date of observation: April 7th, 2012 time of arrival: 7:30 time of departure: 9:40 initial point of site is located

in the parking lot of jason's deli and the fitness center in birkdale huntersville, nc. Seemed to be very quiet at first due to lack of people. (I showed up early to get my packet and warm-up) Time: 7:30 7:33 7:34

map of route: http://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=6752

observation: fairly cold and dry air the volunteers seem to be happy and friendly there are a lot of sponsers on the back of the shirt more people seem to be coming and are jogging around the start and finish happened at a speed bump they have snacks including bagels, oranges and water there are people wearing completely different types of clothes, from jackets to tank tops to short shorts. I notice that by warming up by jogging the blood gets going better than static stretches the following is an interivew conducted with Matt 41 19:07 "I've been running for about 8 years now, but I mainly run for recreational purposes." "I use to be that guy who looked fit, but never was so I started to lose weight."

7:35 7:40 7:43

7:46

8:00 8:05- 8:10 age? time?

how long have you been running?

what made you want to start running?

"I just love the feeling after a nice after 8 years I'm sure you've made progress. Why do you long run. Plus it's one thing in this run now? country that you can do for free."

" well I've wanted to see where I am performance wise, and this race just seemed to fit into my so, why did you choose to run THIS race? shedule." "I don't listen to music, but I do use a watch to try and keep a lastly, do you run with music, or some sort of technology? pace." I see some racers talking about their stragey of the race I see many people doing werid things: shaking arms and legs, doing sprints, jumping up and down I was busy zoning out from my conious mind into my stronger subconious the gun goes off and everyone focuses and starts running

8:15

8:20

8:21- 8:29 8:30

8:33

the people that went out too fast are breatheing heavy

8:37

turn around point (about 8:40)

I am slowly passing people that are going slower than me it has a long hill that I have lucky trained to combat, I am now passing a few racers that are not trained for hills I am behind what appears to be a high school runner, the structure of his form suggests immature this is the last hill and I am passing a women who has stayed in front of me the whole time. As the finish line comes in sight I see her stride lenghten, so I use my main strenght and out kick her and beat her by 4 seconds. She turned out to the number 1 in the women's division

between (8:41- 8:48)

8:49

08:49.3 8:50-9:00 9:00- 9:15

I felt great until right now too busy dealing with a calf cramp spoke with Collin (the kid I finished behind this is the seond year that I have ran competeively, I run for shelby my coach told me to run it to help keep me fit until the season (of cross country) starts yea I like flat ground personally, I have issues with hills. My coach tells me that I need to work on that. well I use a watch and ipod on long runs so I guess I like them not really but I do find that the ipod can become an issue on hard shorter runs, and races the head leader annouced that the awards were starting

so how long have you ran?

why did you run this race?

how do you feel about hills because I picked up a lot of ground there? how do you feel about technology while running?

do you feel like that holds you back at all?

9:15

9:18

9:21 9:25

many racers are limping around a woman corrected the head guy on who got the place due to the timer not being able to see the racing bib I see many people not tired or anything after the awards were given the majority of people disbersed and went away most people that are left are doing some relaxed slow excerises to cool down from the race

9:30

9:31- 9:40

ww.mappedometer.com/?maproute=67529

reaction: its a good morning for a race and/or event they are happy to be here supported the event this event must be either well known or connected they must know that this race requires a huge amount of phyiscal preparation why would they put it there? Thats a safety hazard thats a good thing because im hungray. Why only these foods?

its like its all four seasons in one day maybe these people that are running everywhere know what they are doing

g is an interivew conducted with Matt

which one is the best? They are sharing ideas that could be used in the race or the future I assume that this is their routine before a race, because I shake my arms and legs too and I do it to loosin up my muscles I noticed many other people were doing something similar, later the people with the better times were doing this too o crap its time to go! most of them are women and smaller children, meaning that they are unexperienced and later on come in the back of the racers the racers that I am passing are finding their pace for the rest of the race, at this point we are between the 2 and 3 kilometer mark not a lot of runners train for hills in a road race, or play their strenghts more in other terrains

he seems to be in really good health. If I follow him what time will I get?

how did she stay ahead of me the whole time and then die out at the end of the race? Did she mentally break when I passed her?

ooowwwww! more oowwww! interview questions below

(he was wearing a watch) he was very informal about it, suggesting that he feels like part of the racers did they listen to their body? How come they are not recovering as other racers are

this shows hows honesty and friendship is valued in the group they listened to their body this shows that the main focus of the subculture is geared around the race and awards, and less on the social interaction after that.

this is to prevent injury and cramping later