Race #112 – Thunder Road Half Marathon – Charlotte, NC – 12/11/10


As of about 4 o’clock Friday afternoon I was still not planning on running this race. Since I hadn’t registered in advance, the registration fee at the expo was 90 bucks, and I thought it might be wise to save the $90 and just run on the treadmill instead for free. There was excitement in the air on Facebook though and it seemed like everybody in town was running, so at about 4:30 Friday afternoon I talked Linda into letting me sign up and run the half marathon.
I was a little bummed that when I signed up and paid my $90 I was informed that I wouldn’t get a T-shirt because they were out of half marathon shirts. I know I was late to register but I had read on the website that the half marathon was limited to 7,000 runners, and since there were only a little more than 3,000 runners who finished the race I’d think they would have had enough T-shirts to go around. No problem though. It wasn’t a great shirt anyway and the most important thing was that I was able to run the race.
My time of 1:41:20 (chip time) was a little disappointing, but realistically it was probably about right for the way I’m running lately. I was about 3 minutes faster last month in Myrtle Beach but of course there were no hills there.
Over the next few months I’m planning on running fewer races since I have a hard time dealing with cold weather, although I’m tentatively planning to run the Charleston Half Marathon in January and the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon in February, and maybe do a few small 5k races along the way.
Race Rating:
10 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
5 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
5 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
5 – 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)
7 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
2 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
8 – 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)
4 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities (not enough porta-potties)
0-10 Other
TOTAL – 90
My Stats:
Time: 1:41:20
Pace: 7:45
Age Group: 4 of 54 (7.4%)
Overall: 259 of 3226 (8%)

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