Race #38 – CityKids VBS 5k Run – Hickory NC – 09/13/09


This was the 10th annual CityKids VBS (Vacation Bible School) 5k sponsored by First Baptist Church in Hickory. For Linda and I, it was our second race in 12 hours and a 50-mile drive after getting home at almost midnight after last night’s China Grove race, but I always look forward to running in Hickory, the place where I grew up and still consider my hometown even though I’ve been gone for 30 years. From the parking lot where we registered for the race I could look across the block at the corner of 3rd Avenue, where my family lived when we came from New Jersey in 1964. It’s now just an empty field, but I always re-live those Wonder Years memories anytime I pass by that spot.

At the start of the race we ran down a couple of blocks, hung a right just before the railroad tracks, and were met by the deafening rumble of a freight train heading through town. It was strange to hear nothing but footsteps a couple minutes later after the train had passed. The race course twisted and turned through some of the beautiful old neighborhoods in Northwest Hickory. There were some moderate hills but nothing too formidable. I thought about my race on the previous night and how I took two 20-second walk breaks in the last 2 miles. Then I thought about an article I read in the latest edition of Running Journal. It was called “What Is Mental Toughness,” written by Richard Ferguson. One thing he said in the article really hit me: “If you’re really dedicated to what you do then you will tend not to give up when times get tough, like late in a race.” I tried to remember that throughout the race, and those times when I might ordinarily take a walk break I was able to stick with it instead and keep running, even up some pretty big hills. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I ever take a walk break (I’m running in Asheville next week), but it’s something I want to remember when I find myself not giving it a hundred percent. So I didn’t walk, but I also didn’t set any records — personal or otherwise — but was happy to finish in 22:10 on a pretty tough course.

After the race the food was scrumptious and plentiful, some of the best we’ve seen, especially for a small race (117 finishers).

I was able to take quite a few good photos and have posted 77 in the slideshow. As always, they’re free and the large original photos can be downloaded by clicking on the slideshow and going to Picasa and choosing the pics you want (no registration is necessary).
 
Race Rating:
6 – 1-10 Website (Informaton, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
7 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
9 – 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)
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)
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)
4 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0 – 0-10 Other
TOTAL – 89

Comments

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #274 - Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon - Myrtle Beach, SC - 10/19/14

Image
For my running group, the Gaston County Runners (GCR), this has become our biggest event of the year. It was the fifth year of the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon and I've run four of them. I'm not sure about the year I didn't run, but for all four years that I've been there the weather has been perfect. The last five miles or so is straight down Ocean Boulevard, with a turn onto the new boardwalk to the finish line at the site of the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion. It's one of the best finishes of any race I've been a part of and I look forward to it every year. This is a pretty big race with more than 3,000 finishers in the half marathon, and this year the GCR had seven runners who finished in the top 3 in their respective age groups. For the third straight year I managed to win the 60-64 age group, this year with a time of 1:35:44. I'm happy with that time although it was on a flat course and was about 30 seconds slower than last week's Hokie Half Marathon,...
Read more

Race #198 - Turkey Trot 8k at Southpark - Charlotte, NC - 11/22/12

Image
Oops... It's been five days since the Turkey Trot and it keeps slipping my mind that I'm supposed to write a blog entry about it. I'm preoccupied with other things and I'm not really in blog mode but, as usual, I figure I can write a little something for at least as long as I can keep running. There's no big news and I'm slower than I was last year, finishing this year's Turkey Trot about a minute and a half slower than last year (35:02 this year as opposed to 33:13 last year, which is my 8k PR). I knew going in that I'd be slower. I guess I shouldn't be terribly disappointed since I finished 2nd out of 50 runners in the 60-64 age group and 232nd overall out of 4,233 runners, which is in the top 6% overall. For some reason over the past month I seem to have one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel and things haven't gotten any better. Since I've run 198 races now I'd really like to finish out 2012 with exactly two mo...
Read more

Race #232 - Grover Pumpkin Run 5k - Grover, NC - 10/26/13

Image
This was possibly the least organized race I've ever run. If all races were like this I'd probably revert back to being a mall walker. I arrived in Grover having read in the directions that the race was on "Main Street." Okay, that sounds simple enough since Grover is just a small town. Since the race was being held in conjunction with the Grover Pumpkin Festival I thought it would be easy to spot, and sure enough, there were hundreds of people gathered for the Pumpkin Festival, and it was nice. Lots of good-smelling food (although I was trying to watch my diet), great entertainment with a band on stage that sounded surprisingly good I thought, and lots of people, many dressed in Halloween costumes. I found the nearest parking space I could find, which was probably at least a quarter mile from the action, and walked up to find the race registration area. I walked completely to the other side of the festival without seeing anything, so I asked three guys who were...
Read more

Race #574 - Rocktoberfest Half Marathon - Rock Hill, SC - 10/12/24

Image
Earlier this year, I decided it would be fun to run 26 half marathons for the year, one every two weeks. I had started the year off recovering from hernia surgery last November 30th, which was followed by six weeks with a Foley catheter. Two weeks after the catheter was removed I ran my first half marathon and felt great just to be somewhat back to normal. At 72, I'm slower than ever, so I felt the need to challenge myself to stay motivated, and I thought it would be fun to at least try to run more half marathons than I've ever run previously in a year. In 2015, I ran 16 half marathons, the most I'd run in any year. This was my 16th for 2024, and I'm registered for two more, so I should surpass my previous record, but the goal of 26 has recently hit a snag. Hurricane Helene devastated the North Carolina mountains, where my next two half-marathons were scheduled. We're not in the mountains but are close enough that the hurricane affected us, and on the morning my Dav...
Read more

Race #206 - Kings Mountain Gateway 5k - Kings Mountain, NC - 03/02/13

Image
It's kind of gratifying that I finished this race as 2nd Overall Male (and 3rd Overall since the 1st place female beat me) and I won a big, beautiful trophy, but it's a little troubling that it was my slowest 5k since June 2009. There's no doubt it's a tough 5k -- maybe the most difficult 5k I've ever run, thanks to two long hills, including one that people refer to as "Cardio Hill." On the other hand, maybe it just seemed hard to me and the hills weren't as bad as I imagined. By the time I hit the first hill less than a mile into the race I was already huffing and puffing. I knew that I had started out a little faster than I wanted to because of the way the race goes down the street at the beginning and hangs a left and everybody falls into single file until we hit the greenway. Somebody warned me ahead of time that you could get into trouble if you ended up behind some slow people so I wanted to get a good spot. If you watch the video you'll ...
Read more