Apple Festival 8K

Pardee Hospital Apple Festival 8K is a small, unsophisticated, yet pleasant run through the hills of Hendersonville NC. Weather was absolutely perfect for this run. Temps in the low 60s Saturday morning and runners were rearing to go! All packet pickups were done Saturday morning and the t-shirts were royal blue tech shirts with the Festival logo, quite nice!

325 participants came out, most of which were seasoned runners, proof of which lies in the fact that only 24 runners had a finish time above one hour (See: Results ). The awards ceremony was held off until the final runner crossed the line, and yes, she was the only person behind me... *laugh*

I knew she was back there because I chatted with her for about the first three quarters of a mile and then didn't see her again after about a mile and a half. The first two miles we were trailed by an ambulance (that's how I knew she was still back there, the driver was NOT riding my back but hers...), we then ran through a cemetery and the ambulance returned to the hospital. As I left the cemetery, I crossed a major intersection with two police cars and they made plans to open the intersection as I crossed. I did tell them there was one other runner... but at that point the only one that knew for sure was the ambulance driver and he/she had returned back to the hospital.

The two policeman and their respective cars now became the race trailing vehicles and they followed me for the remaining two miles believing I was the final runner. The final finisher was 20 min behind me and a spotter (on bicycle) picked her up about five minutes after I crossed the finish line. Made for an interesting perspective.

I am often one of the final four so to speak so I had no idea that an entire crowd could be sitting there wishing the final runner would hurry it on up... but then I usually don't run the longer distances. I do know and firmly practice the one hour rule at 5Ks as most timing companies consider that an appropriate cutoff time, thus I have never finished a 5K in over an hour.

I walked the last three quarters of a mile with a group of teenage cheerleaders that were volunteers for the event and since all of them were wearing flip flops I did them the courtesy of not attempting to run anymore as it would have been too much for them. They had to walk back to the post race area after the police told them I was the last one so they chose to walk and cheer for me from that point forward. Grand group of young ladies indeed!!

Also makes me wonder what my time might have been had they chose to walk on their own. I set a new PR for the 8K distance in this race by over 7 minutes and could have possibly came closer to a 9 minute difference had I not chosen to 'hang' with my new friends, but then, that wouldn't be me *smile*. I am quite content with the new PR and intend on setting a few more new PRs before this year closes out.

The Apple Festival is a long standing event in the town of Hendersonville and with the advent of Hurricane Earl during this celebration many Labor Day beach vacations were changed to mountain vacations and the festival itself was jam packed... literally! The race was over and done before Saturday's festival events began so runners had ample time to shower and return for the bluegrass/bbq/apple cider/street preachers/crafts/etc that lined Main Street for the week!

CHIPTIME: 1:13:57