We went to the first ever Downtown Sanford Bike Criterium today and really enjoyed watching the races. My oldest even took part in the kids 6 and under ride. We were disappointed in the turnout, though. People complain constantly that there’s nothing to do in Sanford…well, even when there *is* something to do, nobody shows up. Maybe it was the threat of bad weather (though the rain held off) or the lack of local publicity. Maybe it’s the fact that people have other things to do on Sundays like church. Maybe we missed the crowds (haha…not likely) since we didn’t show up until after 1:30. Whatever the reason, it was frustrating to see the apathy from the locals. We’ve only been here for 2 years and we’ve tried really hard to take part in the local activities. We’ve lived in several larger towns and cities where street festivals and other fun events are commonplace so it’s something we’d like to see happening here. Now I fear that the “first ever” will become the “last ever” because the involvement just wasn’t there.
Billy Liggett (the Sanford Herald editor) asked “Why can’t Sanford do that?” on one of his recent blog entries. I feel the same way. But then you see something like this and the turnout is so poor that it seems impossible to ever conceive of a truly exciting event happening here. There was stuff for everyone…not just bike riders. There were bounce house inflatables for the kids, a concert (no kidding, I’d say less than 15 people were watching), a kid’s race, and food vendors. Definitely a good, family friendly, fun thing to do. I’m almost embarrassed for our town. We’re relative newcomers (only been in Sanford a couple of years) so maybe this has always been a problem. I know we rarely stick around town on weekends. We usually go up to Apex or Cary or Durham to shop or take part in fun things up there. But with gas prices as high as they are, we are making an effort to find fun things to do in town, but it seems like the opportunities are few and far between.
I took the photo below during the last race of the day. We were impressed at the number of people who participated by riding in the races, now if we can just get people to come watch. Come on Sanford, we can do better!
