Whew! Finn and I ran our third Around The Crown 10K this morning and a fun, sweaty time was had by all!
AROUND THE CROWN 10K IN CHARLOTTE, NC
I’ve said it (many times) before and I’ll say it again – the Around The Crown 10K is my favorite Charlotte race. You absolutely cannot beat the race organization and the course is so unique and fun as you a three-mile stretch of I-277 inner looping around the city! In its sixth year, there were nearly 6,000 runners for this year’s race. What an honor to be one of them!
AROUND THE CROWN 10K RACE EXPO AT CAMP NORTH END
The Around The Crown expo was at Camp North End again this year. It’s a great spot to host an expo as there is plenty of parking, a spacious event hall and abundant places to eat and hang out.
We grabbed our shirts, socks (you get a free pair of Feetures socks with your race registration!) and bibs and got Finn ready to participate in the kids’ run.
I ran into so many running friends at the expo and during the race. It was a highlight to get to say hi and thank you to race creator, organizer and director Brian Mister. So grateful for all that he does for our running community here in Charlotte!
We got Finn lined up at the start of the kids’ race. There were over 300 kids participating and it was complete (very cute) chaos. They ran 0.277 miles and my little guy ran his heart out!
Finn was thrilled to cross the finish line and get his very own medal!
Another perk of your Around The Crown registration is that you get a “Truist Token” that is valued at $5 to use at participating food vendors. We took off in search of refreshments!
Our first stop was Wentworth & Fenn for a box of pastries for me. I chose the brown sugar, orange peach biscuit with herb butter, a lemon cardamom cookie and a slice of ginger cheesecake. This was my first time visiting Wentworth & Fenn and it certainly will not be my last. Everything was divine!
And our second stop was Seemingly Overzealous for ice cream for Finn. They specialize in dairy, egg and gluten-free ice cream. Finn had a scoop of chocolate and it was so creamy and rich – you would never know it was dairy-free! I told him it tasted like a delicious chocolate milkshake.
10/10 recommend checking out both places at Camp North End!
Back at home we spent the afternoon cheering on our Georgia Bulldogs followed by a few hours at the pool swimming.
AROUND THE CROWN RACE DAY
Race morning called for a 5:45a wake-up call since I wanted to be at the start by 7ish. Here’s what I wore:
I got myself showered, dressed, poured a cup of coffee and got Finn out of bed at the last possible minute. He ate a bagel and I ate a banana on the drive to the race. I couldn’t stomach much more than that.
Parking was easy – we parked about two blocks from the start and made our way to the front of the crowd to the stroller coral. I love how ATC has strollers start five minutes ahead of the rest of the pack. Race director Brian Mister and his wife are parents to three littles and have always prioritized making ATC a family-friendly race. I think there were about 90 stroller runners this year!
The start line vibes were good and energy was high! It was fun to turn around and see two familiar faces from the gym right behind me – hi Phil and James!
Strollers took off at 7:25a! The first mile took us towards South End to merge onto I-277. I knew the front half of this course was the time for me to push the pace with the stroller thanks to many generous downhills.
We made it onto I-277 and the first of the elites passed us. It’s a pretty cool feeling to have an Interstate shut down for runners!
Finn had been asking to get out and run since we started so I let him get out and run for about two minutes when we were a little over two miles in. Miles 1, 2 and 3 were all in the 8:20-8:50 pace range.
And then we hit the Queens Climb. It’s a half-mile hill for your last stretch on I-277. Finn got out for a few minutes for the second time and we were both walking up the hill! This was our only 10 minute mile of the race. While temps were 72 degrees for this race, it was unbelievably humid and I was dripping in sweat. The humidity was 92%!
Back on the city streets in Uptown, mile four was another mostly downhill so we picked the pace back up to an 8:46. There’s a great stretch of crowd support here near Discovery Place.
Mile 5 was another of mostly uphill which slowed us back down to a 9:39 pace but I was able to continuously run the whole mile while pushing Finn because I knew we were so close to being done. Finn hopped back out at 6.1 to run the final stretch to the finish.
DONE! Chip time 55:12 with an average pace of 8:53/mile. It was our fastest Around The Crown of the three we’ve run – and with the heaviest stroller! Thank you marathon training! 🙂 That said, the effort was real and my average heart rate for the race was 160! I was working hard out there.
We made our way through the finisher’s chute and stopped along the way to chat with some friends.
Big thanks to Around The Crown for another incredible race!
Around The Crown September 2021
I have really enjoyed stroller racing with Finn over the years. Our first ATC was September 2021 when Finn was three. I’m pretty sure this year was our last participating in the stroller division but never say never. Maybe we can get one more year in next year but he’s getting pretty big on me. All the parents out there pushing heavy doubles were an inspiration! <3
It certainly won’t be my last Around The Crown. This will be a Charlotte race that I’ll look forward to participating in every year!
QUESTIONS
What age did you max out stroller running/racing?
What’s your favorite local race where you live? And why?
Favorite race distance?
