Saturday, October 28, 2006
Run For The River 5K
Duluth GA 22:30
I did not have a good training week. I worked too much and ran too little. I did get in one good run and one day in the gym, but that was it. I had three goose eggs in the training log for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So I was not feeling that great about running a 5K this weekend. I didn’t even sign up until late in the week, but I thought the motivation of a race might get me going.
I chose the Race for the River (http://www.runfortheriver.org/) mostly because it benefited the Upper Chattahoochee River Keepers (http://www.chattahoochee.org/), an organization whose mission is described as "to advocate and secure the protection and stewardship of the Chattahoochee River, its tributaries and watershed, in order to restore and preserve their ecological health for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on the River system." Just for the record, "Chattahoochee" is a Creek Indian word meaning "river of painted rocks".
It was a cool morning out, the temperature in the mid-50's. The sky was overcast and the wind was really whipping up. I was able to sleep in since the race start was only about twenty minutes away from the apartment. The course itself runs through the main drive of a multi-building office complex in sort of a giant horseshoe shape and back again. It's a very flat course, although not flat enough for the woman I was chatting with after the race.
I did have a several gripes about the race itself. There were many non-runners at the race and before the race, they lined up in front of the starting line. The race officials then backed those folks up into the runners that had lined up according to their pace behind the starting line. The result was that many folks that were running for time started behind folks that were just running. As a result, there was a lot of jostling and some hurt feelings at the race start. An attempt should have been made at the start to sort folks out according to their expected pace. It makes the start a lot smoother. My 5K pace is just over 7 minutes which usually puts me about 5-10 feet back from the runners in the front.
Gripe number two was that although the splits were marked, they chose not to staff them. Gripe number three also relates to staffing. The course itself was simple, an out and back in a big horseshoe shape. Traffic cones divided the four-lane road into two lanes. Going out they said stay to the right, but after the turn around nobody was sure what lane they were supposed to be running in and there was no race official there to remind people. (If you are running a great big horseshoe shaped course, it makes quite a difference if you run in the inside or outside lane of the horseshoe.)
It was not my best race, despite the fact it was supposed to be a fast course. I could tell that I had taken a few days off. At the start, I had trouble getting clear of the slower runners. I was unsure what lane I was supposed to be in for the last half of the race. I finished the race in 22:30.
Most of the energy of the organizers of this race went into the goodie-bags and the post-race festivities which where probably the best I have ever seen. They had Starbucks, bagels, fruit, beer, pizza, energy bars, and bottled water. They had a silent auction to raise money for the River Keepers. I generally like to hang out to wait for the results of the race, but today I almost gave up. Remember I mentioned it was windy? They were just about ready to tabulate the results of the race and start announcing the winners when suddenly a great big cloud of time cards appeared from the direction of the scoring table and flew across the parking lot fluttering in the wind like confetti. For a while, I was wondering if they would be able to announce any results at all. Eventually they got their act together and awarded some nice trophies, river rocks with small brass plaques.
There were many FREEBIES! I ended up taking home a New Balance water bottle, Princeton Tec Pulsar keychain light, Nalgene unbreakable water bottle, Duravision Pro night-time safety flasher, a coffee table book (The Riverkeeper's Guide to the Chattahoochee River, 6 HoneyBar natural energy bars, another New Balance water bottle, a Subaru water bottle, a Fleet Feet water bottle, a genuine boxed Swiss Army Knife, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay I did make up that last one. No t-shirt this race.
To sum up: I wish that they had spent just a little more effort on managing the race than having the most goodies for after the race. No matter how nice the goodies and your expo if you neglect the race itself, then next year I am probably going to look for a different race.
I did not have a good training week. I worked too much and ran too little. I did get in one good run and one day in the gym, but that was it. I had three goose eggs in the training log for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So I was not feeling that great about running a 5K this weekend. I didn’t even sign up until late in the week, but I thought the motivation of a race might get me going.
I chose the Race for the River (http://www.runfortheriver.org/) mostly because it benefited the Upper Chattahoochee River Keepers (http://www.chattahoochee.org/), an organization whose mission is described as "to advocate and secure the protection and stewardship of the Chattahoochee River, its tributaries and watershed, in order to restore and preserve their ecological health for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on the River system." Just for the record, "Chattahoochee" is a Creek Indian word meaning "river of painted rocks".
It was a cool morning out, the temperature in the mid-50's. The sky was overcast and the wind was really whipping up. I was able to sleep in since the race start was only about twenty minutes away from the apartment. The course itself runs through the main drive of a multi-building office complex in sort of a giant horseshoe shape and back again. It's a very flat course, although not flat enough for the woman I was chatting with after the race.
I did have a several gripes about the race itself. There were many non-runners at the race and before the race, they lined up in front of the starting line. The race officials then backed those folks up into the runners that had lined up according to their pace behind the starting line. The result was that many folks that were running for time started behind folks that were just running. As a result, there was a lot of jostling and some hurt feelings at the race start. An attempt should have been made at the start to sort folks out according to their expected pace. It makes the start a lot smoother. My 5K pace is just over 7 minutes which usually puts me about 5-10 feet back from the runners in the front.
Gripe number two was that although the splits were marked, they chose not to staff them. Gripe number three also relates to staffing. The course itself was simple, an out and back in a big horseshoe shape. Traffic cones divided the four-lane road into two lanes. Going out they said stay to the right, but after the turn around nobody was sure what lane they were supposed to be running in and there was no race official there to remind people. (If you are running a great big horseshoe shaped course, it makes quite a difference if you run in the inside or outside lane of the horseshoe.)
It was not my best race, despite the fact it was supposed to be a fast course. I could tell that I had taken a few days off. At the start, I had trouble getting clear of the slower runners. I was unsure what lane I was supposed to be in for the last half of the race. I finished the race in 22:30.
Most of the energy of the organizers of this race went into the goodie-bags and the post-race festivities which where probably the best I have ever seen. They had Starbucks, bagels, fruit, beer, pizza, energy bars, and bottled water. They had a silent auction to raise money for the River Keepers. I generally like to hang out to wait for the results of the race, but today I almost gave up. Remember I mentioned it was windy? They were just about ready to tabulate the results of the race and start announcing the winners when suddenly a great big cloud of time cards appeared from the direction of the scoring table and flew across the parking lot fluttering in the wind like confetti. For a while, I was wondering if they would be able to announce any results at all. Eventually they got their act together and awarded some nice trophies, river rocks with small brass plaques.
There were many FREEBIES! I ended up taking home a New Balance water bottle, Princeton Tec Pulsar keychain light, Nalgene unbreakable water bottle, Duravision Pro night-time safety flasher, a coffee table book (The Riverkeeper's Guide to the Chattahoochee River, 6 HoneyBar natural energy bars, another New Balance water bottle, a Subaru water bottle, a Fleet Feet water bottle, a genuine boxed Swiss Army Knife, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay I did make up that last one. No t-shirt this race.
To sum up: I wish that they had spent just a little more effort on managing the race than having the most goodies for after the race. No matter how nice the goodies and your expo if you neglect the race itself, then next year I am probably going to look for a different race.
