Saturday, August 14, 2010

You got HOW MANY porta potty's for this Race?

So we got up early to head to the inaugural edition of the Rock N Run 5K at the NC music factory, where we saw the goo goo dolls not 4 days ago.

So without going into too much detail, let's just say I'm used to hitting the porta potty before any race.  It's just something that happens.  Now I may be spoiled by being from New York, because this is the sight I'm used to seeing before a race:


However, when I rolled up to this race, I was unpleasantly surprised to see 2, yes that's right, 2 porta-potty's for this race.  Now granted this was the 1st annual running of this race, but still, just 2?  Surprisingly the lines for the 2 potty's weren't as bad as I expected, but seriously guys, next year, you might look into a few more.

Aside from that the race was pretty good, and hopefully it'll stick around for years to come.  The course was not too hilly, unlike most downtown Charlotte races, though there were some in there.  It was a for the most part, an out and back course.  Before the race started the clock counted down how many minutes until 8, and shockingly enough when it got to 8, the race started whether you were there or not.  I kinda like that, since most races these days have endless delays.

The weather was also interesting.  It was pretty overcast most of the time, and it looked like we could expect a thunderstorm any second.  On the way to the race, it started sprinkling, but it held up.  Unfortunately, all these clouds resulted in a race time humidity level of 86%, which is NOT my thing.  Anyways the race started with a marching band and kicked off.  I decided that i would try and push it a little in the first mile, and try and see what i had.  I went out pretty strong, even though the humidity made it almost impossible to breath.  Got through the first mile in 9:18, slowed down a little bit in the second mile, and pulled up at mile marker 2 at 19 minutes.  Not great for about 8 years ago, but these days not bad at all.  However the third mile is when the wheels fell off the truck a bit.  I got pretty overheated and the lack of breathing for the first 2 miles finally caught up with me a bit.  I wound up walking a little bit in the third mile and finished the last 1.1 miles at 29:53 for an average pace of 9:37.  Still not bad for me these days.

While I was pretty happy with the first 2 miles, of course I'm now obsessing over mile 3 and wishing it could've been better.  All I can say is that I obviously have some work to do.

The finish area had a pretty nice setup for a first year race.  At least a dozen companies, and the food was pretty good, including hero sandwiches.  Not bad. There was even a band playing on the little stage there.

Overall, a good race, and hopefully it'll continue on for years to come.

And I've got my work cut out for me.
Oh, and we followed up the race with a visit to Carowinds.  Long day!





2 comments:

  1. Like the blog! how cool. I might try one too.

    So you have become a runner instead of a biker?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Depends on the year. This year is running. Last year was biking. Did a few tours last year.

    ReplyDelete