULTS  (3 possible points)
2 - Posted promptly online:  (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Clear link on website:  (0)no  (1)yes

AGE GROUPS  (13 possible points)
2 - 3 deep awards: (2)yes (0 for anything less)
5 - 5-year age groups (5 points) (0 for anything less)
1 - 14 and under group (1)
1 - 65+ group (1)
1 - 70+ group (1)
1 - Top Overall M/F:  (0)none or first only  (1)top 3 or better
1 - Masters Category(40+): (0)no  (1)yes
1 - Grand Masters Category (50+):  (0)no  (1)yes

AWARDS  (9 possible points)
2 - Overall Winner Awards: (0)none  (1)yes  (2)excellent
2 - Age Group Awards: (0)none  (1)yes  (2)excellent
0 - Door Prizes or Drawing: (0)no  (2)yes
0 - Finisher Medals for All Finishers: (0)no  (1)yes  (3)really cool medals

POST RACE  (7 possible points)
1 - Food for Race Participants: (0)none  (1)some  (2)adequate  (5)a feast!
1 - Entertainment:  (0)no  (1)yes
1 - Finisher times posted after race:  (0)no  (1)yes

REST ROOMS  (4 possible points)
2 - Porta Potties:  (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful
2 - Indoor Restrooms: (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful

T-SHIRTS  (8 possible points)
2 - T-Shirts: (0)no  (2)yes
2 - Design: (0)not good  (1)not bad  (2)nice
2 - Material: (0)cotton  (2)technical fabric
0 - Discount for no-shirt option:  (0)no (2)yes

PHOTOGRAPHY  (12 possible points)
0 - Professional Photography: (0)no  (5)yes
0 - Prices: (0)expensive  (2)reasonable  (5)cheap!
2 - Free Photographs (newspaper, etc.):  (0)no  (2)yes -- IndependentMail.com

PARKING  (8 possible points)
2 - Close to Start:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Close to Finish:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Plenty of spaces:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Free Parking:  (2)yes  (0)no

WEBSITE  (5 possible points)
0 - Dedicated race website (0)no  (2)yes
1 - No dedicated site but separate page on other site (organization, running store, etc):  (0)no  (1)yes
2 - Results or link to results posted on website:  (0)no  (2)yes

OTHER  (5 possible points)
2 - Shelter from Inclement Weather (needed or not): (0)no  (2)yes
2 - Swag (free socks, water bottles, etc.): (0)no  (1)yes, some  (2)excellent
1 - Part of race series or Grand Prix:  (0)no  (1)yes


TOTAL:  75




Comments

  1. seejanesweatSeptember 2, 2012 at 4:19 PM

    Hey Richard. Love your story. I'm in Anderson, SC and I ran the Midnight Flight as well. I ran the 5K and didn't do too bad for myself. I think you and your wife are awesome to be as active as you are. Especially at your age. I'm 44 and I'm surrounded by people who think I'm crazy for wanting to run and stay active. I hope that when I reach my 60s I will be an inspiration to others just as I'm sure you and your wife are to others. You and your wife rock.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard HefnerSeptember 10, 2012 at 4:36 AM

    Hi Debra... Thanks for your comments! We're hoping to hang in there for as long as we can. It's a lot of fun so it really doesn't seem like there's a lot of work involved, at least as long as our bodies hold up! I saw in the results where you were 3rd place in the Masters in the 5k! Congratulations! Hope you'll keep going and keep on being an inspiration as well... looks like you will!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #214 - Mount Holly Springfest 5k - Mount Holly, NC - 05/04/13

Image
For the first time since last July I ran a 5k in under 21 minutes (20:58) so I was happy to know I still had a sub-21 in me at the age of 61. This race is just a few miles from my home and one of the few Gaston County races I had never run. It's a smallish race with 156 finishers this year, but there are a lot of good things about races this size: parking nearby, not losing your friends, a more casual starting line, etc. As I've been doing lately, I'll go light on the talking and let the photos tell the story since I wore my video glasses. Below is the video, followed by a few of the 100+ pictures I took. You can see all of the photos on my Facebook page. Click here for my Facebook gallery of this race. It was frigid for a race in May, when we expect springtime temperature. Bill refused to leave his car to warm up before the race. This was the first race I've been in with Dianne Allen in a while. She's coming back strong after an injury kep
Read more

Race #136 - The Scream! Half Marathon - Jonas Ridge, NC - 07/16/11

Image
The T-shirt says, The Scream! Half Marathon is "13.1 Miles of Pure Hill!" That's not entirely true. While there are probably 8 or 9 miles of downhill that will make your quads and calves scream with delight (or possibly horror), there's enough uphill to bring you back to reality. For me, every time we hit the small uphill sections they almost felt like huge mountains after getting used to all the downhill, but enough people passed me on those hills that I thought I might be in the minority. There's no doubt that the huge downhill sections helped a lot of people run their fastest half marathon time ever. I cut about a minute off my Personal Record from the 2010 Little Rock Half Marathon with a time of 1:32:11, which was 1st in the 55-59 age group and 24th overall. Honestly, I was just a little disappointed with my time since I've been running well lately and had dropped 10 pounds over the previous four weeks. I felt like there was a good chance for me to run
Read more

Race #212 - Run for the Money 5k - Gastonia, NC - 04/20/13

Image
It's nice to finally be settling in for some local races after all the traveling we've been doing for the past few months. This week's race was in our hometown of Gastonia, and it's the biggest local race of the year. This time around there were 1,235 finishers in the competitive 5k race and hundreds more in the 2k walk. The unique thing about this race is that in each 10-year age group the 1st place finisher gets to direct a $500 donation towards any local participating nonprofit group of their choice, and 2nd place directs $250 towards their choice. For the second year in a row I ran for Career Management Group (CMG), one of the lesser known nonprofit groups. They run Gaston Residential Services (GRS), which provides housing for handicapped adults. Linda's twin sister has been one of their clients for many years and they've done a beautiful job over the years in helping her to be as independent as possible despite being debilitated with cerebral palsy. She
Read more

Race #174 - New River Half Marathon - Todd, NC - 05/05/12

Image
Being a glutton for punishment, I was elated to hear the alarm go off at 3 a.m. Saturday morning. It wasn't so much the early wake-up time -- I try to get up a 4 a.m. every morning anyway. The day's punishment that I eagerly anticipated was the 13.1 miles of hills at the New River Half Marathon. I ran this race last year and it was my slowest half marathon of the year out of 13 that I ran. I remembered that there were hills but I don't think I appreciated the magnitude of the hills. There are a couple of 300-foot climbs as well as a couple of 100-foot climbs, and since I do very little hill training the results are just about what you would expect. I've always been a proponent of the run/walk method and used to incorporate regular walk breaks in every race. Over the past couple years I've mostly stopped doing that, instead trying to run the entire race without any walk breaks, at least most of the time. This race is an exception to the rule though. Last year I wal
Read more

Race #143 - Midnight Flight 10k - Anderson, SC - 09/02/11

Image
This was my third straight year of running the Midnight Flight 10k, the first race in the Running Journal Grand Prix. After running a disappointing time of 47:07 in last year's race I hoped to redeem myself by running under 45 minutes this year. Things worked out well for me and I chopped about 4 minutes off last year's time, finishing in 43:09 (with a chip time of 43:04), finishing in 1st place in the 55-59 age group. It was a little sad not having some of the Charlotte area guys there who I've run the RJ Grand Prix with over the past two seasons, but a couple of other Charlotte runners are there this year -- Butch Holt and Louis Messina -- so we've still got some representation from the area. I'll be switching age groups on February 27, 2012, before the end of the current season, so the only points I'll get will be in races before that date. I told Linda last year that I wouldn't run this series this year, but since I'll still be eligible for point
Read more