Fords Colony 10k

A lot of folks might not guess that walking when you play golf can be pretty good endurance exercise; a lot of golf course layouts are well over 4 miles in length and when you throw landscaping and home lots into the layout, it can be much higher. And since I'm a big fan of both running and golf, a chance to run a 10k around a golf course layout was a natural. That's why I was in Rocky Mount, NC today for the Ford's Colony 10k race.

This inaugural event was put on by the Rocky Mount Endurance Club and I hope it will become an annual race. If it's true that this was the RMEC's first time organizing a race, congrats to them for getting so many things right on the first try! 113 folks finished the 10k and 131 completed the 5k. Because of the number of runners and the narrow sections of the golf cart path, the runners were staggered into three separate starting groups -- faster 10k folks, slower 10k folks (me) and 5k folks. The 5k leaders caught up with me about seven minutes into the race, as we neared the green of hole #2. The competition was really good; the first 4 finishers in the 10k were all within about ten seconds, so it must have been something to see them battle it out over the last half-mile or so.

As much as I enjoyed running along the golf course, it turned out to be a really humid day and I was wishing they had an earlier starting time. It was very nice out when we were running through the shady sections of the course, but when we hit the sunny, shade-free sections, it got hot very, very quickly. I enjoyed the golf course immensely; it's in immaculate condition, it looks like it would be fun to play, and they obviously dropped some large coin on all the landscaping, bridges and layout (which doesn't return to the clubhouse inbetween the nines). On the back nine, we crossed another one of those nice bridges and got a very pretty view of a lake on the property. (They had offered discounted greens fees to the runners that I had intended to take advantage of, but the doctor wants me to take a few more weeks off from golf to let my hand finish healing.)

I got around the course OK, but with the heat and just not feeling my best, I really suffered on the last couple of miles and stumbled home with a disappointing 73-minute finish. Hopefully, though, the race will come around again in '09 and I will be better prepared for it. But the RMEC did a fantastic job with the race, and they've got a great foundation to build this race on.