Today was my second race of the year and my first trail race. It was an untimed event, but I think I finished in about 31 minutes (about a 10:00 pace). This was my second year doing this race at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, but they changed the course this year and it was much more conducive to the amount of people who were running it.
The beginning of the race started on a large dirt road so that it was easy to pass people and get into your own running pace. Last year we went almost immediately into the woods onto a single track course, so it was very crowded and you just had to hope that the people in front of you didn’t plan to walk the entire course. We did eventually end up in the middle of the woods, but the trail was larger and overall it was a much better trail for the amount of people who came out.
At the start line, there were green smoke bombs that went off to start the race and there was a group of people throwing green corn starch onto everyone. Throughout the woods, there were several more of these stations where people would throw color onto you / in the air / everywhere! There was a contest for “greenest” and “cleanest” and I definitely wasn’t going to win anything in the “cleanest” category, though my back didn’t get nearly as much color on it as my front.
Because of the getting covered in green, I didn’t bring my phone or Garmin to track my time, so I just ran at a pace that felt comfortable and asked someone what time it was when I finished the race. I finished at 10:34, so if the race started on time, it took me about 34 minutes to finish. Later, I realized that there was an actual race timer hanging above the finish line, so I was able to compare the current time to the race timer and realized that the race timer was 3 minutes behind actual time, so I estimate I finished in about 31 minutes. Next time I’ll know to keep an eye out for the race timer, even if it is an “untimed” race!
The race start at 10:00 and there were other festivities going on throughout the day, including coloring the river green at 1:00. After I finished the race, I just settled on the bank to watch the canoes and rafts come down one of the sets of rapids. There were a ton of people on the river today and it was beautiful with temperatures hitting around 70. Overall, a perfect day for a race!
