Race #491 -- Cherry Blossom 5k -- Cherryville, NC -- 05/08/2021

I've always looked forward to this race that I've run many times in the past. Until this year it was a Friday evening race that was held during the Cherry Blossom Festival just a couple blocks away. I liked that it was on a warm spring evening that was never too hot but just warm enough to remind me that summer was close. This year the festival wasn't held because of the pandemic so the race was switched to Saturday morning, but I still wanted to run it because it's somewhat local to me (although Cherryville is about a 20-mile drive from home) and it's part of the Gaston County Race Series. 

Participation was way down this year and there were only 43 finishers. Just before the start, the race director (I think that's who she was) announced that since there were so few runners they decided not to do age group awards and would only have awards for the top 3 male and female finishers overall. That's a big no-no for most of us who race often since many of us are competing with peers our own age and would like to know who landed where in the pecking order. The award itself is not important. Just calling the top 3 from each age group forward or just calling their names would be sufficient. 

The one bright spot was that they still had pizza after the race just as they did when it was held on Friday night. For me, it's never too early in the day to eat pizza although with the 10 a.m. starting time for this race it was almost lunchtime by the time we got to the pizza.

As for my running, I did okay in that I finally reached my goal this year of finishing in under 25 minutes. My official time was 24:59.7 so I beat it by three-tenths of a second. I suspect that as I go forward this year and if I stay healthy, 25 minutes will be my goal in 5k races. With some luck and good fortune I might get down into the 24's but I don't foresee much if any improvement beyond that since my goal is to achieve a 155 heart rate and stay at that throughout the race. It's not always easy for me to do that and even in this race my heart rate average was only 152, and I felt the need to walk twice when it nudged up to around 158.

Race Name:  YMCA Cherry Blossom 5k

Location: Cherryville, North Carolina

Date:  May 8, 2021

Race Rating:  56

Top 11 (just because I was 11th again):


Course:


Elevation by Mile:


Weather at Start:



Click Here for Race Results


My Stats:

  • Time:  24:59.7
  • Pace:  8:02
  • Age Group: 1 of 3 
  • Overall:  11 of 43
  • Average Heart Rate:  152  
  • Maximum Heart Rate:  158
  • Age Grade Percentage:  69.73%

I reached my 155 heart rate goal (red line) just around the 1-mile mark. The 2 blue spikes are the two times I walked when my heart rate went up to around 158. You can see that both times I walked my heart rate dropped to around 152.


***************

* RACE RATING *

***************


RACE COURSE 

0 - Chip & Gun Timing: (3 points if yes)

0 - Water Stops: (0)none  (2)normal  (5)extras [Gu, sports drink, etc.]

1 - Course Marking:  (0)bad  (1)good

3 - Course Scenery:  (0-5) 1=bad  and 5=fantastic

0 - Mile Markers: (0)poor or none  (1)normal  (2)with clocks or time called out

2 - Volunteers:  (0)too few  (2)good

5 - Finish line: (0-9)   0=bad  and 9=spectacular!

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 

2 - Cost:  (0)expensive  (2)reasonable  (5)cheap!

0 - Race Day Registration:  (0)no  (3)yes


RESULTS

2 - Posted online within 24 hours:  (0)no  (2)yes

1 - Easy to find results:  (0)no  (1)yes


AGE GROUPS

0 - 3 deep awards: (2)yes (0 for anything less)

0 - 5-year age groups (5 points) (0 for anything less)

0 - 14 and under group (1)

0 - 65+ group (1)

0 - 70+ group (1)

2 - Top Overall M/F:  (0)none; (1) first only; (2)top 3 or better

0 - Masters Category(40+): (0)no  (2)yes

0 - Grand Masters Category (50+):  (0)no  (3)yes

0 - Senior Grand Masters Category: (0)no  (5)yes


AWARDS

2 - Overall Winner Awards: (0)none  (2)yes  (5)excellent

0 - Age Group Awards: (0)none  (2)yes  (5)excellent

0 - Door Prizes or Drawing: (0-9)

0 - Finisher Medals for All Finishers: (0)no  (3)yes  (5)really cool medals


POST RACE 

7 - Food for Race Participants: (0-10 with 5 being average)

0 - Entertainment:  (0)no  (1-9)yes

0 - Finisher times posted after race:  (0)no  (2)yes


REST ROOMS 

0 - Porta Potties:  (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful

2 - Indoor Restrooms: (0)no  (1)limited, long lines  (2)plentiful


T-SHIRTS

2 - T-Shirts: (0)no  (2)yes

3 - Design: (1-5)

2 - Material Quality: (1-3)

0 - Discount for no-shirt option:  (0)no (2)yes


PHOTOGRAPHY 

0 - Professional Photography: (0)no  (5)yes

x - Prices: (1)expensive  (3)reasonable  (5)cheap

5 - Free Photographs (newspaper, etc.):  (0)no  (1-10)yes 

A friend who was volunteering at the race (thanks Arlette!) took quite a few photos and shared them with people she knows who requested them but there were no race photos posted online other than that.


PARKING 

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


OTHER

0 - Shelter from Inclement Weather (needed or not): (0)no  (2)yes

0 - Swag (free socks, water bottles, etc.): (0)no  (2)yes, some  (5)excellent

2 - Part of race series or Grand Prix:  (0)no  (2)yes

0 - Kids Fun Run: (0)no   (2)yes

x - Miscellaneous not covered above: (-10 to +10)


TOTAL:  56


Comments

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

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 #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 #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

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 #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