Hit the Brixx 10k

 Saturday was my 2nd 10k of four in September! This time, we went to Ballantyne for the Hit the Brixx 10k, which is usually in Charlotte. We parked at Sarah’s house and walked over, which may have been a mistake. It was almost two miles! A great warmup, though, and we got there just in time to start the race. This first pic is a great indicator of how the entire race went.

I looked cute though. The race was on 9-11 so obviously I was wearing our colors. 

We got a start line selfie just in time!

I turned on my peloton app and did an 80s Quest to get me through. It was nice having the music in the background with the instructor telling me I was doing a great job. It ate up my battery though!

 Before we even hit mile one, a cop was telling us to get off the street and onto the sidewalk because we were too slow. He was very nice about it, but it was demoralizing to have that happen so soon. The sidewalk was very twisty, and hard on the joints, and made the route a bit longer since it wasn’t a straight line. No biggie. We can do this. 

We jumped back onto the street as soon as we could, somewhere in mile 2. It was a nice course through some neighborhoods before bringing us back towards the starting area. At the halfway mark, the Race Director made us stop. He said we wouldn’t finish in time so it would have to be a 5k. We turned where he asked us to, put our bibs in our pockets, and proceeded to run around the shopping complex and onto another neighborhood to make up the miles. We managed to cross the finish line anyway. Apparently, they pushed a handful of runners along, even though they finished within the time limit! Ugh!

We walked back to Sarah’s and changed into comfy clothes so we could brunch. My total miles for the day were close to 9! Yikes! I haven’t done that many miles in a long time! 

This weekend is OrthoCarolina and I’m excited about this one, because I won the entry on an Instagram contest AND the time limit is 1:45, the most generous time limit so far! 

Wordless Wednesday, Hilton Head Island Edition

 

Medal Monday, Around the Crown Edition

 Yesterday was the Around the Crown 10k, a fairly new race to the Charlotte area. This is technically year three, but Covid put a stopper on year two. In this race, you start and end at First Ward Park, but a couple miles are out on 277, a body highway that gets shut down for a couple hours just for the race. What this means for runners is that you only have a shirt window to get off hat highway. The first two miles are in the city, the next 3 on the highway, and the final mile back in the city. More or less.

We arrived just in time to use the bathrooms and get to the start area. Mostly because the bathroom lines looked like this:

Not enough bathrooms for the number of runners. I had friends who came out of the bathroom  to see that they missed the start of the race! 

We did a quick selfie before we started, with the bathroom lines behind us! 

We all separated early on. We had different intervals and speeds and we all ran our own race. I saw some friends on the course, which was nice.

I made it to 277 just in time. The month I had to take off for my foot really messed up my training! This race was a struggle from start to finish. The sweepers entered 277 not far behind me, and they passed me at around mile 4.25, with 3/4 mile to go before I got off the highway. If I could make it off the highway, I could walk on the streets until I got to the finish.

I think they gave me a little grace at the end. I kept up with the sweepers for a little bit, and a really nice police officer kept giving me updates on how close I was to being swept. In the end, I think she let me keep going when she shouldn’t have. A bunch of people around me just walked to the bus, but one couple stayed with me and we were allowed to use the sidewalks to finish. They picked up the cones ahead of us. 

After making a wrong turn, and using a map app, I managed to make it to the finish line…. From behind it! I corrected that and finished the race. Whew! What a morning!

 

Around the Crown Expo and Flat Mama

 Tomorrow morning, we take to the highway once again in Charlotte. Around the Crown 10k leads us out onto 277 for almost 4 of the 6 miles! This race was so much fun two years ago and I’m looking forward to running it once again.

I hit the expo today, and picked up the bibs and tees for my crew. There are three of us running this race, plus so many other friends. I cannot wait to see them all out on the course.

I’ll drop a few pics below of Camp North End, plus my Flat Mama for tomorrow’s race. If you’ll be there, stop and say hello!