"I enjoyed my first Greekfest 5K this past Saturday. Temps were in the high 60's but without the oppressive humidity that was in place throughout most of August. A whopping 1,278 runners took part in the race - clearly this is one of the most popular Charlotte area 5Ks of the season.
Rumor had it that the Dilworth area course was flat and fast, and it lived up to its billing. When the gun went off, runners streamed down East Blvd, enjoying the nice gradual downhill which lasted most of the first mile. I was out in 5:14, which was a little fast....but given the downhill nature of the first mile, I was OK with that time. Several runners must have been in the 4:40 range - a really smoking pace to attempt to maintain. Mile 2 included a deceptively gradual uphill on Kingston St and masters runners Bill Shires and David Dye powered past me, leveraging their great endurance base to blow past people on the slightly tougher part of the course. I was through Mile 2 in 10:42, slowing down but realizing that if I held it together I could break 17 minutes. At Mile 2.5 we turned back up East Blvd....it's a tough stretch but I like the fact that you can reel in the finish line because it is in sight the whole time. I barely made it past fellow Charlotte Running Club members Bill Shires and Kent Morris, but never caught David. All three of us were very pleased to go sub 17 minutes. I ended up running a 16:52, good for an 8th place finish.
This was a really fun 5K and I recommend it to fellow Davidson Area runners looking for a really fast end-of-summer 5K time. I'd like to congratulate Adam Mayes - he ran the course in 17:21 to capture another impressive PR. This guy is PR'ing in every race he runs right now. Awesome job Adam! Jim Crotts also ran a solid time of 20:10, chasing down Grand Prix points to repeat his impressive Grand Prix division win last year. There were probably some other DART runners out there....it was a HUGE crowd! "
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