The Magnificent Mile - NC USAT&F Championship

I worked at the "Magnificent Mile - NC USAT&F Championship" in Raleigh on Sunday and got to see some amazing performances up close.

I arrived downtown at 10am and began moving tables, chairs, cones and road barriers in to position. It took about 90 minutes to get everything in position and after a quick snack, we put up some advertising banners for Jeff Witt (husband of Sarah Witt) and connected up the hoses for the water at the finish line.

When the roads closed to traffic at 12:45, we laid out the timing mats, plugged in the inflatable finish arch, marked out the start line and got the finishing chute organized. By 1:20, we were ready to go for the 2pm Men's NC USAT&F Championship race.

We checked that all of the volunteer course monitors had arrived, and unfortunately there were two missing - so I took one of their positions. There is a Clarion hotel in the middle of the course which has entrance and exit ramps on the main road of the course, so I was positioned at the exit ramp to hold traffic while the runners were on the course. The good thing about this was that I was about 300 yards from the finish line, and the runners would pass me in both directions, so I'd get to see the winners up close.

I had been excited to see local sensation Bobby Mack who recently won a USA title and had won the race for the last two years and held the course record of 4:10, and he didn't disappoint! 212 men entered the competitive race, with the USAT&F members fighting for the NC Championship title. As the starter shouted "runner set, go", the runners sprinted away from the start and by the time the lead police car and the runners passed me at about 300 yards, the top 8 or so runners had already built up a slight lead over the rest of the pack with Bobby Mack and team mate John Crews in the top five or so.

I waited patiently for the lead police car to reappear, and when it did, Bobby and John Crews had a decent size lead over Devin Swann. I then watched Bobby ease away from his team mate and pass me at an amazing pace - it is quite something to be passed by a runner that is going at 15mph (or prehaps even faster at that point) - to finish in 4:10 and equal his course record. John finished in second in 4:14 and Devin third in 4:22.

At 2:20, the Women's Championship race began and it was a close affair - only three seconds separating the top four runners with Angelina Blackmon taking the title with a 5:02 run.

The recreational mile, kids 1/4 mile and kids 100 yard races followed.

When all of the races were complete, we set about breaking down everything and cleaning up while the athletes received their prizes. I finally got to my car at 5pm and headed home for a well deserved beer and some food.

The weather was sunny and warm and there were smiles all around. The event had raised over $50,000 before the race had even begun, and was a great success.