A few races, good and bad

Man, thinking about what races I do or do not want to do is way more fun than talking about races I did. I can't believe that I haven't written since December!

This post was supposed to be questioning whether or not I should do the Dopey Challenge in 2018 but I guess I should talk about a few things I have done first.

In April, I ran the Garmin half marathon in Olathe,KS. I started with the 2:40 pace group (or it might have been 2:35 or 2:45, I don't remember for sure). I did good for the first 7 miles. I felt strong and was enjoying the company of another runner. But then I started feeling sick, I kept burping and had stomach pains. Then I started to notice the hills and the heat. I told my new friend to go ahead while I slowed down for a few minutes. But I could never get back in the grove. My watch time was something like 2:53....but I think I paused my watch when I stopped to talk to my grams. Although I did not do great, I would recommend this race. It had more hills than I expected and it was hotter than I would have liked but....I got beer at the end. Oh and I won the costume contest and got a free entry from 2017.

The next race I would like to mention is The Ultimate Wine Run. I ran it here in Atlanta.

Parking was a mess. It took us about 45 minutes to get into the parking lot. This was a distances of about 1/8 of a mile. There was no street control and there was only one person in the parking lot. This person was just there to take money from people who had not previously bought their parking pass (rather than to direct traffic).

After we parked, we entered the family fun party area. They had advertised a party with food trucks and music. There were 4 food trucks and I guess there was some music playing but....I don't know it wasn't getting the crowd excited. I'm really bad at determining how many people are in a crowd but I can tell you that 4 food trucks were not nearly enough for the amount of people there.

Nor were there enough port-a-potties....and the port-a-potties were out of T.P. (before the race)!!!
The race started late... I don't know that it ever "started", people just got tired of waiting and took off about 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. At that time it was early evening, about 90 degrees and high humidity.

I would call the race conditions "dangerous". People were already hot from standing around in the sun waiting for the race to start, there were a bunch of people who aren't "runners", because these types of races bring in a lot of people who want to do a fun, alcohol themed race, the roads weren't closed and there was inadequate hydration stations. In general, I don't think  5k always needs to have water stations every kilometer or every mile but they should when it is 6pm in the summer in Atlanta. I saw several women stopped and sitting on the sidewalk of this race. Honestly, women were falling out every where and there was no medical support on the course or at the finish line. Again, I realize it was only 3 miles but the heat and humidity was really horrible.

The finish line was a crowded mess. There was no system for getting medals, wine glasses or wine. Some people walked away with a box of wine glasses while some walked away empty handed.

On Labor Day, Lizzy and I went to Alabama and ran the Scottsboro Half. It only cost $5. to sign up, our room was free and it only cost 1 tank of gas. Based on the 5 dolla registration cost, they made an effort to keep cost down. This meant no race medal and no race shirt. But I honestly didn't care. Because the race support was amazing! There was no time limit and they really did support every last runner/walker. Even at mile 12.5, the water station had ice cold water and watermelon. The last runner/walkers still had plenty of Red Bull, snow cones, pizza, fruit, juice and water to choice from. And although we didn't get a race medal, we did get a decorative plate that I love. The course had nice views and I would totally recommended it for your Alabama 50 state quest.