Around the Crown 10K — Local services in Charlotte

I’ve heard about this race for a while, and I was finally in town to do it this year. It was a great event put on by the organizers; however, I have to speak my mind on the things that I could see be improved. Firstly, the course is slightly short, it’s not quite 10 kilometers. I feel pretty confident to say that it’s closer to 9,850 meters, or 9.85k. I know the course is basically impossible to wheel measure, but I’ve used survey software and made measurements to show its slightly short, and have confirmed that software is valid in the field with a certified wheel that I have, which I have physically checked software measurements with. I had to add time onto my final time using average pace over the missing distance to get the “real time”. Secondly, the corralling was not handled very well. I was glad that assigned corrals would be enforced this year; however, they weren’t. I had an elite bib, and had As and Bs trying to (and did) get in front of me. No one was there to enforce corralling. Prime example of this is an older guy wearing a B bib with a knee brace on, he’s on the front row at the start, and ran some time in the upper 40s in minutes. This is actually dangerous at the start due to faster runners being behind slower runners. As and Bs should not have started in front of the ELT bibs. I would also like to note that the seed times for ELT bib were unfair against the men, the men’s entry time is 25% slower than world record pace, but the women’s entry time is 35% slower than world record pace. It’s fine to have different % based marks if capacity for ELT bibs is an issue, but that’s not the case here. I also believe that a male wearing an A or B bib trying to run 5:30/mi pace should not be forced to start behind a female with a ELT bib trying to...

Good race not usually fan of big races but liked this one. I got a late start (5min) waiting in line to go to the bathroom. I was in the back now no big deal got through the start and off I went. I was looking for pacers and saw them along the course. I passed a couple of them. It was neat to see folks cheering us on from the overpasses as we ran on 1-277. There were more people cheering along the course when you got off too. Not a completely flat (hill on 1-277) but decent course overall. It was a nice change from the 5ks I usually do. My time was decent so I was happy with that. The post race snacks were awesome lots of variety of fruits and even beverages. I was impressed They had glazed donuts too but I choose to refrain! 😀 I may do it again next year. I wonder if they will have to put cap on it? I prefer races on Saturdays and this is on a Sunday. The expo was pretty cool. I like the $5 token we got. I won a tee-shirt at one booth. Lots of different vendors.. Good race swag too. There was a post race party but I didnt attend so no idea what that entailed. Glad I signed up for this..Maybe next year I'll...

Had so much fun running the ATC with family. It was so well organized from beginning to end, except for parking. The expo was a great opportunity to meet new folks and see local orgs and running clubs. Packet pick up was seamless. The biggest snag we ran into was parking on race day. We left well in advance and got stuck in traffic looking for our pre-paid parking. My cousin bought advanced parking through ATC and unfortunately the road leading to parking was closed off which was pretty disappointing. We didn’t know where we were going with all the roads being closed and ended up driving in circles with a few other folks. My cousin ended up losing that money and having to pay for another spot as we were already late. We ended up rushing to find the closest parking so we could race to the start line. Would definitely reconsider choosing the pre-paid parking location, and double checking the road closures for next year. Aside from the rocky start, the race itself was really fun. Loved the route and really enjoyed the post-race activities. Definitely looking forward to doing it...