This one was a no brainer for my daughter and I. Most of the events she's interested in have us driving into suburbia, but this one was just down the street.
Our town holds an annual summer festival, Maritime Days, in early August. Last year, the event organizers decided to add a 5K to the event with the proceeds supporting the planning for the next year's festival.
 |
| Fun at the festival |
The race organizers were new to the event this year, and they did a great job. Everything was very well organized, from the registration through Active.com to the post-race refreshments.
We chose to take advantage of early packet pickup on Thursday night at the local coffee house rather than get to the starting line early on race day. This was a very nice perk for those of us who live in town, because with the carnival and other festival entertainment it was a busy weekend for many of us.
We got to the starting line with about 3 minutes to spare. I'm not a morning person at the best of times, and the day after the town fireworks display is not the best of times. Fortunately, we already had our bibs and shoe tags on so we were ready to go. Again I have to say how much I loved the early packet pick-up!
The start was well organized. The turnout wasn't as large as for our earlier race, but that's to be expected - the manatee run is in its 11th year in a major suburban area, and this run is only in its second year in a small rural town. The mayor said a few words, followed by the race organizers, and then we were off.
Because this is a very small town, the race was run mainly on open residential streets. The one exception is our main street, which runs along the riverfront; this is closed for the whole festival weekend. So while there isn't much traffic so early on a Saturday morning there were a couple of occasions where runners had to wait for cars to pass or vice versa. The route did run a little longer than a true 5K, though; according to the pre-race announcements it was approximately 3.4 miles rather than 3.1.
 |
| Freighter on the river |
The best part of the course was the run along the river, and the organizers certainly must have known this because we traveled that part of the route twice. The rest looped through residential streets lined with old Victorian homes, nice scenery for running with lots of lovely shade.
Speaking of shade, the weather was perfect - sunny with just a few puffy clouds, but not quite 70° for the 8am start. I worried about August races because even up here in Michigan August can be brutally hot and humid, but this was wonderful. I hope we have the same luck with the other race we have planned for this month!
Back to the race...
There was one water station in front of my girls' school/church, at the turn-around point that we passed through twice, once at about 1.2 miles and the second time around 2.4. I thought that was exceptionally well planned, to require only one set of volunteers to staff the station but still provide runners two well-spaced stations.
 |
| Our Lady on the River Church |
After the race, runners were directed to a table with refreshments provided by a local grocery - bananas, water, and some chia-seed sports drink that my daughter warned me was "gross" so I didn't even try it. Water is really the only thing I want after a run anyway.
At the end of the race, the organizers posted times for the quicker finishers. When we left, results and splits were posted for everyone who finished in under 40 minutes. We didn't stick around long enough to see my results - I crossed the finish line right around the 48 minute mark - and the full results haven't yet been uploaded to the race page so I haven't seen my official time. I couldn't be happier with my unofficial time, though!
My daughter doesn't remember her time but thinks it was around 37 minutes, which breaks down to the same 10 minute per mile pace that she posted back in May. She was a little disappointed with that, but between all her activit
All in all it was a really fun race, but I'm not sure we'll do it next year for reasons entirely unrelated to the race itself. The whole reason we didn't stick around to see the splits or chat with friends who also ran was because I had to leave home to pick my son up from band camp. The race started at 8, and I had to be on the road by 9:20 to get up to the college where they hold camp by noon.
 |
| Band camp finale |
So unless the dates line up differently next year, I won't be running the race again. Between the 5K, the 2.5 hour drive up to camp, an hour long presentation/show for parents, a couple hours of swimming and picnicking at a state park, and 2.5 hours' drive back home, it was just too long a day!
No comments:
Post a Comment