Today's race took me back to my first bout of running in the 80's.

$20 entry fee, no chip timing, running through traffic, and thanks to a lost satellite signal at the beginning of the race, a basic chronograph instead of a GPS.  The entry fee got me a long sleeve T, and a pair of gloves.  Bananas, oranges, bagels, yogurt and water at the end.   How do they do that for $20?

There were two races, an 8K and a 10 mile.  I chose to do the 10 mile but some of our contingent from our small town in NC (see picture below - I'm the phat old man kneeling in blue) that made the trek to Furman in SC were running the 8K.  Temp was about 30 degrees at the start, so the new gloves came in handy.

My plan for this race was to run at goal half marathon pace (got one of those coming up in two weeks) for the first 5 miles, and then see what I could do for the second half.  But, not having raced much lately, my pacing sucked - and without my GPS I had no idea of pace until the first mile marker - a full 45 seconds too fast.  I paid for that in mile 9, but did manage to hold pace through much of the race.

Running through traffic?  Ten miles through country roads in the SC high country (picture rolling hills, winding roads, lots of trucks) and no traffic control proved interesting.  Many of the locals must have run this before, because there were frequent warnings of "car back" during the race.  I've experienced that in bike rides, but this is the first time in a road race.  To the best of my knowledge there were no incidents involving car and runner, but we had one brush by close enough that the runner next to me had to move a bit into my path and slapped the side of the truck that seemed unperturbed by the presence of all those brightly garbed obstacles.  To be fair, we runners contributed to the bumper car effect by doing our best to run the tangents.  And the roads were windy.

With 4 miles to go, I found myself doing the same thing I've done in marathons - checking to see at each mile marker how slow I could go for the remaining miles and still make goal.  Fortunately I only really fell off pace in mile 9 - there I gave back about 30 seconds of that time I "gained" in mile one, but the final mile was mostly downhill so a reasonably fast finish.

Did not stick around for the awards - pretty sure there were two oldsters just ahead of me - I had checked the results of this race for the past two years and saw there were some fast old men and unless I was in really good shape (and even then doubtful) I was not going to get one of the coveted ribbons.  

Finished in 1:17:50, which was about a minute faster than I expected.  So, all in all, old school was OK.

Sounds like a great race, except for the traffic, and good news for your upcoming HM!  We have a 10 mile race around here each year, and it's a nice distance.  Still long enough to go out relaxed, but over fairly quickly.

Good luck in your HM!

Fantastic job yo!

There is an article in the current Running Times that speaks of keeping the fire stoked as we move through the masters ranks and you have done exactly that.

It also pointed out how the drop-off of competitors is so drastic from age 55 through 60 but they must don't know who you be. 

That's a cool pic. You are thee man!

Nice job, bluesky.  Sometimes the small, no-frills races are more satisfying than big fancy ones.

 

I have never heard it at all. I would figure a car was coming though.

That's exactly what it means.  And with runners all over the road it got quite interesting.

 

 

Did not stick around for the awards - pretty sure there were two oldsters just ahead of me - I had checked the results of this race for the past two years and saw there were some fast old men and unless I was in really good shape (and even then doubtful) I was not going to get one of the coveted ribbons.  

 

Finished in 1:17:50, which was about a minute faster than I expected.  So, all in all, old school was OK.

 

 

 

Just saw the official results - my time was 1:17:55.  And I was wrong, the two guys in front of me were younger, so I got second in my age group.  But ahead of both of them was a 66 year old, and a 70 year old.  WTF.  And the guy that won my age group was 60 and ran 1:04:21.  That's an age graded 83.9%.  Holly molly.

And further investigation shows this gentleman to have been part of the Clemson 1973 xc team that produced a group of distinguished marathoners later in life.  He currently holds 7 SC age group records.  If you're going to be beat, be beat by the best.

Nice job, bluesky.  Sometimes the small, no-frills races are more satisfying than big fancy ones.

This.

Congratulations and great job at holding pace for most of the race.

Congrats on surpassing your expectations! 45 seconds too fast for mile 1 - yikes! Nice recovery. I've run races with minimal support or run on multi use trails where runners had to look out for themselves and and shouted "bike back" alert.  I've blocked cars running tangents too ["I'll be out of your way quick pal"]. That's an excellent time for the A/G winner. Congrats on placing behind him. I remember $20 entry fees [my debut marathon - 1981].