This year’s York Summerfest Road Races were nice and cool with a starting temp in the low-60s, despite having Summer in the the name. These races are an event during the annual Summerfest in York, SC.
This is an annual local race that I have known about for years, but never raced before. This year I was able to make the time in my schedule and signed up about 2 weeks prior to the event and was still guaranteed a tech shirt which was pretty great. Pre-event, the race management kept in great contact, often posting on social media and sending out email updates leading to the event. You could pick up race packets in 3 ways, in York prior to the race, at the Fleet Feet Sports store in Fort Mill prior to the race, or on site the morning of. I opted for the Fleet Feet pick up. The bag contained a tech shirt, bib, sponsor odds and ends like pens and magnets plus vendor ads. I walked in and right out again no problem – well except my daughter spent several minutes petting the FFS mascot dog.
The morning of the race I easily found the location and parked at a municipal building parking lot right next to the race start. The weather was perfect for a race day, low-60s and there were several local vendor tents set up (including my Fleet Feet Sports team) and ample port-a-potties. 5 minutes prior to the start, which was on the road in downtown York, a local ROTC group displayed the colors for the National Anthem and the race started. Both the 5K and the 10K started at the same time and would follow the same route for about 2.5 miles where they split with the 5K heading back to the finish (which was the same place as the start) and the 10K veering off for the remainder of their route before doing the same. The course was extremely well marked with several volunteers and police along the route for assistance. I ran the 5K and passed a water station around 1.5 miles in. I was told their was a 2nd water station on the 10K route as well. The route went through residential neighborhoods with a few challenging hills and there were a few spectators here and there. The last .1 mile back to the finish was a decent sized hill, but there were a lot of people there cheering you on so it didn’t seem so bad.
I crossed the finish line under my 30 min goal and was pleased with my time. Live time race results were posted on a monitor at the finish line and was even more please to find out I placed 3rd in my age group!
After the race there was lots of water bottles on hand and Fleet Feet Sports had a huge cooler of Nuun for the racers. There was a big table full of fruit, crackers and granola bars as well. I stuck around to cheer on the other runners as I had several friends on the course for both the 5K and 10K races. There were no finisher medals for either distance.
Awards were presented in a nice ceremony where medals and certificates were give to overall and AG winners 1st, 2nd and 3rd in 5 year increments. I believe overall winners received gift cards. There was even podium blocks set up for winners to stand on. I placed 3rd in the Female 40-44 AG. After awards, there were about 10 or so door prizes drawn from bib numbers. Overall, it was a great, well organized local race that I would highly recommend.