Whenever I go to a race, I always dislike the jerk talking all about "last year" and how great things were. Like, hello, It is this year. Yesterday, however, I was one of those jerks.
Let me back up a bit and talk about last year's Hot Chocolate 5k experience. I didn't have a blog then so I can't link you to a recap... Last year I did the Hot Chocolate 5k and had fun. It was one of the first few post-marathon races and I was happy to get out there and run "fast" (after running long and slow for so long). The post-race party was a blast and not very crowded. I got my cup of fondue and tons of little Ghiridelli squares. I mingled with some of my friends and I was able to meet up with most people that I knew were running it.
I heard nothing but great things about the new 15k course, and when registration opened up, I registered for the 15k with course envy from the 2011 event. The distance enticed me. Then, the new course map went up and it was not at all like the 2011 course. It was on Lake Shore Drive and a total snooze-fest. I was disappointed but I was already signed up. I had even tweeted and Facebooked Ram Racing asking if the course was on the Lakefront Path and they assured me it was not. Instead, it was run on the streets next to Lakeshore Drive. A little more room, same boring course of most (and much cheaper Chicago races). As race day drew near, I didn't really have lots of specific goals as I didn't want to set my hopes too high when I'm not at my ideal fitness level with everything else going on in life. When I heard the expo was in a tent in a parking lot, I thought it was some kind of joke. I had some coworkers that were going so I asked if one of them could pick up my packet. Based on the horror stories on Twitter, Facebook, and on various blogs, I was happy to have asked someone else to go. Ram Racing apologized a couple different times on Facebook, saying the race would be worth the wait. Somehow, I had my doubts.
Race morning came and I headed to our Chicago Blogger meetup. Since some folks were in wave 2 and others were volunteering, it ended up being just me and Sierra.
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| Pre-Race by Buckingham Fountain |
We had tweeted back and forth about our race goals and we planned on starting the race together. With our B bibs, I felt totally legit as the corrals went all the way up to T (yes, T). After a pretty quick gear check, we made our way to the start, running into
Amanda TTF on our way. We all ended up starting in the same corral so it worked out perfectly. Sierra took a quick pre-race photo before we were off.
There was a 3+ minute wait between the start of each corral so I was very glad we were in one of the earlier corrals. I've been trying not to go out too fast on races and I think I've been getting better about it. I turned off the auto lap on my Garmin and manually clicked at each mile.
Mile 1 8:20
Mile 2 7:53
Sierra's husband was around mile 2. He snapped a photo of us together. I need to take some lessons on how to pose for race photos from her.
Mile 3 8:11
Right before mile 3, I caught my toe on a lip on the sidewalk. I knew I was going down but there was nothing I could do about it. I skidded on the ground a little and a few folks stopped to ask if I was okay. Thankfully with all the layers of clothing, the hands were fine and a few scrapes weren't discovered until after the race.
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| My "wounds" |
Mile 4 7:56
Mile 5 8:04
Mile 6 8:29
This is where I started to feel it, we had turned around, there were some rolling hills but we still had a little ways to go. Once we hit the turnaround, we got a bit of our momentum back. Around this point, I saw another familiar face. Nicole Fritz was running next to me and we chatted for a bit before it became too hard to talk. We passed Nicole during one of the last water stops.
I took a few bites of a
Picky Bar and a pretzel at mile 6. Have you ever tried chewing and swallowing a pretzel during a race without water? I don't recommend it. I waited to take my 2nd pretzel until I got to the next aid station.
Mile 7 8:27 (long)
Mile 8 7:34 (short)
At this point, the end was near. Sierra started to pull ahead and I let her go. The wind, little rolling hills, and everything else were starting to get to me.
Mile 9 8:00
The last uphill I was struggling when I hear a voice behind me. "You can do it Kelly!" with a little bit of pressure on my back, literally pushing me up the hill. It was Nicole! It was the boost I really needed just as the finish line came into view. It was time for the last few kicks.
Mile 0.3 7:16
Finish time: 1:15:19. I couldn't believe it. I did the math and that is about 8:05 minutes per mile. Holy schnikes! I found Sierra right away and I thanked her for a great race. I don't think I would have gone as fast for as long as I did without her sticking with me as we both pushed outside our comfort zone.
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| Finish Line smiles after a great race! |
After grabbing my gear (and running into fellow
Yankee Runners Curtis and Shelby), I headed to check out this finishers mug I had high hopes for and empty pockets for the anticipated Ghiridelli squares. The finishers mug wasn't really a mug, more like a piece of cheap plastic in the shape of a mug. It wasn't really anything I could take home with me, so I ate my food (and the hot chocolate was cold and not nearly as delicious as last year, much more watered down).
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| Look at that face! This candid shot really shows my disappointment with the post-race swag. |
And all the Ghiridelli squares I was hoping for were nowhere to be found. A dinky little generic chocolate square was included in our "mug" (but I would bet it would be milk chocolate and disappointing do I didn't waste the calories). I was thoroughly disappointed with the spread. (Turns out, Ghiridelli is no longer a sponsor of this race. After the
Hot Chocolate DC, I'm not really surprised.)
I found a few other friends after the race and snagged a pic with Nicole.
The grassy field was covered with people and heaping garbage cans full of our treasured "mugs." It was wayyy overcrowded to the point where you could barely move. How is this a safe environment for folks? Not to mention all the people that brought their strollers and children to this family-friendly event.
When time for the post-race blogger meet up, some of the folks had dispersed but I met Pete @
Lakefront Trail for the first time. We chatted for a bit about the race before taking a pic and I headed home.
Despite having a great race and really enjoying the 15k distance in general, I really have some huge disappointments with Ram Racing.
Pros:-- Sweatshirt is nice although sizing is off. I've come to expect this from them and I ordered a size up in anticipation
-- Great aid stations with plenty of water and Gatorade
-- Tons of porta-potties
Cons: -- Boring course. Along the streets right next to the lakefront path (including Lake Shore Drive), under tunnels of McCormick place with poor lighting (I was worried I would trip for the 2nd time), rolling hills that weren't really expected. I felt unsafe (and always do) running on Lake Shore Drive, despite the traffic cones. If one person swerves, isn't paying attention, or causes an accident, runners could die.
-- Crowded course: there was lots of weaving around runners. I felt bad for those that started much farther back. With 40k runners though, I guess that can be expected. However, with part of the course on a busy street, I felt this was dangerous.
-- Corral System: great idea in theory, poorly executed. Verify times of runners. People running the 5k that started in A should not be walking when the B corral goes through. Police the corrals so that folks that have a Q corral cannot start in B.
-- Post-race party was too crowded. I don't remember it being this crowded last year. I couldn't even move. There were lots of parents with children and jogging strollers for this family-friendly event (to go along with the added "kids dash")
I think I had a different perspective of this race, having had such a positive experience last year. I had high hopes and was just continuously let down. I've run a decent amount of races... some big, small, cheap, expensive... and this has to be one of the most disorganized events I've been to. It seems that last year things went fairly smoothly, and yet Ram Racing decided to make lots of changes. This led to lots of confused, frustrated, and upset runners. Some people responded to the nay-sayers on Facebook and Twitter talking about putting things in perspective (with everything going on in New York). To a certain extent, I agree about the complainers, but on the other hand, many of these complainers have valid points and concerns.
I know a lot of runners (newbies and veterans alike) were upset with this race between waiting for 3 hours in the freezing cold to pick up a packet at an expo, waiting an hour and a half to start, running around walkers 5-abreast (despite notes telling people not to do this), disappointing post-race food, a "finishers mug" that was basically unusable... I've decided that I won't be running another Ram Racing event. It was obvious at the post-race party that this event was all about "packing them in" and Ram Racing has learned nothing from their previous poor experiences. It was not an event about every runner having a safe and enjoyable experience. I don't like to sit here and talk poorly about an organization as I'm sure it takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to put on a race. But, if your organization doesn't have the resources to properly handle the crowds, it is probably best to sell less race entries to ensure everyone (including runners, volunteers, and those helping plan/run the event) have a better experience overall.
