Race #10 – Springmaid Road Race – Fort Mill, SC – 11/15/08


We traveled south of the border (the South Carolina border that is) for the Springmaid Road Race. It started out as kind of a rainy day, which seems to be a recent trend, but there was no rain and a pleasant temperature of about 65 at race time. The 5k and 10k races started at the same spot at the same time. The first mile of the 5k route was mostly downhill, which was nice, but of course you gotta get back up to the same elevation eventually so the 2nd and 3rd miles took care of that with some big hills.

For Linda and I, it was our 10th race in the ten weeks that we have been running. There are certain things that remain the same from race to race but every race seems to have some unique elements of its own and we’ve enjoyed every one of them.
 
There was a professional photographer at the race named Steve Mills and he has posted several hundred photos (much better than the ones I took) on his site. He told me that you can download any that you like for free and if you want larger prints just contact him and he’ll supply them at a very reasonable cost…
There was one disappointing thing about this race: It’s the first one we’ve been to that only gave an award for 1st place in each age group — nothing at all for 2nd or 3rd. Linda and I were fortunate enough to both get 1st place in our age group (55-59 Male & Female) so we can’t complain, BUT if we had been 2nd or 3rd I think we would have been a little bummed about it. Also, instead of something to remember the race by (a medal, trophy, etc.) the prize was a $20 store credit at a local running store. We stopped by the store and used the credit on the way home since it’s not too close to home, and we got some nice stuff with our $40 credit but we would have probably been happier with a medal.
Race Rating:
  • 6 — 4/6 Number of Participants (4 for less than 100; 6 for 100 or more)
  • 7 — 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
  • 6 — 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, stating winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
  • 5 — 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
  • 6 — 1-10 T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
  • 4 — 4/6 Race part of “Run for Your Life Grand Prix Series” (6=Yes and 4=No)
  • 6 — 4/6 Online Registration (6=Yes and 4=No)
  • 4 — 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
  • 3 — 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
  • 5 — 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
  • 7 — 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
  • 6 — 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)
  • 7 — 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
  • 9 — 1-10 Other (added 9 points for the great photography by Steve Mills)
TOTAL – 88

Comments

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #158 - Mount Mourne Christmas Elf 5k - Mooresville, NC - 12/24/11

Image
I had heard a lot about this race from others who have run it in the past and the reviews were always good, so we headed over to the Mooresville area to experience it for ourselves. It actually exceeded our expectations, being just about a perfect race except for a glitch in putting down the cones or marking the course or something (I never figured out what exactly). The result was that the race was quite a bit longer than a 5k. According to several other people I talked to, they all had Garmin measurements of between 3.38 and 3.40 miles although personally my Garmin measured only 3.25. I don't check distances as I'm running, but I usually have a pretty good feel for how fast I'm running and I felt like I might have been somewhere between about 20:45 and 21:00, so as I approached the finish line and saw the clock at 22 minutes I was surprised. My final time of 22:39 still won my age group (55-59) and everybody else seemed to think they would have been about 2 minutes fast...
Read more

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 #180 - China Grove Main Street Challenge 5k - China Grove, NC - 06/08/12

Image
I only run a handful of nighttime races each year and they're normally not my favorites because I have a hard time with my diet during the day leading up to an evening race, but it's hard not to like this Friday night extravaganza that features great entertainment, delicious food (pizza, watermelon, Cheerwine, etc.), fast runners, a flat course, and a small town that goes all out to create a first class event. It's the fourth time I've run the China Grove 5k and since it's flat and the course hasn't changed at all it provides a good benchmark for how I'm doing each year. Over those four years my times have varied by less than a minute, with a slowest time of 21:51 in 2009 to a fastest time of 20:57 in 2010. In last year's race I was disappointed with my time of 21:44 and it sent me into a frenzy of dieting and deciding to run every day. I'm happy to report that as of this race I managed to run the entire year without taking a day off and aver...
Read more

Race #83 – CPCC Skyline Run 5k – Charlotte NC – 04/24/10

Image
As the 2nd race in the 10-race Run For Your Life Grand Prix series, the Skyline 5k attracts some of the most competitive runners in the area. Because of some conflicts in timing on my race schedule I won’t be competing in the RFYL Grand Prix this year, which is kind of sucky but that’s life I guess. I’ll hope to get in on the fun next year. Nevertheless, I’m still planning on running about half of this year’s Charlotte GP races and try to at least make a little bit of noise in my age group when I’m there. As always, it was good to see the Charlotte runners we know both before and after the race. There was a light rain falling as we drove over the Charlotte but by the time the race started it had stopped raining and the rain held off until well after the race was over. After Linda and I picked up our numbers and T-shirts we took our stuff back to the car then went back to join the race crowd. I told Linda I was heading up to the start (I like to nudge my way up close to the front) and ...
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