Greater Charlotte Health & Fitness 4 miler presented by the Charlotte Running Club

A promise is a promise so on a cold Saturday morning, I was headed down to the “The Park” to help Mike and Steve setup for our club’s 4 mile race.

The race wasn’t until 1:30 but the prework starts many hours before hand. Cones had to be setup. Tables and chair needed to be arranged. Banners hung. Courses marked for the runners. Then, there was the setup for our registration booth.

A few runners mingled in shortly after 10 AM, but by 12 we had a steady stream of runners coming by to either register for the race or pick up their race packets.

Last year, our club did some last minute promotion for the mile race held at the expo, but this year we jumped “in” in a big way.

Under Mike’s direction we created a 4 miler event. Having the 4 miler helped fill the void left when we could not get access to McAlpine for our Winter Classic 8k.

With any first time event there are always few hiccups along the way. The surprise parking fee of $7 for runners was totally unexpected. I wish we could have done something about it, but sometimes these issue are just out of our control. There was also the transition of the registration from being inside the expo to outside just before the race.

We tried to make this as smooth as possible, but it still felt awkward. We certainly didn't want people headed into the expo looking for us. Both will be items that we put on the review list when discussion comes up about this event for next year.

Overall, the event came off pretty well. Plenty of food and water was available. The course was a mixture of road and cross country. As always, the pizzas were a huge hit. The relay went over pretty well.

Probably the nicest part about the race was the shirt. Mike and Laura did an awesome coming up with the design and the going the extra mile to having a both a men’s and women’s version of the shirt. This was definitely a nice touch.

Mike stepped into our club’s race director role a few years ago. Honestly, I don’t know what our club would do without his efforts. Since then, each and every race produced by our club has been better and better.

His only form of payment comes in the knowing that his efforts are greatly appreciate. Make sure he knows it by telling him so. “Thanks You”s mean more than you will ever realize so make sure to use them often.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner