This year my Fleet Feet Training Group chose as their Summer goal race the 5th annual Common Heart Firecracker Run. It was my first time running this race, but I had heard some really great things about it from friends, so I was excited to do it. Not only was the course highly praised, but it is a great local race in that it supports the Common Heart charity, a local food pantry that does a lot of amazing work in the area. I signed up for the 10K course.

We've been having a rough summer here in the Charlotte area already as far as heat and humidity and race day was no exception. In fact, it was 98% humidity when I arrived that the race site in the Lake Park Village in Indian Trail, NC (about a 40 min drive for me). The Start/Finish area was located right in the village center near a big park and shops, so there was plenty of parking available. My training group coordinator had picked up our packets for us the day before so I cannot comment on pick up, but the packets were in red, white, and blue bags and contained the usual trinkets, a few pens, key chain, magnet, lots of sponsor flyers, literature about Common Heart and the race shirt. Shirts were your basic 100% cotton grey unisex t-shirt with race logo on front and sponsors on the back. TBH, I will probably never wear it.

15 minutes before the 7:30 10K start, we were all called to line up at the Start. The 10K course was a large 3 mile loop around the Lake Park Village with a few turns here and there (basically, it was the 5K course twice with the start backed up .2 miles from the finish to get in the requite miles. The 5K course had been officially certified, but not the 10K. There was lots of cloud cover and some slight rain at the start, which did nothing to dent the oppressive humidity and temps were already rising in the mid-70s. The loop was beautiful, winding past the park, through the business district, around a lake and weaving through a few streets in the neighborhood. There were lots of course volunteers and a few police officers to direct traffic (the roads were partially closed, but being inside a neighborhood, there was very little traffic, all of which was held or re-routed away from runners. There was an aid station at the half-way point of the loop so 5K runners got 1 water station at mile 1.5 while the 10K runners passed it at 1.5 and again at 4.5. The clouds dispersed pretty quickly after the start and soon we were in full sun with little to no shade on the course. The course was very flat, but the humidity and the heat made the race a real challenge. I fell pretty short of my 10K PR but it wasn't my worst 10K performance and the course atmosphere, scenery and supporting a great cause made up for my lack of performance. Let's put it this way, I plan to make an impressive come back when I run it again next year.

There were no participation medals for either distance, but 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall and AG winners received medals with 1st and 2nd also receiving gift cards to Omega Sports. Overall all, it was a great, well organized race for a great cause on a beautiful course, and I hope to run it again.

This was my first year running the Kings Mountain Half Marathon, but it has quite a reputation with local running groups as it is touted as an out and back course that is somehow uphill both ways. I mean, it is on a mountain for goodness sakes. I'm not going to sugar coat it, this is a tough course, but when you finish it, you feel like a total badass!

The race is pretty small, just 170 participants for both the Half and the Full which started at the same time. With it being so small, each running is given special attention, with a welcome to the race twitter post by the management company when you register, to several pre-race emails. The race management (coordinated by Adventure Geeks Productions) really get to know the racers, recognizing multi-year participants by face/name making it a real intimate race.

I did day of packet pickup and it went super smooth and quick. I arrived early and carpooled with a friend and we were able to park right at the start. Participants who arrived later would have to park a mile or so away, but there was a shuttle bus bringing them to the start, so it was not a big deal. We received bags with s really nice tech shirt, a buff and Clif bar. We were told to hold on to the bottom portion of our bib to exchange for a post race meal (burger, hot dog or chicken sandwich with chips, muffin and drink) provided by a local Boy Scout troop.

The course winds through Kings Mountain State Park, which is absolutely beautiful. It was an unusually hot and humid race day, but luckily being on the mountain cooled things slightly, plus the course is very wooded so there was lots of shade. I considered not wearing my sunglasses, but glad I did for the last 2 miles when the sun came up fully. The first 4.5 miles of the Half was on paved road, which wasn't closed, but very minimal traffic (the Half and the Full followed the same route for just over a mile with the Half turning left and the Full turning right). After cresting a pretty big hill, the next 5 miles (consisting of about 2.5 miles down and then back again at the half way point) of the Half were on a gravel road with some pretty decent up and downs. At the turn around there was a port-a-potty and an aide station. The course had fully stocked aide stations about every 2. 5 miles with water, Gatorade, gels, protein bars and toilet paper (just in case you needed to hit the woods) and lots of volunteers cheering on the runners. At mile 10, someone was handing out cold towels and ice. The last 4.5 miles was running back to the start but somehow, the hills seemed so much worse the 2nd time around, esp the one at around 11.5 miles. I really had to push myself up that one and I think everyone within my sight walked a portion of it (including me).

At the finish, there were lots of people cheering runners and the race director called out each person as they crossed the line. The medal was awesome and doubled as a bottle opener. Despite the hills, heat and humidity, I managed a 3rd place age group finish! The awards ceremony was really nice with place boxes for award winners to stand on. Overall winners were given glass plaques while AG winners were given pint glasses with the race logo. It was awesome.

In summary, this race was a challenge, probably the hardest race I've ever done, but also one of the most enjoyable and best managed. I will absolutely do it again next year. Highly, highly recommend!!

The Come See Me Road Races are a part of Rock Hill, SC's Come See Me Festival, a 10 day festival each spring with events all over town. This was my second time running the Come See Me Road Race 5K, though this year the race location moved back into the center of Rock Hill starting at the Winthrop University Coliseum. The past 3 years, the Road Races included a half marathon (which I had run multiple times), but with the move into town, the Half was eliminated and a 10K added. Was super disappointed about that decision as this Half had become my benchmark race for improvement year over year. But I will admit that it was nice to not have to wake up early for a race for once as it took place just 2 miles from my house. Heck, I considered running to the race!

Packet pickup was Friday evening at the Winthrop Coliseum, where the race would take place (you could also pick up morning of). It was easy in and easy out with lots of parking as the area is designed for large crowds. Packets were well organized. There were, however, lots of complaints about the race shirts. The good news was they were tech shirts. The bad news is that they were huge-to-size. I ordered a Med. as I usually do and realized upon holding it up that I easily could have fit 3 of me in it. There were no extra shirts for exchanges and those signing up at packet pick up were not going to get shirts, so I ended up actually giving my shirt to a man who was signing up for his first race ever. I doubt I would have worn the way too big shirt, and I felt he would appreciate the shirt much more. I heard from several others that the shirts in their packets did not actually match their registration order and some who had ordered before the deadline even did not receive shirts either. The packet also contained a 5K or 10K magnet, water bottle and chapstick with sponsor logos in a cloth bag (shopping type, not drawstring).

The morning of the race was a bit confusing as there was not much information on where to go. The race information said that the race started at the Winthrop University Coliseum. The Coliseum in fact is in the center of a 325 acre sports complex and the race actually started at Winthrop Lake, which is a pretty good hike from the Coliseum. There was also no official "Start" line, just a mark on the road and lots of people were asking where exactly to line up. On top of that, apparently the bullhorn for the start broke, so a volunteer sat on someone's shoulders and shouted to start the race.

From the race start, I'll be honest, I couldn't say if the route was well marked or not, I am assuming it was, but since again the race was so close to my house, I literally run this area several times a week so I could do it with my eyes closed. It is a beautiful area to run through, past the lake, through the sports complex past the baseball field, Coliseum and tennis courts and then down one of the most beautiful residential streets in Rock Hill. The route turns right before Winthrop University, and back up another street leading back to the sports complex. The final mile was a lap around the other side of the sports complex with Finish Line set up at the Historic Dairy Barn stone wall (the sports complex used to be a farm when Winthrop first opened). It's a super simple course, but I may be biased because again, I run this route a lot. I heard from friends running the 10K that the 10K course was a bit rough and knowing their route, I would agree. There was a tricky bit that goes down a pretty small bike path that could be pretty confusing if you didn't know the area.

The 5K began at 8:30 am and honestly it was already hot. Would have much preferred even a half hour earlier start time due to the heat. There were 2 water stations on the course that had plenty of volunteers handing out water. The finish had lots of water, oranges, bananas and bagels. All finishers, 5K and 10K receive a medal.

Overall it was a good local race and I will do it again for sure as it is a super convenient race and lots of my running buddies do it. I spend more time socializing this race than running it. My results were ok (28:54 with a 4th place AG finish) but I know I could have done better, so I was disappointed. I'm really hoping they bring back the Half (Race Director said they were looking into).

I was invited to do the Color Vibe 5K in Greenville, SC by a friend of mine who is a non-runner. Her Zumba studio was invited to do the pre-race warm up and she was looking for some friendly faces in the crowd and to run with after, so I figured why not. Knowing that the small group that I would be running with were not typically runners, I went in know this was going to be just for the fun of it, and not a traditional race experience. I think it is safe to say that no one goes into any kind of color/themed run expecting to PR it.

I had heard pretty negative things about the Color Vibe series before, but looking at past reviews, it seems that they have changed a lot of the things people had complained about in the past. For example, in past events all swag items were sold a la cart at a pretty steep rate on top of registration, however, this year, what a "Classic Kit" which was built into the $29.99 registration fee. Kit included a T-shirt, sunglasses, temp tattoos and 1 color packet. You could purchase other merchandise as well, but I was satisfied with the kit.

There wasn't much pre-race communication, which is pretty common for these kind of national chain races. I later found out that my Event Guide email was routed into my spam folder. I live about 2 hours from Greenville, so I was unable to pick up my packet early, which was held the day before from Noon-5 pm at the race site, a really nice park on the outskirts of Greenville. My brother (who was running too and does live in Greenville) picked up our packets and said that overall, the pick up was pretty disorganized - staff seemed pretty confused about distribution, but didn't take too long as he was there pretty early (which may have contributed to the confusion).

On the morning of the race, getting into the park where it was held was a bit of a challenge. There is only a single 2-lane road leading into the park and it was backed up a long way to get in. Luckily, we arrived early and were able to make it 30 min before the start, but it was backed up for miles behind us. Once we got in, there was plenty of free parking as this park has an outdoor area that is used for concerts so it could handle the crowd.

Pre-race, Heart and Soul Zumba warmed up the crowd which was a lot of fun (esp since my friend was on stage). The DJ and Zumbaers threw out T-shirts and color packs to the crowd during the work out (my brother snagged a cool shirt and we both got about 3 more color packs). Afterwards, we made our way to the start, which was to be done in waves, a few hundred at a time starting at 9. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. The first wave didn't get released until closer to 9:30, but once they started, a wave was released about every 2-3 min. My guess is the traffic back up to get into the park contributed to the late start, but there was never any official reason given or announcements made.

The route was pretty flat with just really 1 hill near the beginning that you first went down, then turned around at the end of the road and back up it. The race zig-zagged through the park on a clearly improvised course that was sometimes on grass, sometimes on paved trail and sometimes on gravel trail. There where 4 color dump areas (green, then blue, then purple and pink) that had plenty of volunteers lining both sides of the area to toss color at you. There was a single water station on the course just over a mile in handing out Dixie-cup sized water cups. Lots of walkers to dodge if you are wanting to actually run the course, but again, running isn't really the point of an event like this. My brother and I did what I would consider a consistent jog though the course while the others in our friend group mainly walked it.

When you crossed the finish line, there were volunteers handing out medals. They were dye-cut plastic ones on plastic ribbons, but they were cute and colorful, much like the race. According to my GPS, the course was about a half a mile short. In the finish area, bottles of water were being handed out and the event sponsor, Tum-E Yummies Juice, was giving out juice samples and had a cleaning station (wipes) and photo area. Back on the stage, the DJ and event staff was blaring dance music and throwing out color packets to a pretty pumped crowd doing mass color throws every 10 minutes or so. We met back up with our walking friends and stuck around to dance for about 45 min or so and had a blast.

Overall, it was a fun event and I would do it again if my friends wanted to, but I wouldn't really consider it a race. More like a mobile party.

This was my first year running this race which was recommended to me by many of my friends. I opted for the 4 mile distance and was glad I did as I came down with the flu the Monday prior to race day. But, I figured I could do anything for 30 or so minutes, so the show must go on...

The race started in a retail complex in the Balantyne area of Charlotte and was super easy to get to with lots of parking. I arrived early as I had not done early packet pick up due to feeling awful. Smooth pick up process, 4 mile participants got real nice, soft long sleeve shirts (which I've already worn twice in the 9 days since the race). You could upgrade to a 1/2 zip for $10 (10 miler participants received with their registration) but I passed on that. The shirt was the only Swag, but there was an Expo at the race where you could load up on lots of freebies from local business like Juices, Kind Bars, and the usual pens, Koozies and so on. There were also vendors/sponsors giving out free beers, free massages and a post race Pancake, Sausage and Coffee breakfast. Yum!

The race itself was really nice. Started out on a highway that was closed for race day, but quickly turned into the McMullen Greenway after not even .25 mile. It was beautiful inside the Greenway with paved paths and areas with wooden bridges. Lots of non-racers along the path, but no issues with space. There was a water stop just past Mile 2 as you left the Greenway and you could hear the volunteers cheering on the racers leading up to it, which was really nice. After the Greenway, the last stretch of the race was through a residential neighborhood. I'm not gonna lie, there was a hill about Mile 2.5 that SUCKED and went on forever (even after a turn). Everyone (including me) in my immediate vicinity walked some part of it. But, after a gruesome half mile, the race evened out, ending on a nice downhill back into the retail complex. I managed a somewhat respectable time (38:31) despite my lingering flu and not running a full week before the race.

Really great race and I will for sure next year (and hopefully be healthy for it)!