This past weekend I ran the Blue Points 5K in downtown Charlotte. It started and ended at the Panthers stadium and the route was one big loop. One big hilly loop! The course had to be reversed due to construction limiting one street to one lane. The course was reversed so that the 1200-1300 people were more spread out when we had to merge into one lane.
Course:
This reversal meant that we would run from Mint Street (flat) and turn left onto Morehead, where we would run down for about half a mile and then enjoy rolling hills for another half mile. Then turn left onto Kenilworth where we enjoyed a slight downhill to flat for about a quarter of a mile. Then we turned left onto Stonewall. That's when it got interesting. There we climbed for about three quarters of a mile and then we ran rolling hills for another 3 quarters of a mile. Then we began a quarter mile climb and ran through the construction area. This was a little unnerving because the pavement was torn up and there was some dirt and some water. The ending was flat.
It was a tough course, but I felt oddly strong the whole run. I finished in 26:33 and was number 494 out of 1,273 finishers. Pretty decent finish for me.
Again, you see something interesting in every race. This race I got passed by a blind guy. He was running alone with his stick infront of him. I've seen a blind guy in a race before, but he was running while holding someone's arm. I don't know how this guy avoided potholes! We actually passed each other a few times and at one point he yelled out 'is this where we're in one lane?' Several of us yelled out 'no' and he said 'thanks' and then moved to the far right lane. I was amazed at how well he could run without being able to see. I never saw him bump into anyone one or trip or fall. At the two mile mark I yelled out the time and he said 'thanks' and seemed pleased with his time.
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