Race #132 - Freedom Run 5k - Oakboro, NC - 06/25/11

In the grand scheme of things this is just a tiny blip on the radar, but this one will go down as my first DNF (Did Not Finish) after managing to get through the first 131 relatively unscathed. There have been quite a few races in the past where I've heard other people talk about taking wrong turns, and I thought if I stayed with it long enough it would eventually happen to me, and on this day it was my turn. It's not a great big deal, but it's a little disappointing to find out in the middle of a race that you've run in the completely wrong direction.

There were several places along the course where the only way I knew which way to go was to follow the runners ahead of me. The place where I took my wrong turn actually had the word "EXIT" written on the ground with an arrow pointing to the left. Unfortunately, I wasn't looking at the ground and there were no runners close by either ahead of me or behind me so I kept following the path to the right that looped around the lake. When I veered off course I was 7th or 8th overall in the race and was running well, so as bad as the DNF was, it's better that it was the result of getting off the path than something catastrophic like a heart attack or breaking my nose in a fall, so I'm ready to get back in the saddle next week.

I do hope that Oakboro people will do a better job in the future with the course. I ran the same race last year and it wasn't a problem, but in that race there were people nearby so I stayed on track without any difficulty. They should have a person posted at a turn like that (I'm not familiar with the park and didn't even see the trail going out that way until I came back around looking for it), or at the very least they should have some big arrows pointing in the correct direction (not just drawn on the ground).

As I write this the results haven't been posted, but they should be up in a day or two on the Vac & Dash results page...

Click Here for Race Results


Race Rating:

2 - 1-10  Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
6 - 1-10  Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10)
6 - 1-10  Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
4 - 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)
3 - 3/7   Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
1 - 1-10  Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
9 - 1-10  Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
3 - 1-10  Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
0 - 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)
6 - 1-10  Bathroom Facilities
0-10  Other

TOTAL - 54

My Stats:  

DNF (Did Not Finish)

Comments

  1. mfranksJune 28, 2011 at 9:08 PM

    That sucks that you went off course!
    That has happened to me twice in the past! Once I went off course almost a mile! Another time, over 1200 meters. I was not a happy camper after that. Boy was I mad.
    Nice to see you kept your cool. Wish I had your patience.
    Great job through half way.
    M

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard HefnerJune 28, 2011 at 9:47 PM

    Thanks Meggan... I wouldn't say I exactly kept my cool... I was a little hot about it. Just looking forward to racing again this week and putting that behind me. Hey, congrats on getting overall 2nd female in the Manitoba Marathon recently in less than 3 hours! That's fantastic!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brett MartinJuly 1, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    Stinks about the DNF, sounds like they needed to make the marking a little more visible though, most runners are in the zone, and a lot don't look at the ground, their eyes are at the horizon :P

    ReplyDelete

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