Thanks you two, and thanks for letting me know...I will see what I can do with the results.
I want to thank everyone for coming out today. It was a great turnout, and way more then I thought was going to show up.
It was a new location, a brand new course in SA, and a huge improvement from last year.
A little briefing of the race:
We started this morning with 74 pre-registered, and by about 9:20 we were already out of t-shirts (I am glad I ordered 150 shirts instead of just 100
). We had Pat Riley and his crew helping us out with the registration and hooking us up with an awesome sound system, and as it got closer I could just feel like everything was going right. At exactly 10 am (at perfect weather conditions) we started the 3rd Annual Nick Caldwell 5K Run and 1 Mile Walk, and just 9 minutes later we had our first walker come through the finish line, and 16 minutes later our first 5K Runner. This course was 3.11 miles and included two hills (one at the 2 mile mark and one in the last .1 of the race). I wanted to make a new and more challenging course for Saint Albans and I think I accomplished this.
Just 50 minutes later the last runners came through, and although we ran out of water bottles, we were saved with the gatorade igloo that we had at the halfway point in the race.
We then awaited the results to be printed and started giving away our doorprizes- thingy's Sporting Good's, Applebees, Outback Steakhouse, and Papa John's. Once we finished with these, Jason Henley was there to help me make the Awards Presentation, in which we gave out almost everything.
For the past two years I have hosted this race, and each year I have learned from my mistakes. We started in 2008 with about 60 participants, and in 2009 we had just at 100. In 2008 we gave one scholarship worth $500, and in 2009, we gave three scholarships each worth $500. This year, I hope to be able to give two scholarships each in the amount of $1,000 to two well deserving seniors at Saint Albans High School.
There are a few things I learned today from this race and I wanted to share them to everyone for next year.
1. Do not allow walkers to run once they are out of view. This is not fair to the walkers who actually WALK the whole time, because they are the ones that deserve the medal.
2. Make sure the walkers leave their bibs on the entire time and not take them off before the end of the walk. This confused the results, but luckily it was in the top 10 and we got it fixed immediately. The results online are accurate. I am thinking for next years race...to have two sets of bibs (one for the run and one for the walk) and have two people at the finish line to handle them and keep them in order.
3. Always prepare for more people. We were close this year in running out of refreshments, but I think we just passed. Next year I will get more water and another igloo to keep at the finish line. I will also include more fruit and I am actually in the process of getting a Pizza Company to be there with pizzas after the run/walk.
4. I need to be just a bit louder. I guess since I rarely use a mic it is a hard adjustment, but I will try harder next year.
5. Be sure to block each intersection...I know of atleast one spot on the walk that was not patrolled, but I have that in mind and will be sure it is next year!
Besides all this I believe the race was great. The shirts turned out amazing and the awards...you couldn't ask for any better. I love the idea of the deer trophies, because it shows that Nick loved to hunt and I think that is a very strong characterisitic of him.
However, if you all think there is something else I can improve on please let me know. I will listen to each of you, because I want this run to be an important event. I hope everyone had a great time out there today, and I am sorry if you did not. I look forward to continuing this race in the years to come!
Thank you!
Ricky Campbell
Also, I will have pictures up this evening on my facebook page, and I plan to have them on this site sometime later in the week. If you read this tonight, you can catch the race on the News on WSAZ, WOWK, and WCHS tonight. And be sure to pick up a copy of either the Herald Dispatch or the Sunday Gazette because results are supposed to be in there.
). We had Pat Riley and his crew helping us out with the registration and hooking us up with an awesome sound system, and as it got closer I could just feel like everything was going right. At exactly 10 am (at perfect weather conditions) we started the 3rd Annual Nick Caldwell 5K Run and 1 Mile Walk, and just 9 minutes later we had our first walker come through the finish line, and 16 minutes later our first 5K Runner. This course was 3.11 miles and included two hills (one at the 2 mile mark and one in the last .1 of the race). I wanted to make a new and more challenging course for Saint Albans and I think I accomplished this.