Race #91 – China Grove 5k Main Street Challenge – China Grove, NC – 06/11/10


It was a hot, steamy night in China Grove for the 13th annual Main Street Challenge. I dislike cold weather so much that I really don’t like complaining about hot weather at all, and since we all knew it would be a steamer before we got there, it’s all part of the adventure. Like it or not though, the wheels don’t seem to turn quite as quickly when you’re running on a hot summer night with a temperature of 85 degrees and I think quite a few folks ran slower times than they normally do although Jordan Kinley, the overall race winner, blazed the trail at 15:05.
I’ve been stuck in the 21-minute range in 5k races for a while and didn’t feel great going into this one, so I was happy to finish in 20:57 and win my age group just ahead of Steve Staley. Steve always provides me with a little extra motivation and since I knew he was right on my heels it helped me stay focused. Other than one or two gentle inclines that are barely noticeable it’s a flat out-and-back run all the way with the only turn being the halfway point of the race where you run around a barrel to head back in the other direction. This year’s race wasn’t nearly as dark as the one last year. I remember last year not being able to see where I was stepping but that wasn’t an issue this year. I think they had enough temporary lighting set up to eliminate the problem.
It was still dark enough though that I couldn’t read my Garmin, even when I turned on the backlight. I could wear my glasses and see it, of course, but what fun would that be? I’ve been monitoring my heart rate in races for the past few months. When I first started experimenting with it I would raise my heart rate to 166 — about 92% of my Maximum Heart Rate — then try to stay right at that level throughout the race. Over time I’ve begun to fine tune my 5k heart rate, finishing the first mile at about 166 beats per minute (bpm), then building up the second mile to around 168 or 170 bpm, then gradually going up to 172 or 173 bpm for the third mile. Of course, not being able to read my Garmin I had to go by perception instead of actually looking at the numbers, so I was surprised to find that it worked according to plan in the race, with my heart rate averaging 169 in the second mile and 173 in the third mile.
This is a fun race and one of my favorite local races. I’m using the term “local” loosely because it’s about a 40-mile drive but I consider anything within 50 miles or so local since we can get there within an hour. The town of China Grove really gets behind this race with support and it’s a first class event all the way. The word is apparently spreading about what a great race it is, and this year there was a record crowd of 531 finishers as opposed to 390 in 2009.
Before the 5k race begins at 9 p.m., there is a Tot Trot that starts at 8:00 for the toddlers, followed by a half mile fun run for bigger kids. Other pre-race activities include several inflatable bounce houses for kids (I think there were three of them), lots of music, and a free Krispy Kreme donut booth where you can design your own by dipping them in chocolate or add sprinkles or whatever.
The post-race food is some of the best you’ll find at any race including fresh watermelon and cantaloupe, free Pizza Hut pizza, cookies, bagels, bananas, oranges, sports drinks, Cheerwine, and more.
This year’s T-shirts were nice as well — gold colored tech shirts. There were nice trophies for the Overall, Masters, and Grand Masters, and nice custom-made medals for the age group winners as well as gift certificates from Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I still prefer morning races but the change of pace to a nighttime race is nice occasionally, and this is one that I’ll keep on the schedule for next year.
Race Rating:
3 – 1-10 Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
8 – 1-10 Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
8 – 1-10 Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
10 – 1-10 Food for Race Participants (1 to 10)
8 – 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)
6 – 4/6 Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7 Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
9 – 1-10 Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
4 – 1-10 Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
9 – 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)
7 – 1-10 Bathroom Facilities
0-10 Other
TOTAL – 98
My Stats:
Time: 20:57
Pace: 6:46
Mile Splits: (1) 6:35 — (2) 6:51 — (3) 6:46
Age Group: 1 of 10
Overall: 52 of 531 (9.8%)

Comments

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #254 - Brooklyn Half Marathon - Brooklyn, NY - 05/17/14

Image
Wow... Just when I thought my best running days were over, this one has me thinking that maybe there are still a few all-time Personal Records waiting to be set with these old legs. Over the past month I've added about 10 extra miles per week to my training regimen and I think that made the difference. I had been running 10-12 miles for a long run each week, but I've bumped it up to 15, 16, and 17 miles over the past three weeks as I begin training for my first full marathon in four years, which will be coming up in September. I'm feeling great right now so I thought I'd do okay, but I was shocked when I found out my chip time was 1:32:13, only 16 seconds slower than my all-time PR that I ran three years ago, the fall of 2011, when I ran all of my all-time PR's. I didn't win my age group but I didn't expect to since New York City is one of the most competitive racing communities in the world. My goal was to finish in the top 10 in my age group and I fini...
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 #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 #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 #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