DARTer Marc Hirschfield participated in the Mooresville 8K and the NODA 5K last weekend. Here's his report (which he also posted on his blog):
The town of Mooresville had it's annual Halloween 8K (what is it with 8k as a distance anyways? it's.....weird) this weekend an due to the fact that I actually read the Mooresville newspaper a few weeks ago I was fired up and ready to go. However, a week ago a co-worker gave me the link to the NODAween 5K happening in NODA, Saturday night. Faced with the choice of these 2 races, I decided to......do both! My training program had a step back week for this week, and I only had to do 6 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday. I decided to switch up the days and do the 8 on Saturday with the 8K + 5K making a almost perfect 8 miles.
The Mooresville race is decidedly lower tech than most races. There was no online entry form so I had to show up extra early and sign up. The other funny thing was, that in this age of technology, there were no chips. When you crossed the finish line you had to rip off the bottom of your bib and that was your finish tag. Haven't had that experience in quite some time.
As we lined up in front of the Mooresville Recreation department (which I only found because my daughter had swim team there this past year), I ran into people I knew. The first person was someone I knew from taking spin class at the YMCA. The second, Wendy, I knew from daily mile. I knew she'd be there and I recognized her from her picture. It was interesting actually meeting someone that you know only from online.
Overall the race was great. Not too hilly. Temps were good. I went into the race planning on just taking it easy since I had a 5K later in the day. Went out pretty good, kept it going, and just had fun. It was a beautiful fall day. I was running down a road with the leaves falling and the smell of fireplaces in the air and wished I had a camera with me to take a picture. Overall just a good time. I finished in just over 47 minutes, which wasn't bad considering I was taking it easy. And the fact that I had the neighbors Halloween party the night before and was exhausted. As a bonus I got a $15 gift card to Road ID, which I used as soon as I got home to get Jo a new Road ID for her new shoes.
 |
| The only picture I have from the Mooresville 8K |
I went home, hung out for a few hours, made some cookies and treats for the kids Halloween party and headed back out to go to NODA.
For those of you that don't know, NODA is an area of Charlotte a few miles away from downtown. It used to be where the textile mills and mill workers homes were. It has been turned into an arts center with funky shops and cool restaurants. It reminds me a bit of a much smaller Woodstock, NY. If you're in the Charlotte area check it out at www.noda.org
 |
| Old textile mill re purposed into homes and a great restaurant. |
 |
| Yes, I'm not wearing a costume |
Making my way to the theater to pick up my number and shirt, I got to walk past a lot of interesting buildings and people dressed up. I was really beginning to feel like I was grievously under dressed.
 |
| The pumpkin-mobile |
 |
| The....batmobile? Not the one I remember! |
Once I got my number and shirt I was given my chip along with the type of band that usually goes around your wrist for a bar. I had to ask what it was for. Apparently, the plan was to tie the chips around your ankle with the strap. Um, ok. So i did that. That was a new one on me!
 |
| OK, what? The chip ties around your ankle? |
While waiting for the race to start, I got to go into the historic theater, where they were having a pumpkin auction featuring pumpkins made by local artists. It was pretty interesting
 |
| Somebody's angry |
 |
| The pumpkin totem pole |
 |
| Funky pumpkins |
 |
| Yes, that is a Peter Criss pumpkin |
About 15 minutes before the race I headed outside to check out the costumes. Again, quite an interesting experience (see below).
 |
| Running with scissors and the skeleton |
 |
| Yes, she says she's a badger. |
 |
| Slash. |
 |
| Please don't let me finish after the woopie cushion |
 |
| She ran with the dog too |
 |
| So many comments, so little time |
As we lined up to start, I saw a lot of cool costumes, and was hoping that I didn't finish behind some of them, as they looked pretty big and bulky, and that would mean I was really slow.
 |
| The race start |
 |
| Yes, I passed them in the third mile! |
The race started and we were off. Once again I was surprised at how hilly Charlotte is. The race consisted of a up and downs (so it felt) around the Noda area. Since I hadn't seen too much of the area outside of the main part of town, it was nice to see some of the other areas. I felt that I was struggling a bit throughout the race, which seems to be the way my evening runs go these days. Interestingly, there were no mile markers, which made it hard to get a feel for how fast I was going. I tried to keep passing people and not have them pass me. There were a couple of water stops during the race, and it seemed like the folks from the neighborhood were manning them. Thank you! I went back and forth for a while with the Jelly Belly's before finally passing them for good in mile 3. I guess my runs with the Davidson Area Running Team are paying off, as I stayed strong throughout the race. I finished in a shade under 27 minutes at 26:58, which is somewhere around a 8:41 pace. Not bad. PS the woopie cushion was way behind me. Sweet!
After the race was over, my car happened to be in front of Cabo Fish Taco, so I went in and got the BBQ mahi taco's to go. Awesome, though the guy dressed as Borat that insisted on talking to me was amusing.....at first.
Sunday morning Jo had to do 9, so I figured I'd go the first 6 with her. And 2.5 miles in I tripped on a raised sidewalk and went down hard on my ribs. I was down for a good 5 minutes, but got up and finished. However, it's safe to say that the ribs still are not feeling too great.
Got the Dowd YMCA 1/2 marathon coming up saturday, and I'm a bit concerned. We'll see how it goes.
Good post!
ReplyDelete