Macon Tracks Running Club

Hey Everyone!

Kerry was gracious enough to add an event I'm planning to the Macon Tracks Race Calendar. It's June 26,2010 and it will be called the Middle Georgia Distance Challenge. There will be a 10K road race in the morning, a 1 mile a little later morning, and a 5K trail race in the evening. Runners can pick a single race and compete, or take on the full "Challenge" and run all three. Details are on the calendar and at Active.com.

The reason for the post is this-I need a handful of volunteers for each race, in order to ensure everything goes smoothly. Folks to man water stations, help with the finish chute, that kind of stuff.

So, I thought I'd throw this opportunity out there to see if anyone was interested: If anyone would like to 'volunteer' to help with one race or the other the (5K or 10K), I'll let you run the other race for free! To start, I'll take the first 10 folks for each race (so 20 total). I may need a few more as things firm up and get a little closer, if so, I'll update this post. If you want to get your name on the list, you can send me an email at jm_1130 (at) yahoo dot com. Total time commitment would not be more than a couple hours in either the morning or evening. If you email me, I'll try to confirm right away, and will be in touch with more details as the race nears.

Thanks!

Jason Morgan

For those interested, I've created a map of the 10K course, along with the planned water stops on mapmyride.com. Here's the link: http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1853115

Sorry, the correct link for the 10K course map is: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/ga/ma ... 0589878306

Good news for all you Run and See GA Grand Prix points collectors out there - The Middle Georgia Distance Challenge is now a Run and See GA Grand Prix Event! That means that if you register early, for $35 you can pick up Grand Prix points in both the 10K and the 5K, all in one central GA location!

And don't forget, if you're not interested in running both, but want to try and set a PR on a flat and fast 10K course, or test out your trail legs on a tough, unique, 5K trail race course, you're more than welcome to come participate.

Thanks,
Jason

Wow, I was really looking forward to these races anyway. Run & See points are a nice bonus! Thanks for bringing us such an original challenge!

Hey folks,

I made a typo in the active.com race listing for this event, and a few folks have had questions about it. In the original listing I stated that only the winners of each age group would get medals, however, that is incorrect. Age group awards for the individual 5K and 10K races will be 3 deep, with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals for each age group, just like all the other races out there. Sorry if I've caused any confusion for anyone out there.

Also, I'm still looking for a few more volunteers. The previously stated offer still stands: If you come and volunteer for one race, I'll let you run the other one free.

Thanks,

Jason

Well, the 'Challenge' is in the books, and it was a great day of running for all involved. The temps were definitely a little warm for 10 miles of running, but the plan for next time is an early spring race date, rather than late June. I got a lot of good feedback at the event, but if anyone has any other feedback they'd like to share they can do so here or shoot me an email at jm_1130 (at) yahoo.com. Any feedback, positive or negative, is welcome; I'd like to do this again and definitely want to improve the event year over year. I already have a few things I've made note to improve, like having a few more water tables on the 10K, and a little more grub at the finish line, both of which were constrained Saturday by the number of volunteers and the amount of funds we had to work with.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to our sponsors. RunFit Sports was really supportive of the event, and is definitely a great asset to the Middle GA running community, please take time to stop in and check out their selection and support a local business owner if you haven't already. Bike Tech, in Macon, was also a huge supporter of the event. They're the best, most experienced bicycle shop in Macon, and I promise I'm not just saying that because I work there Others like Gottwals Books and Copes Accounting were also greatly appreciated as supporters of the event. Another HUGE thanks goes out to LH Thomson, and David Parrett in particular, for being such gracious hosts for our event. Not only was the location perfect for an event like this, but the folks at Thomson, especially David, went above and beyond to help me prepare and accomodate the event. Please, next time you're ready to make a running shoe, bicycle, or used book purchase, remember the local business owners who support events like this one and many others, before sending your $$$'s off to some anonymous corporation on the web.

Now that the thank-you's have been said, I also want to mention that the competition out there Saturday was great! Some really good battles over the course of 10 miles! 2nd-4th on the men's side were seperated by 3 seconds after 10 miles and 3 races worth of running, and 3rd and 4th were tied on time. I went to 5K and 10K placing to break the tie and 3rd edged out 4th by just 1 point. 8th and 9th were also only seperated by 3 seconds, with 10th less than 50 secs behind them. On the women's side, the winning lady was 30 secs back going into the 5k on the trail, but she took control of the race on the trail and won by over 1:30. It was really a lot of fun to watch people get into it... Congratulations to Robert Bradham and Andrea Berger as the overall "Challenge" winners!

Thanks again to all the runnners who came out and all of the volunteers and sponsors who supported the event. And, once again, if you have any feedback just let me know.

Thanks,

Jason

Jason -

Where are the pictures of the race going to be posted? I know it was mentioned after the race, but my brain was not working quite right at that moment.

-- Andrew

Andrew-

There were a few pictures posted with the short article on mercerbears.com, under the cross country tab. I've seen a few others, too, and I'll try to see if I can get them rustled up and posted somewhere.

Thanks,

Jason

You're welcome to upload them to the Macon Tracks photo site - www.macontracks.smugmug.com (or click the link above). Send me an e-mail if you'd like to do that and I'll send you the password.