Crusher 5k Race Recap

Saturday morning, I headed toward Concord, NC for the quarry run at the Vulcan dig site off Popular Tent Rd. Actually, Siri sent me to the wrong entrance based off the directions given in the prerace email. Still, it wasn't too hard to figure out where to go.

I did a quarry run last year, and I couldn't make the same event this year so when I spotted this one, and my calendar was empty, I signed up. 

As with most of these events, they will not let you run down in the quarry before the race, so I was circling around the parking area and out on the nearby city streets. 

This race has two events: A Crusher and Double Cruser. As you might have guessed, the Crusher was the 5k, and the Double Crusher was the 10k i.e. two loops of the same course. 

I opted for the Single Crusher. I know limits. 

The prerace email said that the 10k was starting at 9 AM and the 5k would start 9:05. However, they started us all together. 

I was expecting similar condition to what I had seen at the other quarry race with lots of large gravel. Here, the gravel was smaller and more packed down. We made a small loop around what looked like a processing facility, and then we headed down into the quarry. I was feeling pretty good until we started down. Instead of gravel, this was smoothly, and with the all the rain, I was worried that it would be slippery. In the back of my mind, I kept thinking to not tap the breaks of you going for a slide. 

There were tracks where perhaps a truck or cart had dug up the road trying to climb out. I moved over into it hoping for some solid traction. This backfired pretty quickly on me. I could feel the mud sticking to my shoes. I then move more toward the side of the road and hoped that it did better. This seemed to work better. 

I passed the guy that was leading. We made the turn, and we looked to be starting the climb out. I glanced my Garmin. If this was final climb out, this was going to be a really short race. It wasn't. We went back 1/2 up turned and down another level. I missed this on the way down. I guess that I was too busy trying to stay upright. I was expecting the other runners to come flying by me on this downhill. They didn't but when we made the turn, I could see about 5 o 6 runners only a few yards back. 

I suspected that they were just waiting on the real part of the race to start. They were going for it in the final climb out. 

I sucked in a deep breath and willed myself to keep pushing on hill. Believe me when I say, it was a hard climb out. My quads were burning, and I was trying to not heave up a lung or two of them. I was about 100 yards from the top when on the runners made his move by me. I wanted to go with him, but my legs didn't have any more gears. All I could do is watch while he slowly pulled away. 

I finished 2nd overall in 20:32. Surprisingly, there was no slippiness on the way out.  I got this 5-pound rock for my efforts. Everyone got a squeeze ball which is in the shape of a rock. 

I give this race two thumbs. I like their shirt. The course was neat. Everything went off right on time. I also want to give a shout to start 2 finish. In the past couple of months, I have run several of their races. They definitely have their act together. When I see that they are doing a race that I am interested in doing, I know that it will be well run.

The Cool Down Runner