Race #190 - Historic Mooresville 5k - Mooresville, NC - 09/08/12

Weekends like this are the reason that I don't like to pre-register for races. The fall race season has begun and there were races in every direction. I whittled my choices down to this one and the Morganton Greenway race, and decided on this one at the last minute partly because it's a little closer and allowed us to sleep an extra 30 minutes and partly because we hadn't seen our good friend and running phenom Roberta "Bobbi" Villneff in a while. Bobbi just started running a couple years ago and is now easily one of the fastest women over 60 in the state. In the race today she finished as 1st female in the Masters Division (ages 40 and over) for the second year in a row. I managed to get 3rd place in the male Masters Division, which is a rare feat for me so that was nice... gotta cool trophy too!

Mooresville is about 40 miles from Gastonia and we don't really know a lot of people there, so we were pleasantly surprised to run into quite a few of our running friends from all over. I won't start mentioning names because I'm sure to leave out about half of them, but it was a fun experience as races almost always are. Which reminds me, this week marks the 4th anniversary of my first race, which was September 13, 2008 (you can find it at the beginning of this blog). It occurred to me just this morning that since I've run 190 races in four years, if I can squeeze in 60 between now and a year from now I'll hit the five-year mark with 250 races. That would be great if I can do it so that'll be my goal over the next year. Kind of like "60 at 60" since I'm 60 years old, but I'll actually have a birthday in February. Anyhoo, I'll try not to make too big of a deal out of it unless I can actually fit in 60 races over the next 52 weeks, in which case I'll be even more irritating than I already am, at least for a day or two.


The weather was warm and muggy with 100% humidity -- just the way I like it! They say you run faster if it's cooler and less humid, but I'm still a fan of toasty. They said there were "rolling hills" in the race brochure, and they weren't kidding. It seemed way more hilly than I would thought possible in Mooresville, but then again, I don't know anything about Mooresville. I felt good in the race, at least until 2.4 miles into it when I felt a pop in the back of my right thigh, which has been a little painful ever since, even when I walk, but I'm hoping that taking it easy this week will allow it to heal. It doesn't seem too bad.

The overall winner of the race was Anthony "Fam" Famiglietti, two-time Olympian and US Champion in eight different race categories. He lives and trains in this area now and anytime he shows up at a local race it causes a little bit of a stir to have such running royalty among us. He won the 1-mile race (which all 5k runners were welcome to enter for free) in a time of 4:12, well off his all-time best of 3:55, but still way faster than anybody else around here, then he ran the 5k in 15:26, also off his all-time best of 13:11, but you get the idea... he's a fast guy.


Next week for me is the Run the Valley Half Marathon. I'm hoping the hamstring is okay by then. I'm a little concerned that if it flares up during the race I won't be able to finish the race, which I can live with although I don't like the idea. I'll just wait and see how it goes.


Click Here for Race Results

 My Stats:

Time:   21:50
Pace:  7:03
Age Group:  1 of  7 (bumped up to 3rd Master)
Overall:  22 of  216
Average Heart Rate:  164
Maximum Heart Race:  173
Age Graded Equivalent Time:   17:34

**************************************
* RACE RATING  (100 Possible Points) *
**************************************

Note: With my new rating system (started in December 2011) there's not a chance of any race scoring near 100. If it's important to you, look at each individual category to see how points were earned (or not). Just trying to be more objective with the details. I generally like all of the races I run. If there's something that really rubs me the wrong way I'll mention it in the summary above.

RACE COURSE  (20 possible points)
3 - Chip Timing: (3 points if yes)
0 - Starting Mat: (2 points if yes)
2 - Water Stops: (at least 1 for 5k, 2 for 10k, 4 for half marathon) (2 points)
1 - Course Marking:  (0)bad  (1)good
1 - Course Scenery:  (0)bad  (1)good
1 - Mile Markers: (0)poor or none  (1)normal  (2)with clocks or time called out
2 - Volunteers:  (0)too few  (2)good
2 - Finish line: (0)mediocre  (2)pretty good to excellent
2 - Certified Course: (0)no  (2) yes
2 - Correct Distance: (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Partly or fully on unpaved roads:  (0)yes  (1)no

REGISTRATION  (6 possible points)
0 - Cost:  (0)expensive  (1)reasonable  (3)cheap! ($30 race day)
3 - Race Day Registration:  (0)no  (3)yes

RESULTS  (3 possible points)
2 - Posted promptly online:  (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Clear link on website:  (0)no  (1)yes

AGE GROUPS  (13 possible points)
2 - 3 deep awards: (2)yes (0 for anything less)
5 - 5-year age groups (5 points) (0 for anything less)
1 - 14 and under group (1)
1 - 65+ group (1)
1 - 70+ group (1)
1 - Top Overall M/F:  (0)none or first only  (1)top 3 or better
1 - Masters Category(40+): (0)no  (1)yes
0 - Grand Masters Category (50+):  (0)no  (1)yes

AWARDS  (9 possible points)
2 - Overall Winner Awards: (0)none  (1)yes  (2)excellent
2 - Age Group Awards: (0)none  (1)yes  (2)excellent  (Gift Certificates)
2 - Door Prizes or Drawing: (0)no  (2)yes
0 - Finisher Medals for All Finishers: (0)no  (1)yes  (3)really cool medals

POST RACE  (7 possible points)
2 - Food for Race Participants: (0)none  (1)some  (2)adequate  (5)a feast!
1 - Entertainment:  (0)no  (1)yes
1 - Finisher times posted after race:  (0)no  (1)yes

REST ROOMS  (4 possible points)
0 - Porta Potties:  (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful
2 - Indoor Restrooms: (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful

T-SHIRTS  (8 possible points)
2 - T-Shirts: (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Design: (0)not good  (1)not bad  (2)nice
2 - Material: (0)cotton  (2)technical fabric
0 - Discount for no-shirt option:  (0)no (2)yes

PHOTOGRAPHY  (12 possible points)
0 - Professional Photography: (0)no  (5)yes
x - Prices: (0)expensive  (2)reasonable  (5)cheap!
? - Free Photographs (newspaper, etc.):  (0)no  (2)yes (Will revise if found)

PARKING  (8 possible points)
2 - Close to Start:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Close to Finish:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Plenty of spaces:  (2)yes  (0)no
2 - Free Parking:  (2)yes  (0)no

WEBSITE  (5 possible points)
2 - Dedicated race website (0)no  (2)yes
1 - No dedicated site but separate page on other site (organization, running store, etc):  (0)no  (1)yes
2 - Results or link to results posted on website:  (0)no  (2)yes

OTHER  (5 possible points)
2 - Shelter from Inclement Weather (needed or not): (0)no  (2)yes
1 - Swag (free socks, water bottles, etc.): (0)no  (1)yes, some  (2)excellent
0 - Part of race series or Grand Prix:  (0)no  (1)yes


TOTAL:  68



Comments

  1. Colin HayesSeptember 8, 2012 at 4:32 PM

    Congrats on yet another impressive race! The amount of races you've run since starting 4 years ago boggles my mind. Needless to say, you've definitely made a commitment to the running lifestyle! You're inspiring to me and many others, I'm sure.
    I hope the hammy "pop" is nothing, but good idea to take it easy this week.
    Keep up the great running!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard HefnerSeptember 8, 2012 at 7:11 PM

    Thanks Colin... Hope your running is going good too!

    ReplyDelete

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