Race #121 - Marti Estes 5k - Mooresville, NC - 04/09/11

This week at the last moment Linda and I decided to run the Marti Estes 5k in Mooresville. Our friend Michele Hoheiser, who was 1st overall female last year, said it was a lot of fun so we decided to meet up and run it.

Marti Estes was an avid runner, kindergarten teacher, committed Christian, and faithful member of First Presbyterian Church in Mooresville. Marti passed away prematurely in 2005 and the church holds this fundraising race in her honor each year. This year's race had 624 registered runners and walkers and raised $22,500 for three charities in Mooresville. The race began at First Presbyterian Church and after winding its way through town ended at the First Baptist Church several blocks away.

The race was enjoyable but the start was a mess, with lots of younger kids lining up at the start and flailing around for the first half mile or so of the race. It amazes me how most kids seldom run in a straight line. I don't really mind, but it can get a little dangerous out there. I was behind one grownup who was tripped up in the mayhem and took a hard fall to the pavement. Luckily he wasn't hurt badly and was able to continue in the race, but I talked to him briefly after the race and one of his knees was a mess. I kind of enjoy getting out there and mixing it up with the young'uns, but it was a relief to finally get past the pandemonium.

When we came to a clear area I could count the runners ahead of me and I was in about 15th place at a half mile or so into the race. For a while I tried counting people as they passed me or I passed them just so I'd know where I was at in the race, but I lost the count and decided not to worry about it. It was a pleasant surprise at the end of the race when I found out I had finished in fifth place overall, which is the highest I've ever finished in a race. I finished fifth in two other races, but those were both much smaller races with maybe 100 runners, whereas this race had 515 finishers Okay, there were quite a few walkers; nevertheless, it was fun to finish that far up in the pack.

Click Here for Race Results

Race Rating:

8 - 1-10  Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
6 - 1-10  Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 - 1-10  Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
6 - 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)
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)
4 - 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)
0 - 0/5   Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
4 - 1-10  Bathroom Facilities
0-10  Other

TOTAL - 80

Race Stats:

1st Overall Male:  Joshua Readling (18:04)
1st Overall Female:  Shelley Rainey (21:32)

My Stats:

Time:  20:56
Pace: 6:46
Age Group:  1 of 9
Overall:  5 of 515 (top 1%)

Comments

  1. michele hoheiserApril 11, 2011 at 8:30 AM

    Thanks to you and Linda for coming out to the race for supporting great causes in Mooresville! Congrats on your time and placement!

    ReplyDelete
  2. bobApril 23, 2011 at 6:20 AM

    Hey, really great blog post… I've enjoyed reading through your blog because of the great style and energy you put into each post. I actually run AceHealth.org, a blog of my personal research and experiences. If you're interested, I would love to have you on as a guest blogger. Please send me an e-mail: bob.mauer65(at)gmail(dot)com, and I can give you more information. Looking forward to hearing from you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. graceApril 23, 2011 at 6:21 AM

    hi there!

    i am amazed that you really do this.hope to be your friend.kindly check me gracepomberry(at)gmail(dot)com.

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Marti Estes 5k - Race DirectorMay 18, 2011 at 7:14 AM

    Richard - Thanks for your blog post. I am the race director for the Marti Estes 5k. I stumbled upon your blog post on Google and thought I'd respond. As we plan for the race in 2012, I'm going to see that we spend more time on our race start process. We want everyone to have a great experience from start to finish. Congratulations on your great finish and thanks for helping us raise $22,500 for local charities.

    Sincerely,
    Thomas McMillan

    ReplyDelete

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 #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 #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 #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