Year: 2016

(Originally posted April 12, 2015.)

The quick summary: I didn’t run as well as I’d hoped, but the course was a whole lot more difficult than I expected.

First, let’s go back to the packet pickup. There was no Thursday packet pickup, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it over there Thursday anyway, and they did have Friday packet pickup from noon until 7, plus on race morning, so I can’t complain too much. It was at Dick’s Sporting Goods near SouthPark Mall. (For those of you reading who aren’t from the Charlotte area, yes, we have a SouthPark Mall, it was built before the TV show came along, and it’s fairly upscale, so it’s probably the mall in Charlotte where you’re least likely to find a Cartman figurine.)

My packet consisted of a bib and a t-shirt. They had a stack of coupons for Dick’s Sporting Goods available for the taking (I passed. If I can’t find it in one of the local running stores, I’m going online to get it.), and they had safety pins as well, but I decided I’d reuse some from one of my older bibs.

I registered early enough to get a tech t-shirt. I now have a purple running shirt.

That was with flash, but when I tried without flash, the light of the room made the colors look off. It’s not quite that dark, but you get the idea. I’m not any better at photography than I am at running.

Anyway, I took it easy the rest of the day yesterday, ate a big plate of pasta for dinner, got to bed at a decent hour, and somehow managed to get a decent night’s sleep for a change.

I got up, took a shower, used the bathroom a couple of times, took some store-brand Imodium AD, ate some wheat bread with peanut butter, grabbed my stuff, and drove up to the race.

Parking was plentiful, of course, since there’s a mall.

It was overcast, which is good, because I forgot my sunscreen. Officially, it got down to 61 degrees by the start. It was a couple of degrees warmer than I expected (and about 10 degrees warmer than ideal conditions), but it wasn’t humid, and there was an occasional cool breeze. Weather was a non-factor.

I waited around for the race to start. It got pretty crowded, because they had a half, a 10K, and a 5K, and all 3 races started at the same time. Here’s a picture from just before the start.

The half and 5K runners went through the right side, the 10K runners went through the left side. You can’t see it in this picture, but there was a small median between the two.

The sound was pretty crappy, so if they performed the National Anthem or said anything before the race, I didn’t hear it.

At around 7:31, the gun sounded, and we were off.

Mile 1: 10:03

The first mile had a slight incline early, then a downhill stretch. I was OK with 10:03. Not too fast, and still respectable.

Mile 2: 10:09
Mile 3: 10:43

According to my watch, both miles were mainly uphill, but they didn’t seem too bad.

At around 1.15 miles, I was surprised to see a water/Gatorade stop. The Gatorade was first, and because of all the runners at this point, I didn’t see any water, so I grabbed a cup of Gatorade. I’ll give the organizers credit, throughout the race, Gatorade was in green cups with a logo, and water was in white cups, and after this stop, it was pretty easy to see both the water and Gatorade. (Although they swapped the order at some point, so the people with water came before the people with Gatorade.) I went with water the rest of the way.

I thought this was kind of early for a water stop (from here on, I’m just going to call them water stops, but they had Gatorade available at every stop), but I found out quickly that the 5K turnoff was at around 1.2 miles. OK, that makes sense, one stop for everybody.

I experienced this moment, somewhere in Mile 2 I think, where nobody was talking, nobody was playing really loud music, and there were no cars going by in the other direction. All I could hear was birds in the trees, and feet hitting the pavement. It was pretty cool.

Right before the 3 mile mark, we got another water stop, and again I thought it seemed a little early. This time, it was because the 10K runners were about to split off. The water stop slowed down my time a bit for Mile 3.

Mile 4: 10:02
Mile 5: 10:14
Mile 6: 10:13
Mile 7: 10:01

Things were going pretty well. Late in Mile 6, we finally got another water stop. We ended up having to go about 3 miles without one, but apparently it didn’t have much impact on my pace. I did take my first Gu at 6. I had planned on taking it somewhere around 4, but the stop before Mile 3 seemed too early. This stretch was a mix of some slight uphill stretches and slight downhill stretches.

Mile 8: 11:12

Yeah, this is where things started getting bad. First, this mile was almost completely uphill. Second, it was clearly the worst uphill stretch so far, and finally, the water stop was before the end of the mile. Throw in the fact that I had trouble getting my Gu out of my FlipBelt (It was user error, don’t worry, I still love my FlipBelt), and I hit the water stop right at the end of a large group of runners and I had to wait for the volunteers to get more water ready (That was just bad luck, I don’t blame the volunteers), and that’s how you get to 11:12.

Mile 9: 10:19

It may not look like it, but this is where the wheels came off. There was a slight downhill early in the mile, then we went off the road, down a bike path, and got to the tunnel. Apparently, the police asked the organizers if there was any way to not cross Fairview Road twice, since it’s a busy road, and having to stop traffic in two different places is tough. So they sent us underneath Fairview in this tunnel that I was not aware of. I’ll give them credit, there was a guy dressed up as Mario giving high fives before the tunnel, and they put colored paper over the lights in the tunnel, and had some guy playing techno music, and that was pretty cool. But really, it would have been more fitting if they had been playing a funeral march.

Once we got out of the tunnel, we had to run up this bike path. It was narrow, bumpy due to tree roots growing underneath, and, oh yeah, uphill. Most of the people around me stopped to walk at this point. Not me. I chose…poorly. What made it worse was that because the path was narrow, whenever I would pass somebody, I’d speed up more than usual, since I didn’t have as much space, and often ended up running on the grass.

Mile 10: 10:33

This is a bad trend. More climbing, and I kept running. I was running much more slowly than before, but I kept running.

Mile 11: 11:31
Mile 12: 11:32

I’ve been kind to the organizers so far, but here I’m pretty sure they screwed up. Up until the end of Mile 10, my watch was really close to each of the mile markers. Most were within .01 miles. I think the worst may have been .03. That’s pretty good.

My watch said 10.1 when I got to the 10 mile marker. A full tenth of a mile. Seeing that after one of the toughest stretches of the course was just totally demoralizing. I figured I had screwed up and run an extra tenth of a mile, although I was a little surprised that it happened in just one mile.

Then I got to the 11 mile marker, and it was almost exactly 11.0 on my watch.

I didn’t take any shortcuts (at least not knowingly) on Mile 11. I don’t think there’s any way I could have covered it in .9 miles. (Mile markers 12 and 13 seemed pretty close to my watch readings as well.) So that’s why I think the Mile 10 marker was off.

It really was the worst possible spot for that to happen. I know that carried over into my performance on Mile 11. At 10.24 miles, I got to the water station, and I walked through it, like I had done at every other water station, but even after I was past it, I walked for a few extra seconds.

In Mile 12, I finally gave up and took a walk break. Three, in fact, plus the final water stop just before the end of the mile.

Mile 13: 10:03

After I passed the Mile 12 marker, I knew I was almost at the end, and I really pushed it. It wasn’t an easy mile, but I got through it.

The last stretch before the finish line was uphill. That’s just mean.

According to my watch, I crossed the finish line at 2:18:07, and went 13.16 miles. For the last .16 miles, I got my pace down to 9:17, so I somehow managed to finish strong. My official chip time turned out to be 2:18:09, so I was pretty close.

I got my medal, and started walking towards the post-race area, then I saw one of my co-workers. He’s running the Boston Marathon in just over a week, so he didn’t run the race, but he did stop by to cheer some people on. I’m trying to keep this clean, so I won’t repeat the first thing I said to him. (I didn’t say fudge.)

I skipped the free beer. It was Michelob Ultra, which isn’t good (opinion) and isn’t local (fact). They had orange slices, bananas, cups of Gatorade, and cups of water. I didn’t see any bagels or any other kind of bread, or granola bars, which I thought was odd, but I was a fairly late finisher, plus there were two shorter races, so it’s possible they ran out.

After all of that, I took the obligatory post race car key picture.

Now, I had heard people say that the RaceFest course was easier than the Thunder Road Half course. When I got to the end of RaceFest, I reached the opposite conclusion. I posted about the race on Facebook and initially lashed out at the opinion that the RaceFest Half course was easier than the Thunder Road Half course. I said that anyone who says that was, and I quote, “a dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking liar.” I didn’t find out about the change to the course with the tunnel until afterwards. So people were comparing Thunder Road to last year’s RaceFest course. Now that I know about the course change, I retract my statement. They’re not liars after all. (I still like the phrase, though.)

One other thing I wasn’t happy with was right before the finish. This may be the result of me being too slow, but I noticed near the end, the crowd had spilled out onto the sides of the course. The course should have taken up two whole lanes on Morrison Boulevard, but with people on both sides, the actual space available to runners was the equivalent of maybe one lane. Even worse, there was a woman in front of me, and about 100 feet before the end, some guy (her husband or boyfriend, I assume) came out and ran beside her to the finish. Now, I probably would not have been able to pass her before the finish line, but there was a chance. The combination of the spectators on the side and the spectator who joined in eliminated that chance.

I totally whiffed on my A Goal (2:14), and missed my B goal by 9 freaking seconds. But I did manage to PR by 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

I’ve got very mixed feelings on this race. I’ve had some time to think about it. I look at the first seven miles or so, and I was running a good race. Even the Mile 8 hill wasn’t terrible, and given a semi-reasonable last 4.1 mile course, I think I could have recovered. And I still managed 10:03 on a Mile 13 that was mostly uphill.

The thing is that I know I wasn’t at my peak going in to the race, but I also know the course was much tougher than I was expecting. It’s hard to tell how much of my performance was my shortcomings, and how much of it was course difficulty. I’ll never know.

Some of my frustration is that I can’t pinpoint what caused me to slow down the last few weeks of training. I wasn’t blowing off workouts, or going out and getting drunk. I don’t think I had over-trained. But for some reason, I just didn’t have the energy in my legs that I had around a month ago.

Still, it’s a PR, and not a cheap PR where it’s my first race at a given distance. It’s 20 minutes faster than the 2013 Thunder Road Half, and 30 minutes faster than my first half marathon.

I guess I’m feeling a little better about it now. I just have to stop beating myself up, get some rest, and get back out there and keep running.

(Originally posted March 4, 2016.)

(I should add that, due to a variety of reasons, I haven’t had another race since this one with the same pre-race dinner. Maybe I’ll try it again someday, if I don’t find something that’s healthier and just as effective.)

I remembered to bring my watch, and now I really wish I had it in 2015.

Also, I think I found my new pre-race dinner, although I feel like I should add a “Don’t try this at home” disclaimer.

Oh, and I totally crushed the race. 1:35:17.7, over 3 minutes faster than last year.

My biggest complaint last year was no Thursday packet pick-up, just Friday from 4-7 at Charlotte Running Company in Ballantyne (featuring the World’s Worst Parking Lot), and then on the morning of the race. This year, they changed it…to 3-6 on Friday. Unlike last year, when I was able to take the day off Friday and get there semi-early, I was on call, so I had to work until around 5. I seriously considered waiting until the morning of the race, but at the last minute, I headed over there.

Driving over there, I was reminded of why I work from home on Fridays: to avoid Friday afternoon rush hour. Traffic was insane, but luckily I didn’t have too far to go. I managed to get there around 5:45. Like last year, there was a long line of people waiting to get their packets. (Side note, looking at the results, there were around 700 finishers last year, and over 1,000 this year. It’s a growing race. Thursday packet pick-up. Get on it, race organizers.)

I got my bib and a hoodie. They had safety pins, I didn’t take any because I’ve still got a surplus at home. Unlike last year, this year’s hoodie is a polyester/cotton blend, which is a bummer, but I do like this year’s logo better.

When I left Charlotte Running Company, I was ready for dinner. Let’s flash back to the night before the Charleston Half Marathon. I got done with the expo, I was tired, hungry, and didn’t know where exactly to find any good restaurants, so I went with the Burger King next door to my hotel. On Friday afternoon the day before this race, just after picking up my packet, I wasn’t particularly tired, I certainly could have waited until I got home to eat, and at home, I had pasta I could cook. But I kept thinking about how well I ran in Charleston, and figured, what the hell, let’s try it again. So I went to Burger King. The #8 Combo (Chicken Sandwich), small, with a Sprite. (A Coke would have kept me up all night.) Yeah, I can’t say that I recommend this meal the night before a race to anybody else, but it seems to be working for me.

One odd thing I noticed about the bib, there was a piece of foam on the back for the timing chip. I’ve never seen anything like it, and took a (slightly blurry) picture, with my thumb for scale.

I have to say, I was a little worried that the foam might rub against my chest, and I used a little extra Body Glide around there just in case, but I had no issues, and didn’t really notice it. (Obviously it wasn’t an issue, considering my time.)

I got to bed around 10, slept relatively well for the night before a race, and got up at 5:30. I checked the weather, and it was 46 degrees and overcast. Holy crap. For me, that is absolutely perfect weather for running. I showered, used the bathroom, ate 2 Chocolate Chip Clif bars (Somewhat more conventional than Burger King the night before, but it’s another choice modeled after Charleston), attached my bib, put on my watch (I remembered it this year!), grabbed some sunscreen (just in case) and a Strawberry Banana Gu, and headed out. It’s about 10 minutes from my house, and I got there at around 6:45. I parked in the parking deck behind Earth Fare, just like last year, so it was easy to get in and out of.

46 and overcast is fantastic running weather, but it’s less than ideal standing-around-waiting-for-the-race-to-start weather. I survived.

One thing I should mention, I complained last year that there was no indication on the race website where the water stops would be, or if they’d have anything beside water. This year, they didn’t put it on their website, but they did mention it in an e-mail, and it was the same as last year, around 2, 4, 6, and 8 miles, with Gu at 8, but otherwise water only.

The 4 mile race started first, at 7:30. I got a picture just before their start.

Last year, I was amused that the 4 milers got a giant inflatable thing over their starting line, while the 10 milers got something more like this year’s 4 mile start. It was reversed this year, and we got the giant inflatable thing. Of course, you’re going to have to trust me on what the starting line of the 10 miler looked like, because for some reason, I completely forgot to take a picture right before the race started.

Anyway, after a countdown (which I could barely hear because the speakers weren’t very loud but the people near me were), we started at 7:45.

Mile 1: 10:02

This mile seemed a lot more crowded this year (maybe it was the 300 extra runners). I don’t think it slowed me down too much. It was also primarily uphill, but it was a slow, steady climb, unlike a certain other hill that we’ll get to in Mile 9.

This was the only mile last year where I knew my time, 10:03. So, I was 1 second faster. Progress.

Mile 2: 9:18

Oops. That was way faster than I had planned. In my defense, it was mostly downhill.

We turned in to the greenway parking lot at 1.75 miles, and just after the start of the greenway was the first water station. A little before 2, but it was a lot easier to set it up there than at the actual 2 mile mark. The cups were really small this year, like roughly shot glass sized. Based on my finish, I don’t think my mid-race hydration was an issue. I walked through this water stop, as well as the others.

I saw the sign for 2 miles, and looked at my watch, and it said…1.90? That’s odd. Mile 1 had been just about right. As it turns out, the mile markers seemed to be kind of random the rest of the way. 5 miles (which was good since they had a timing mat so you could get a halfway split) and 7 miles were right on the dot. Others seemed to be anywhere from .03 to a full .1 off. Of course, that helped prepare me for the end, but we’ll get to that later.

Miles 3-5: 9:57, 9:48, 9:33

I made a conscious effort to pull back a bit on Mile 3, and it worked. Maybe I didn’t need to slow down quite that much, but I wanted to make sure I was still strong at the end.

Right around the 5K mark, we turned off the greenway and into a neighborhood. The neighborhood was slightly more hilly than I remember. Also, I remembered running on the bridge over I-485 last year and holding on to my hat. This year, since it was 15 degrees warmer, I didn’t need a hat.

There was a water stop right before the 4 mile mark. Right before 5 miles, we turned back on to the greenway.

Miles 6-8: 9:33, 9:48, 9:55

I tried to take it easy during this stretch, but it was all on the greenway and pretty flat. The next water stop was around 6.3 miles. I ate my Gu right before this stop. I remember last year they put this stop right where the McMullen Creek Greenway ends and the Four Mile Creek Greenway begins, but they had the trash right next to the water stop, so I had to stop and drink my water before throwing my cup away. This year, they moved the trash so there was a little bit of space. (It was actually on a bridge.) It worked out much better.

For the most part, it was pretty uneventful through here. (I’m not complaining.) However, at one point, I noticed there were a whole bunch of deer watching us go by. There had to be at least 5 of them. I’ve seen deer before on this stretch of greenway, but never more than 3 together. Also, I think individual runners are more likely to spook them, but here, I guess they figured if there’s that many runners, might as well stick around and watch. Crowd support.

The last water stop was around 7.75 miles. They gave out Vanilla Bean Gu. (This year, the volunteers actually said the flavor of Gu so you knew what you were getting. Also, it’s possible they had other flavors, but Vanilla Bean is the one I heard.) I took one, since it’s free, but stuck it in my pocket. I still prefer Strawberry Banana, but I did have the Vanilla Bean during City of Oaks. It tasted OK then, and more importantly, didn’t give me any stomach trouble, so I kept it to use during a future run.

Right after the water stop, we left the greenway and finished Mile 8.

Mile 9: 9:25

So, Mile 9. I remember Mile 9 from last year. There’s a hill in Mile 9. A very, very, very steep hill. Like 112 feet in .51 miles. To put that in perspective, the entire Charleston Half Marathon, 13.1 miles, had 72 feet of elevation gain.

Luckily, I knew it was coming, and I was ready for it. Those (relatively) slow miles on the greenway paid off. I passed people left and right, and when I got to the end of Mile 9, after we had reached the peak and hit a flat stretch, I really took off for the last mile.

Last 0.95: 7:53 (8:22/mile pace)

Wait, what?

Well, considering the seemingly random placement of the mile markers, I had an idea this race wouldn’t be exactly 10 miles. And, as it turns out, it was 9.95 miles according to my watch.

For the record, this stretch was either flat or slightly downhill, mostly straight, and with the hill behind me, I flew through it.

I crossed the finish line, and they called out my name, always a nice touch.

I stopped my watch, and my watch time was 1:35:19, a little over a second longer than my actual time, so that was good. And apparently, for the last full mile that I ran, I set a new one mile record, 8:25.3, barely beating my old record of 8:25.4 from the Yiasou Greek Festival 5K last year. Also, I have a new 10K record, 58:54, which, holy crap, first time under an hour, with a minute to spare, and it included the hill in Mile 9. (I really really really want to race a 10K right now.)

This is where I wish I had my watch last year, so I could compare the distances. As far as I can tell, there were no changes to the course this year, so I really wonder if my Garmin would have shown a short course last year as well.

Anyway, after the race, there was water and Nuun. (Tried Nuun last year, it was weird, not interested unless I feel like I’m really hurting for electrolytes.) Good Bottle Company brought some beers. I tried (I think) a blonde ale from Appalachian Brewing Company, which is actually in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t bad. They also had an IPA from Southern Tier Brewing from Lakewood, New York. (Not an IPA fan, sorry.) So, the beer wasn’t exactly local, but Good Bottle Company is a local bottle shop. And an OK blonde ale from Pennsylvania is still way better than Michelob Ultra.

Big View Restaurant and Bar brought the pancakes and sausage back again this year. Aww, yeah. There were also some bananas, and some company was giving out organic juices. (The orange juice tasted fine but was a bit more pulpy than I’d like.)

I waited until after the food and drink before I took my traditional car key picture. The medal makes it tougher to get a good picture (I needed like 5 tries), and you can’t see my bib number (869), but here it is.

I’m still not 100% convinced a 10 mile race deserves a medal, but I gotta say, I really like this one. I think it’s nicer than last year’s (and honestly looks nicer than most of my half marathon medals).

On the Wednesday before the race, my left ankle started bothering me during a run, enough to slow me down. I didn’t have any issues when I ran that Thursday, and I planned a rest day on that Friday, so I was curious to see how it would hold up during the race. (Considering that I haven’t mentioned it so far, and considering my time, you’ve probably figured out the answer.) Well, there were a couple of spots where I felt a little something, kind of a “Hey, this is your left ankle, I’m here, and I don’t like this.” But it never affected my pace, so that’s good.

So, 9.95 miles. Normally, I’d have some problems calling this a 10 Mile PR, but there are two reasons I don’t have any problem calling this a PR. First, my old PR came on the same course. Second, even if somehow I missed something and they shortened the course this year, I still PRed by over 3 minutes.

Hey, if Han Solo can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, I can do the Charlotte 10 Miler in 9.95 miles.

(Originally posted March 6, 2015.)

I never thought I’d run a race where I was thankful that it was 29 degrees, but when you get down into single digits a day before a race, 29 sounds great. The 2014 Thunder Road Half was colder, as were both races in the Joe Davis Memorial 10K and 5K. (Although Thunder Road warmed up into the mid 30’s by the end of the race, while the Charlotte 10 Miler only got up to 31.) I also never thought I’d be thankful for the hills in my neighborhood. (?!?)

I’d love to give you a detailed breakdown of my pace for each mile, and the elevation gain/loss, and the exact mileage of each water stop. All I’ve got is my time for the first mile (10:03), and my average pace for the whole race (9:50/mile.) More on why my statistical analysis is weak later.

First, let’s go back to packet pickup. There was no Thursday packet pickup. (Boo!) Friday, from 4-7, there was packet pickup at the Charlotte Running Company store at Promenade on Providence. I got there around 4:45 (I took Friday off of work, mainly because I needed to use up a carryover PTO day from last year), and I was surprised to see a pretty long line for packet pickup. It only took about 5 minutes to get through the line, but still, I don’t remember ever seeing a line like that for a packet pickup any time other than race day.

The packet was just a bib and a shirt, but when the shirt is a tech hoodie, I can’t complain.

I did see safety pins available, but I have plenty from previous bibs, so I decided to reuse some.

As usual, I had a terrible night of sleep. I got up, took a shower, and got dressed. I went with a short sleeved tech tee under a pullover, long running pants, a hat, and gloves. I also wore my FlipBelt, mainly because I planned to bring a Strawberry Banana Gu for a little boost during the race.

One thing that I noticed is that I couldn’t find anything on the race website about water stops. I mean, I assumed that they would have them, because even the smallest 5K I’ve done still had a water stop, but there was no indication of where, or how many, or if any of them would offer anything other than water. (As it turns out, 4 stops, at roughly 2, 4, 6, and 8, although 2 was a little early and 6 was a little late just due to the course layout. Also, water only, no Gatorade or any other drink, but they did give out Gu at Mile 8.) It would have been nice to have this info in advance.

I ate two slices of toasted whole grain bread with peanut butter, and drank some water. I gathered all of my stuff (or so I thought) and headed over there. I’m pretty sure this was the shortest distance I’ve ever had to travel to a race. I got there in less than 10 minutes. There was plenty of parking in the Earth Fare shopping center, and also in the parking deck behind the shopping center. I went with the parking deck, which was a longer walk, but easier to get into (and later, easier to get out of).

I sat in my car for a few minutes, because it was still pretty cold out there, and then I realized that I forgot my Garmin watch. Crap. I thought for a second about running with no tracking, then I remembered my old pal Runkeeper, which was still installed on my phone. OK, it’s not as easy or as detailed as my Garmin, but it’ll do.

I walked over towards the starting line, and tried to keep warm.

There was a 4 mile race in addition to the 10 miler. The 4 miler was scheduled to start at 7:30, and the 10 miler at 7:40. The races had slightly different starting lines. I was amused by the difference between the two. Here’s the 4 Miler starting line.

And here’s the 10 Miler starting line.

The 4 milers get the fancier starting line. Go figure.

Anyway, at around 7:42 AM according to Runkeeper, we were off. I hadn’t used Runkeeper in a while, but I thought it was odd when I started it that it showed me a stopwatch. And then I realized, too late, that a few months earlier, they had added a stopwatch mode, and I had played around with it a little bit, in the hopes of using it for my treadmill runs, but then I forgot about it, and never put it back in to regular mode. So basically, all Runkeeper could tell me was my current time. I would have to rely on the course to tell me distance. To the organizers’ credit, each mile was well marked, as were all of the turns.

The first mile was slightly uphill, along Johnston Road. I’ve run this stretch before, and it’s not a terrible hill, but considering the hills in my neighborhood, you have to take my judgment with a grain of salt. Like I mentioned earlier, I did see my time for the first mile, and it was 10:03, which is pretty good, not too fast.

We stayed on Johnston until we got to Highway 51, then ran along it until we got to the McMullen Creek Greenway entrance. Yes, a good chunk of this race followed a greenway that I’m familiar with. I still like Little Sugar Creek Greenway up near Freedom Park better, but McMullen Creek is still pretty nice, and it’s also pretty flat.

The first water stop was right at the beginning of the Greenway, which was a little bit before the 2 Mile mark.

This stretch probably had the most ice on the course, left over from the storm on Tuesday. Also, because it was still early in the race, there were a lot more other people around trying to get around the ice, but I and everyone around me made it through without slipping.

Right after the 3 mile mark, we turned off the Greenway and went through a neighborhood. There were a few hills, but nothing major. We also got to the 4 mile mark, with a water stop literally right in front of the sign that said 4 miles. I decided to take my Gu there, since I wasn’t sure when the next stop would be.

Just after the 5 mile mark, we got back on the Greenway. The next water stop was a little later, around 6.2 miles, since they wanted to put it in a more easily accessible location, right before McMullen Creek Greenway ends and Four Mile Creek Greenway begins. Unfortunately, they put it right before a bridge, and so I had to stop to drink my water so I could put my cup in the trash can, otherwise I would have needed to hold on to it for a while. In retrospect, I probably would have picked this stop to have my Gu. Ultimately, whether I ate it at 4 miles or 6 (or even not at all), I don’t think it made any difference in my final time.

Anyway, Four Mile Creek Greenway took us all the way to Mile 8 before we got off at Elm Lane, and had our final water stop. I was surprised to see they were giving out Gu. I didn’t see which flavor. I like to know in advance if it’s a flavor that agrees with me. I didn’t take it, although afterwards, I kind of wish I had taken it and put it in my pocket to try some other time.

This is where the course got tough. We got spoiled by the nice flat stretches on the greenways. There was a slight climb up Elm until we got to a neighborhood. And in that neighborhood was Ridgemore Drive. Now that was a hill. If I think it was a big hill, and I deal with a pretty big hill in my neighborhood pretty much every morning, it must have been pretty bad. (This is the point where I was thankful for my neighborhood hills.) The majority of the people around me stopped to walk up that hill, but I managed to keep going. Since I hadn’t been able to run as much as I normally would have during the previous week, my legs were pretty fresh (I guess I had an unintentional taper), and while I probably slowed down a bit, I ran the whole way up the hill. I’m probably most proud of that part.

Right around Mile 9, we reached the top of the hill. After that, it was flat the rest of the way, and I really took off. I have no idea what my pace was for the last mile, but I think it was pretty fast, and I passed several people along the way. I crossed the finish line, saw that the clock said 1:38 something, and was really happy with my time. Since it was the same timing company as my last few races, they had the terminals where you could look up your time, and my official time was 1:38:22.5, for an average pace of 9:50/mile. Not only is that a better pace (and overall time, even though this was .7 miles longer) than my 15K PR (which I expected, since I’ve made a lot of progress since September), but it’s a better pace than my 10K PR, which was last month. (To be fair, at that 10K, I had a 5K right afterward, so I didn’t want to go all out.) And yes, since it’s my first official 10 mile race, it’s also a PR.

Here’s proof that my car key made it to the finish line with me, and also a nice shot of the medal.

I found out later when I checked the finish line video that the race used chip time instead of gun time. I don’t see my gun time posted anywhere, but in the video, I crossed the finish line when the clock said 1:38:39. I started a little bit behind the starting line, and 17 seconds to get to the starting line sounds about right.

Afterwards, they had water and Nuun. I’ve never had Nuun before, and…it’s weird. It’s slightly carbonated, and mostly water with just a little bit of flavor. (I had the Fruit Punch flavor.) If I need electrolytes, my first choice would be Gatorade or something similar, but if my only options are Nuun or water, I guess I’d go with Nuun. However, when it’s 29 degrees, and I had a Gu along the course, I didn’t feel like I was hurting for electrolytes, so I stuck with water.

Oh, and they also had breakfast from the Big View Diner. Pancakes and sausage patties. Awww yeah. Best. Post race food. Ever. There were some bananas too, so I grabbed half of one for good measure.

Overall, I was pleased with the race. My biggest complaints were no Thursday packet pickup, and nothing on the race website indicating where the water stops would be. (The 4 milers getting a fancier starting line is not a legitimate complaint.) Otherwise, it was well-organized, a challenging but fair course, and between the tech hoodie and Big View Diner breakfast, it had some pretty awesome perks.

As far as my performance, like I said, I’m happy with it. I never did set a goal for this race, but if I had, I’m pretty sure I would have set it for at least 1:40, if not higher, and I would have blown it away. It was interesting running without knowing my pace. Since I’m in the neighborhood of 10:00/mile, it did make it easier for me to check my overall time at each mile marker to see if I was under 10:00/mile. Other than mile 1 (10:03), I think I stayed under 10. I do wish I had my pace for the last mile. (Lesson learned: don’t forget my watch.)

(Originally posted January 18, 2016.)

I thought 2:14 was an aggressive goal. I finished in…2:10:43?!? I’m happy to be wrong.

I drove down to Charleston on Friday. It’s right around a 3 hour drive from my house to the hotel.

It had been raining off and on all morning in Charlotte. I managed to get my bags into my trunk during a brief lull, but the rain really picked up as I headed south. It finally stopped raining maybe 10 miles outside of Charleston. I got to my hotel and checked in, then headed over to the expo. It was in a high school gym. It was probably a little bigger than the Raleigh City of Oaks expo, but a little smaller than the Thunder Road (which will apparently now be the Charlotte Marathon) expo.

They had some computers set up so you could look up your bib number in case you didn’t have access to your e-mail and hadn’t memorized your number. (I had both access to my e-mail and my memory, so I was good.) First, I picked up my bib. They had safety pins, which was good because I realized I didn’t bring any with me. Then I picked up my goodie bag, and finally my shirt.

The bag is really nice. It’s canvas, with a drawstring and shoulder straps so you can wear it like a backpack. In the bag, we got a couple of coupons for Dick’s Sporting Goods, a map of the courses along with info on where to park before the race as well as some other miscellaneous info, and some brochures for some other upcoming races.

Here’s the obligatory picture of the t-shirt.

Sadly, it’s not the elusive white t-shirt that I haven’t seen since my first two races. It’s actually a very light blue. But hey, it’s a long sleeved tech tee, and it’s a light color that’s visible when it’s dark out. Score. Oh, and that’s a pretty cool design, it’s based on a painting by a local Charleston artist. Also, I waited until I got home before taking the picture, so the shirt has a few extra wrinkles.

I did notice Gu on sale at the expo, so if I had forgotten to bring mine, I could have bought some. They had some shoes on sale, but alas, no wide widths for Brooks Adrenaline. Curse my wide feet!

After I left the expo, I stopped by CVS to pick up some band-aids. I realized at some point that I forgot to bring some nipple protection. I got away with an unprotected 14 mile run once, but I didn’t want to push my luck. First, unlike on my 14 mile run, I would have a bib, and that might make things worse. Second, I would be wearing a white shirt, so if I did have issues, it would be painfully obvious.

I stopped off for dinner at, uh, Burger King. It was right next to the hotel, I was tired, and I was in a strange place and didn’t have any better ideas. (Then again, considering my race performance, maybe I should try it again next time.) I ate my dinner and watched YouTube videos in spurts (the hotel wi-fi was shaky at best).

I went to bed around 10:15, planning to get up at 5:45. When I checked in, they said breakfast would be served downstairs starting at 6, so I figured that would give me time to shower, go downstairs, grab some food, then go back upstairs to brush my teeth, put on my bib, and use the bathroom.

I got downstairs at around 6:15, and breakfast wasn’t ready. Hmm. OK. I waited for a couple of minutes, but nothing. Fine. I went back upstairs. Luckily, I had a backup plan. I had brought a box of Clif bars with me. I didn’t know exactly what they’d have available for breakfast, or what the quality would be like. (Out of all the hotels that partnered with the Charleston Marathon, I was staying in the one with the 2nd cheapest rate. As it turns out, on Sunday morning I had breakfast, and it was nothing special, but it was OK. Also, besides the Saturday breakfast snafu and the fact that my room only had a view of the Burger King and its parking lot, I can’t complain about my hotel.)

I ate two Clif bars, then did the brush teeth-attach bib-use bathroom thing. I gathered my stuff, and drove over to the recommended parking lot. I pulled in to the space, and realized I was missing my sunscreen and my watch. Luckily, it was 7 AM, so I had plenty of time to go back to the hotel. In retrospect, I’m glad I forgot my watch, because I’m not 100% sure I would have gone back for just the sunscreen. And I would have regretted that decision very much, because for about 75% of the course, there was absolutely no shade.

After a quick trip to the hotel, I put on my sunscreen and my watch. It was about 50 degrees, but there were almost no clouds, so I figured it would warm up during the race. I would have preferred it to be overcast, but that’s pretty close to perfect weather. (And after running the last 9 miles of City of Oaks in the rain, I certainly won’t complain.)

The Mayor of Charleston said a few words before the start, then two high school students sang the National Anthem. (One of them clearly had microphone issues, but otherwise, they did well.) That was a recurring theme with the entertainment, since the proceeds from the race went to the Youth Endowment for the Arts, so it was all done by kids. Marching bands, a concert band, a group of kids playing keyboards (OK, that one was kind of odd).

And, at exactly 8:00, the race began. I was pretty far back, so it took about 2 minutes for me to get to the starting line.

Mile 1-5: 10:04, 9:50, 10:11, 10:17, 9:57.

At the very beginning, it was really crowded, and I could see my pace hovering around 11:00. I pushed ahead as the crowd thinned out a little bit. Mile 2 was a little bit faster because I saw a woman in a Gronkowski jersey. Of course, my first instinct, as a bitter Jets fan, was to pass her. Unfortunately, she was considerably faster than me. Luckily, I realized this before I used up all my energy trying in vain to keep up. I muttered a few choice words under my breath and let her go.

The first 3 miles were along the river, and it was really pretty. Then we turned on to King Street to run through downtown, which was also really cool. The downtown part was pretty much the only stretch where we got shade.

There were aid stations just before 2 miles, and at around 3.75 miles. All of the aid stations had water and Gatorade, but I ended up sticking with water the whole time. I took my Gu at the 3.75 mile aid station. I prefer to wait until around the 4 mile mark, but I have to have water to wash it down, and I didn’t want to wait for the next aid station.

By mile 5, I had settled in to a pretty good pace, and I felt good.

Mile 6-10: 10:09, 9:52, 10:24, 10:01, 9:49.

Aid stations were at 5.5, 7.9, and 9.7 miles. I took my second Gu at 7.9, so that’s why that mile took 10:24. (When your slowest mile of the day is 9 seconds faster than the average pace of your previous PR, you’re having a good day.)

By this point, we had gotten to an industrial area. It wasn’t much to look at. I was able to stay focused though. I kept watching my average pace, wondering if I could keep it up.

Mile 10-13.1: 9:24, 9:41, 9:18. (8:08/mile pace for last .22 miles)

The answer is yes, I could keep it up. Aid stations were at 11.25 and somewhere in the last mile, but I skipped that one, because at that point, I knew it wouldn’t help, and it would just slow me down.

We ran through the naval yards, which was slightly more scenic, and even got back near the river, through the accurately but not creatively named Riverfront Park, before heading back inland to North Charleston and the finish.

My legs really started to feel tired as I pushed myself toward the end, but I managed to keep going. There were 4 turns right near the end, but it felt like about 20. They called my name as I crossed the finish line, and when I stopped my watch, it said 2:10:46.

They gave me a medal, took the timing chip that was attached to my bib, and gave me a bottle of water.

They had some laptops set up with a piece of paper covering most of the keyboard telling you to use the keypad to enter your bib number, and don’t touch anything else. (I was amused, but I followed instructions.) I put my bib number in and got my official time, 2:10:43. Woohoo!

I made sure I still had my car key, and took my usual picture.

You can see where they tore off the timing chip, but left a little bit behind. It’s hard to see in that picture, but yes, that’s the same painting on the medal that’s on the t-shirt.

I grabbed some Gatorade, an apple, and wandered over to the shrimp and grits. Yes, they give you shrimp and grits at the finish. It was quite tasty.

They had beer from Sam Adams and from Traveler Beer. I’m never going to complain about beer that doesn’t come from AB InBev (Bud Light, Michelob Ultra), but I thought it was odd that they had beer from Boston and Burlington, Vermont. Traveler had a grapefruit shandy, which, uh, no, but Sam Adams Boston Lager was fine. My usual complaint about Sam Adams is that there are better beers you can get for the same price, but this one was free, so my complaint was invalidated.

I also got a mimosa. As a general rule, I prefer my orange juice straight, but I figured any race can serve beer afterward, when else will I get a post-race mimosa?

This was the first time I’ve done a point to point race. Every other race I’ve done has had the start and finish line pretty close together, if not on the exact same spot. So after the race, they had shuttle buses taking people back to the parking lots near the starting line. As many things as I worry about pre-race, I’d much rather not worry about riding a shuttle to the starting line, so I’d much rather do a post-race shuttle.

So, as you can imagine, I’m really happy with my run. I ran the race I wanted to, with my only walk breaks at the aid stations. I did it faster than I expected, and I still had enough left for a kick at the end.

If there’s one thing I could nit-pick, I ended up at 13.22 miles. Maybe I could have done a better job on the tangents. Even with the extra mileage, it was a PR by over 7 minutes. (For comparison, I ended up with 13.16 miles at my last half, Charlotte RaceFest.) So yeah, that’s definitely nit-picking.

One other thing I noticed, when I looked at Garmin Connect, I had a new record for 10K, 1:00:21. I’m pretty sure that’s the last 10K of the race. Wow. (Of course, now I want to sign up for an actual 10K race and see if I can get under an hour.)

Overall, I enjoyed the race. It helped that it was easily the flattest course I’ve done (not counting a few 5Ks). Charleston is a pretty neat city. I got to see a little more of it Saturday afternoon. This race is definitely on my radar for next year. I don’t know if I’d want to do the full marathon, since that would put my longest long run right around Christmas, but I’d consider doing the half again. As long as I can still get some decent miles in around the holidays, it would be a good race to kick off the new year.

(Originally posted November 30, 2014.

I didn’t include it in the report, though I had mentioned it in a previous entry on my old blog, but my B goal was a PR, which before this race was 33:44.)

I need to work on my goal setting. (Right now, this is a good problem to have.)

Before I start, I do want to point out that unlike most races that stay on the same weekend each year, the Charlotte Checkers 5K moves around based on the Checkers schedule, since they want to have a Saturday night home game the same day as the race. Last year, the race was a week earlier.

Let me start with packet pick-up. I normally complain about races that don’t have Thursday packet pick-up (not counting races with an all-day expo like Thunder Road), but in this case, they had a good reason. They did offer Wednesday night packet pick-up at Charlotte Running Company in Dilworth, but I was already in Raleigh by then. I got back into town early Friday afternoon, so I was able to go over to the Carolina Ale House and get my packet. Apparently they had some free appetizers and some drink specials, but free appetizers and drink specials were probably not what I needed on the day after Thanksgiving. I appreciate the sentiment though.

There was also race day packet pick-up. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it, since I was already registered and had my packet, but it seemed like the lines for pick-up/registration on race day were pretty reasonable.

So, the packet itself. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed. When you sign up, they tell you that race entry includes a ticket to a Checkers game. If all they did was hand me a bib, a shirt, and a ticket, I would have been satisfied. The shirt was an actual tech tee. It’s red, which is kind of funny. I started November with 0 red tech tees, and now I have 2. Of course, since the team’s colors are red and black, and last year’s shirt was gray, it was most likely going to be either red, black, or white.

In addition to the ticket and a 2014-2015 Checkers schedule, there were a bunch of coupons, a pack of Lance wheat and cheese crackers, Chapstick, and what is probably the most unusual item I’ve gotten from a race, a can of CVS Aftersun Cooling Foam. Yes, a foam that you can put on sunburn. I (unfortunately) know sunburn, and I had never heard of this stuff. I usually go with aloe gel. I hope I rarely (if ever) have to use it, but I guess it’s good to have.

All of this stuff was in one of those drawstring bags that you can wear like a backpack.

So, the morning of the race, I woke up at 5:25 AM, showered, ate some whole wheat toast with peanut butter, used the bathroom, and took some store brand Imodium AD. (The first dose worked, I had no problems the rest of the day.) It was around 30 degrees according to my phone, but it was clear, so I knew there would be sun and it would warm up a bit, so I went with my Thunder Road Half red long-sleeved tech tee and long pants. I chose the red partly because it was my most recent race, and partly because that race went really, really, really well, but mostly because later that day, my beloved N.C. State Wolfpack would be taking on the evil University of North Carolina Tar Heels, so I wanted to wear red to support my alma mater. (And they won! 35-7! Go Wolfpack!)

I ended up parking in the parking deck at the Metropolitan, about a block away, because I seriously underestimated the size of the parking lot at Pearle Street Park. I could have gotten in there easily. Oh well, for a 5K, a little extra walking isn’t too bad.

It did warm up a little, and by the time the race started, it was up to a balmy 34 degrees. Before this year, that would have been a record for my coldest race ever, but I’ve had two races this year that were colder.

Here’s a shot of the starting line (which doubled as the finish line) right before the start.

I did move up a little after I took the picture. At 8:00 AM, we were off. Once again, I’m going to use my times and distances from my Garmin Forerunner 220.

The first mile had a slight uphill before we got to McDowell Street (which meant that there would be a slight downhill right before the end, sweet). Once we turned right on Elizabeth Avenue, we went down a decent hill. At the end of the first mile, I looked at my time, and decided my strategy would be to keep going as fast I could and hope I don’t run out of gas.

Mile 1: 9:13

From Elizabeth Avenue, we turned right onto a section of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway, where I normally run for my long runs on the weekend. There were some ups and downs, but it was fairly flat.

We had a water stop in this section right around the 1.5 mile mark. I did grab a cup of water, just to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, they decided to just set up a bunch of cups on a table rather than have volunteers hand them to runners. So I had to actually stop to pick up a cup of water. I was hoping to try running through a water stop to see if I could do it, since it was only a 5K which I know I can finish without any extra water. Once I got the cup, I started running right away so I could try to drink the water while running. I succeeded in not choking or spilling the water, so that was successful. The only downside is that the trash bin was right next to the water stop, and I had already passed it by the time I finished my water. Luckily, I knew there were some trash cans later on along the greenway, so I ended up only carrying my empty cup for about a tenth of a mile.

My time wasn’t quite as good, but I was still in good shape for a PR.

Mile 2: 9:37

Once we left the greenway, we turned right on to Morehead Street, which is pretty much just one long uphill. I kept going, constantly checking my watch and doing math in my head. I knew that they didn’t do chip time, only gun time, so I didn’t know my exact time. I was pretty sure a sub-30 minute time was in reach, though.

We turned right on to McDowell, then right on Baxter to take us back into the park for the finish.

Mile 3: 9:29

Last .15 miles: 1:07.5 (7:24/mi pace)

As I approached the finish line, I sped up. I also could see that I was really going to finish in less than 30 minutes.

I crossed the finish line, stopped my Garmin, and got a high five from Chubby, the Checkers’ mascot.

Post race, there was water (but no Gatorade), bananas, some kind of jelly-like stuff, some granola bars, and the saltiest bagels I’ve ever tasted.

They had a few tablets set up where you could enter your bib number and get your results, which is probably easier (and definitely less wasteful) than repeatedly printing out the results as they come in. I entered my bib number, and got my official time: 29:37.0. Much better than I expected. For the record, my Garmin showed 3.15 miles in 29:27, for an average pace of 9:21/mile.

Here’s the obligatory post race picture with my car key.

So, I set a record for my fastest mile (9:14, first mile), my fastest average pace for a run (9:34/mile), and I beat by previous 5K PR by over 4 minutes. Not bad for a race that I wasn’t completely sure I’d be able to do until Tuesday.

There were 306 finishers, so it wasn’t a huge race. That certainly helped during the first mile, it wasn’t overly crowded. There were 461 finishers last year, so it was down a little, but I wonder if some of it was due to people traveling for Thanksgiving.

That evening, I went to see the Checkers play the Milwaukee Admirals. Here’s my view.

The Checkers were wearing special Charlotte Hornets style jerseys for this game instead of their usual red and black. It was really weird. I thought it made them look like the San Jose Sharks, and in my opinion, that’s not a good look.

The Checkers won, 5-4, and scored the winning goal with 1:30 left. So it was a very exciting game, although if you like good goaltending, this wasn’t the game for you.

Overall, it was a good race that I ran way better than expected. Like I said at the beginning, I seem to have a problem setting goals, since I beat my A goal (32:30) by almost 3 minutes, but for now, it’s a good problem to have.

(Originally posted September 28, 2014.)

I got a PR! OK, it was my first 15K race, so of course it’s a PR. But overall, I’m fairly pleased with how I ran.

One random note about this race is that, besides being my first 15K, it’s the first time I’ve run a race on a Sunday. All 9 of my previous races have been Saturday morning races.

Packet pickup was very easy. When I signed up, I chose the University location of Run For Your Life, since it’s close to work. I stopped by after work on Thursday. The packet was just a bib, timing chip, and t-shirt. (Again, no tech tee, just a cotton/polyester blend, boo. Also, I didn’t see any safety pins for the bib, which was just odd, but I have safety pins from previous races, so no big deal.) They had packet pickup on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus race day pickup, and Thursday and Friday pickup was at all Run For Your Life locations. (Saturday was at the University location only.)

I did realize late Saturday that maybe I shouldn’t have done yard work Saturday morning, the day before a race. As far as I can tell, it had no affect on my run. Other than that, I took it easy all day. I ate spaghetti for dinner, of course. Carb loading.

I didn’t really sleep well, but that’s pretty normal before a race. I ate my usual two slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter.

Cornelius is a bit of a haul for me, and it took about 45 minutes for me to get there, although some of that was due to the construction on the bridge at Exit 28 over I-77. Anyway, there was plenty of parking at the Jetton Village Shopping Center.

I applied lots of sunscreen just to be on the safe side. It was overcast at the start of the race, and the sun threatened to break though the clouds a few times, but the sun wasn’t really a problem. (Yes, I’m aware you can still get sunburn on a cloudy day. I’m fairly certain it’s happened to me before.) The temperature was 59 degrees, which felt really nice. There was some humidity, but it was tolerable. I can’t really complain about the weather, especially after my last race.

I was going back and forth on what goal time I should set. I eventually settled on 1:46. I thought I might be able to get in under 1:45, but I knew the course had some hills. I also considered 1:47 because of the hills, and the fact that I worried that I was due for a bad run. As it turns out, there’s one other factor I forgot to consider, but we’ll get back to that.

I made my way to the starting line. It wasn’t obvious at first, since all they had was a timing mat, but I found it. There was also a 5K that started at the same time. (We split with the 5K runners about a quarter mile in.) So here’s a shot of all the runners in front of me just before the start.

The starting line is somewhere up there. It took me a good 30 seconds to get to it after the start.

Before I get to the race, I just want to point out that this was a really nice looking course. Early on, it goes through Jetton Park, which is really nice and has some great views of Lake Norman. If it wasn’t so far away, I’d consider running there more often. Later in the race, there were spots where you could see a little bit of the lake. Well, you kind of had to look in between some very, very large houses, but it was still pretty nice.

I always worry about starting out too fast in races or any situation where there are a lot of other runners. Some of those runners are way faster than I should be going. But I made it through the first mile in 11:03 according to RunKeeper. Considering there were a few downhill stretches (Why, oh why, do races put the downhill on the first mile?), that wasn’t too bad. It certainly wasn’t Ludicrous Speed.

On Mile 2, I slowed down a bit, although part of that was the water stop at the very end of the mile. I walked at all of the water stops. One thing I have to say, they did not skimp on the water at the water stops. I appreciated it. Not that I’ve ever seen any races where I thought they didn’t give out enough water, but for some reason it seemed like they were giving out more than usual here. This ended up being my slowest mile, at 11:27.

Mile 3 had another water stop. It also had a stretch on John Connor Road, which is just awesome. I finished in 11:15.

Miles 4 and 5 were a little faster, 11:01 and 10:58. Maybe I should have slowed down a little bit here, but again, this wasn’t Ludicrous Speed. There was another water stop during Mile 5. Also, near the end of Mile 5, we turned on to Flying Jib Road. In any other race, that would be the best road name, but you can’t compete with a Terminator reference.

I think I started to feel it on Mile 6. I still made it through with only a walk break at the water stop, but my time was up to 11:15. Not too bad, though.

Mile 7 had the last water stop, which I walked, but otherwise, I kept running. I do wish the last water stop was maybe half a mile later. My time was 11:19. Mile 8 was really tough, but I kept chugging along at 11:18.

Mile 9 finally broke me. About halfway through, near the top of a hill, I took a walk break. It helped, though, because my time went down to 11:12.

I took one last walk break, just after Mile 9, and I ran the rest of the way, and even sped up at the end. I crossed the finish line, and I later found out that while my gun time was over 1:46, my chip time was 1:45:38.7. I made my goal. (Side note: I don’t recall getting tenths of a second in my chip time before. Although it’s quite possible that I’ve gotten it at previous races and just ignored it.)

Now, one of the things I forgot to take into account when setting my goal was the fact that GPS distance is almost always longer than course distance. My actual distance was almost 9.49 miles. I didn’t stop RunKeeper right at the finish line, but it was pretty close. So according to the official timing, my pace was 11:21/mile, but according to RunKeeper, it was 11:10/mile. Also, for the last .49 miles, RunKeeper had me at a 10:33/mile pace, so I was definitely strong at the finish.

Had I considered the likely mileage difference, I probably would have set my goal at 1:47, which I would have easily beat. So, yeah, I’m pretty happy with how I ran. Other than miles 4 and 5 maybe being a little too fast, I can’t really think of anything I’d do differently. Sure, I wonder if I had slowed down a little there, if I could have finished without those walk breaks. But that’s definitely crossing the line into nitpicking.

After the race, they gave out bottles of water and goody bags. My bag had a banana, a bagel, and a peanut butter chocolate granola bar. They also had cups of Gatorade available.

I have to whine briefly. The bagel had raisins. I hate raisins. A raisin is a waste of a perfectly good grape. I did try to pick out the raisins, and ate about half of the bagel with all of the raisins removed, but then I gave up and threw away the rest. OK, whine over.

I was a little disappointed that the beer was Michelob Ultra, since it’s not very good beer (I admit it, I’m a beer snob), and besides, I’d much rather see beer from local breweries at races.

I’ll give them credit, though the peanut butter chocolate granola bar was really good.

My car key made it to the end of the race, and here’s the proof.

Yeah, I had a lot of trouble with my bib today for some reason.

I wandered around for a bit and found where the results were posted. (No timing snafus this time around.) Like I said earlier, I was happy with my time and I beat my goal.

The course was tough, but I thought it was fair. (The OrthoCarolina 10K course was totally unfair.) I’m not sure, but I think it might have been a slightly tougher course than the Thunder Road Half Marathon. Thunder Road has tweaked their course this year, so I’ll have to see how it feels this year compared to LungStrong. And like I said, this was a really nice looking course. Overall, it’s a good race, well organized, and I’d like to run it again at some point.

15K is a really interesting distance. 9.3 miles is long, but not quite as long as a half marathon, It’s a good challenge, but not as draining as a half. It’s pretty rare to find a 15K, though. I wish there were more of them locally, but as far as I know, LungStrong is the only local 15K.

I do think this was a good warmup for my half marathon in about a month and a half. I think (and hope) my pace will continue to improve. I’ve still got an 11 mile long run, a 12 mile long run, and a couple of 10 milers. (OK, the second 10 miler is during my taper.) We’ll see how much I can improve between now and November 15.