This past weekend, I raced in the Charlotte RaceFest 10K.  It was a fun event and I was surprised at my finish time, coming close to a PR on a not so flat course.  Melissa, Chris and Scott also ran that morning; running the half marathon event instead.

It all started early morning.  I was going to ride with Melissa, Jeff and Chris, but Jeff had to go back to his house because they had forgotten to grab my race packet.  Melissa had graciously picked it up for me when she got hers.  No big deal, I drove Melissa and Chris and Jeff did me a favor and went back to his house to get my packet and met up with us at South Park.

We got ready with about a minute to spare before the start.  I had decided to run with the beer helmet again, like I did in the Athens run last year.  They had half marathoners on one side of the street and 10K runners on the other.  I guess it has to do with the timing mats.  Well, they had mislabeled which side was which and with nearly 3000 runners, this caused great confusion.  I went to my side and Melissa and Chris stayed on theirs.

getting costume ready

still getting costume ready

ready!

Chris was freezing!

Melissa

We started, and I made my way back to see if I could find Melissa and Chris and run with them for a bit.  We stayed together for a little while before splitting up.  I got Gatorade at the first water stop, but then started to cramp a little.  So, I decided that I would get some water at the next.  But when I got there, they had no water ready!  I grabbed an empty cup and just dunked it in the water bucket.  I didn’t want to complain to loud because these are volunteers, but this is a race; you have to be ready!

I was able to run the whole time except for walking at the water stops.  I am proud of this because there were some good sized hills on the course and I was feeling it.  I ended up with a Garmin time of 56:54, a chip time of 56:54 (I actually remembered to stop it on time!) and a gun time of 57:28.  My time in Florence was 55:33, so this wasn’t a PR for 10K, but I was surprised to be close, given the lack of training and the hilly course.

After the run, I went looking for Jeff and my Dad (who came even before the start!) but didn’t see them.  I walked around, cheered some people in and got a free beer.  I was wearing a beer helmet after all!  Several people said they loved the helmet and one guy just started talking to me, cheered my beer and we ended up talking for a good 30 minutes.

I left and got my second free beer (hooray beer!) and looked for Dad and Jeff.  I saw them this time and I talked with them while waiting for Scott, Chris and Melissa to finish.  A guy came up to me and said he liked the beer helmet.  Then he paused and said, “Umm, I’m trying to figure out if this is creepy.”  I had no idea what to expect!  The he told me that he reads the blog and Melissa’s blog.  Then Jeff turned around almost on cue and took the picture below and said “Now you’re going to be on it!”  He said he ran Thunder Road ½ marathon in December and started to think about racing a triathlon.  Since he grew up nearby Cane Creek Park, he went online to find out more about the Cane Creek Triathlon and came across my race report.  Apparently it came up very quickly (thanks Jeff!)  He found Melissa’s blog through mine and is now a regular reader!  Thanks for reading Brian!  Now comment!  And let me know how I can help with your first triathlon!

new friend Brian

Scott came in first in the trio, then Chris and then Melissa.  She ran faster than she had expected too!  It must have been a great day to run!  After they finished, they made their way to the beer truck only to discover that they had run out of beer!  Tsk Tsk Charlotte RaceFest.  Tsk.  Read Melissa’s reaction here.

this pretty much says it all

Special thanks to Chris and Jeff whose cameras captured the pictures!