The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
No, this won't have anything to do with a Clint Eastwood movie. It's my race report of the Tie One On For Charity 5K last night. Well, using the word "race" isn't really accurate. Afterall, races usually record who finished where, how many finishers there were, what their times were, etc. None of that occurred last night.
First, the Good.
Based on comparing my recent speedwork results with similar speedwork sessions last summer, and then taking a look at what kind of 5Ks I was running then, I had a reasonable expectation of running a low 19 - like 19:05 or so. The cool, dry conditions only enhanced my chances. I took off conservatively and had probably 20 people in front of me 100 feet into the race. I began picking them off until the only folks in front of me were the leader (Drew Prisner), a guy in 2nd place that was Leno Rios buddy, Leno Rios in third, and my training partner Steve S. in fourth. I began looking for a 1 mile marker but when my watch read 5:45 and there was no mile marker anywhere up ahead, I figured that either I was going dreadfully slow or there simply wasn't going to be one. I pulled even with Steve S. somewhere around 6:15 and said, "nice mile marker, huh?". I stayed in fourth until just before the turnaround, when another runner, Scott Wonderly, passed me. He said something about feeling bad that he'd drafted off me for a while and that now I could do the same with him. I stayed close to him and passed him back with maybe about a mile to go. I say, "maybe about a mile to go" because there was no 2 mile marker either. At this point I had lost sight of the leader, Prisner, but could still see the 2nd place guy, and Leno Rios was still third, though he was probably a good 45 seconds ahead of me. I had no realistic chance of catching him unless he completely blew up, and Leno is too good of a runner to let that happen. I had no idea what was going on behind me but I figured Steve S. wouldn't let me get too far from him if he could help it, and I was also concerned about Wonderly. Another guy I figured would pass me any minute (and I'd be powerless to do anything about it) was John Ayers. He won this race last year, with a time in the 17s, and I saw him walking around before the race. He didn't take the lead in last year's race until well past mile one I think, so I expected him to come flying around me at any minute. And there had been a handful of runners who were fairly close behind me when I made the turnaround and started heading back. So, instead of looking back I decided to run like there was someone right on my heels and use this as motivation to hammer it home. Little did I know that I was really in no danger. I guess Ayers didn't run. I started checking my watch at just past 14 minutes and began telling myself things like, "only 4 minutes to go, only three minutes to go, etc.", although these were only guesses due to no mile markers. I hoped like hell that they'd have a mile 3 marker so that at least I could check my finishing kick, but again I was disappointed. I finished fourth overall, about 35 seconds behind Leno. My time was 18:50, which I'm very pleased with. I was also the first master runner across the line.
The Bad
Last year I ran 19:47, was 10th overall, 3rd in the male 40-49 age group, but didn't place because they didn't pull out a male master, and because they only went two deep in the age group awards. Before the race I told Steve S. (who is 40), that we had no margin for error if they only went two deep again. Well, they didn't go two deep like last year. Hell, they didn't go one deep. In what seemed like a very short amount of time to tabulate results, they announced that it was time to recognize the race winners. They called out the overall male winner - "Dave" Prisner, then they called out the overall female winner. Then...that was it. No age group awards, no masters winner, nothing. I've run in approximately 60 races and have never seen such sparse recognition for top finishers. I guess that explains how they were able to tabulate results so quickly. Jon Walk, who was my biggest cheerleader as I was finishing, said that he noticed that no one paid any attention to finishing times once Prisner came in. The guy who finished 2nd overall may as well have finished last. Steve S. made a good point. He said, "as soon as Drew Prisner finished they should have just turned the clock off". In fact, they didn't even need a clock in the first place if all they were recognizing was the race winner. And of course they can't possibly post any results anywhere. You can't post what you didn't record. And once the first female came in they could have just rolled up the finish line banner and let people quit wherever they wanted. I mean, apparently this was just merely a"fun run" in the truest sense of the word, so why would they need mile markers, and for that matter, why did it even need to be exactly 5K? What difference does it make? I spoke to one of the race organizers and she said that they couldn't justify the added expense of chips this year so how could they possibly record all the times without chips? I told her I've done plenty of races that didn't use chips but still managed to give out age group awards, but it fell on deaf ears. If you care at all about your official time, or think you might have a shot at an age group award, or care about mile splits, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS RACE NEXT YEAR.
The Ugly
Steve S. suffered an as-yet undiagnosed injury last night and finished in a disappointing 20:13. I watched him hobble the last 100 feet and knew that something was seriously wrong. He said he had the worst shin-splint in one of his legs in the history of mankind, but is having x-rays done today. He literally couldn't walk on it last night and had to hop toward the stage when he won a door prize. I truly hope that it's nothing too serious because this summer is going to be hard-hat time again and there's no quit in Steve, even if it's 96 degrees. I believe our success last fall and winter was due in large part to getting good base milage all through the summer last year. I'll still do it even without Steve if it turns out that he can't run for a while, but suffering is only 1/10th as bad when you have someone to suffer with. At least I'll have our other training partner, Brian K.
The post-race food and drinks were good, as were the door-prizes (though I didn't win one). And they had a live band. Those three things were nice and the race deserves recognition for those. But there's no way in hell I'll ever do this race again if they're not going to recognize any runners other than the overall male and female winners.
First, the Good.
Based on comparing my recent speedwork results with similar speedwork sessions last summer, and then taking a look at what kind of 5Ks I was running then, I had a reasonable expectation of running a low 19 - like 19:05 or so. The cool, dry conditions only enhanced my chances. I took off conservatively and had probably 20 people in front of me 100 feet into the race. I began picking them off until the only folks in front of me were the leader (Drew Prisner), a guy in 2nd place that was Leno Rios buddy, Leno Rios in third, and my training partner Steve S. in fourth. I began looking for a 1 mile marker but when my watch read 5:45 and there was no mile marker anywhere up ahead, I figured that either I was going dreadfully slow or there simply wasn't going to be one. I pulled even with Steve S. somewhere around 6:15 and said, "nice mile marker, huh?". I stayed in fourth until just before the turnaround, when another runner, Scott Wonderly, passed me. He said something about feeling bad that he'd drafted off me for a while and that now I could do the same with him. I stayed close to him and passed him back with maybe about a mile to go. I say, "maybe about a mile to go" because there was no 2 mile marker either. At this point I had lost sight of the leader, Prisner, but could still see the 2nd place guy, and Leno Rios was still third, though he was probably a good 45 seconds ahead of me. I had no realistic chance of catching him unless he completely blew up, and Leno is too good of a runner to let that happen. I had no idea what was going on behind me but I figured Steve S. wouldn't let me get too far from him if he could help it, and I was also concerned about Wonderly. Another guy I figured would pass me any minute (and I'd be powerless to do anything about it) was John Ayers. He won this race last year, with a time in the 17s, and I saw him walking around before the race. He didn't take the lead in last year's race until well past mile one I think, so I expected him to come flying around me at any minute. And there had been a handful of runners who were fairly close behind me when I made the turnaround and started heading back. So, instead of looking back I decided to run like there was someone right on my heels and use this as motivation to hammer it home. Little did I know that I was really in no danger. I guess Ayers didn't run. I started checking my watch at just past 14 minutes and began telling myself things like, "only 4 minutes to go, only three minutes to go, etc.", although these were only guesses due to no mile markers. I hoped like hell that they'd have a mile 3 marker so that at least I could check my finishing kick, but again I was disappointed. I finished fourth overall, about 35 seconds behind Leno. My time was 18:50, which I'm very pleased with. I was also the first master runner across the line.
The Bad
Last year I ran 19:47, was 10th overall, 3rd in the male 40-49 age group, but didn't place because they didn't pull out a male master, and because they only went two deep in the age group awards. Before the race I told Steve S. (who is 40), that we had no margin for error if they only went two deep again. Well, they didn't go two deep like last year. Hell, they didn't go one deep. In what seemed like a very short amount of time to tabulate results, they announced that it was time to recognize the race winners. They called out the overall male winner - "Dave" Prisner, then they called out the overall female winner. Then...that was it. No age group awards, no masters winner, nothing. I've run in approximately 60 races and have never seen such sparse recognition for top finishers. I guess that explains how they were able to tabulate results so quickly. Jon Walk, who was my biggest cheerleader as I was finishing, said that he noticed that no one paid any attention to finishing times once Prisner came in. The guy who finished 2nd overall may as well have finished last. Steve S. made a good point. He said, "as soon as Drew Prisner finished they should have just turned the clock off". In fact, they didn't even need a clock in the first place if all they were recognizing was the race winner. And of course they can't possibly post any results anywhere. You can't post what you didn't record. And once the first female came in they could have just rolled up the finish line banner and let people quit wherever they wanted. I mean, apparently this was just merely a"fun run" in the truest sense of the word, so why would they need mile markers, and for that matter, why did it even need to be exactly 5K? What difference does it make? I spoke to one of the race organizers and she said that they couldn't justify the added expense of chips this year so how could they possibly record all the times without chips? I told her I've done plenty of races that didn't use chips but still managed to give out age group awards, but it fell on deaf ears. If you care at all about your official time, or think you might have a shot at an age group award, or care about mile splits, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS RACE NEXT YEAR.
The Ugly
Steve S. suffered an as-yet undiagnosed injury last night and finished in a disappointing 20:13. I watched him hobble the last 100 feet and knew that something was seriously wrong. He said he had the worst shin-splint in one of his legs in the history of mankind, but is having x-rays done today. He literally couldn't walk on it last night and had to hop toward the stage when he won a door prize. I truly hope that it's nothing too serious because this summer is going to be hard-hat time again and there's no quit in Steve, even if it's 96 degrees. I believe our success last fall and winter was due in large part to getting good base milage all through the summer last year. I'll still do it even without Steve if it turns out that he can't run for a while, but suffering is only 1/10th as bad when you have someone to suffer with. At least I'll have our other training partner, Brian K.
The post-race food and drinks were good, as were the door-prizes (though I didn't win one). And they had a live band. Those three things were nice and the race deserves recognition for those. But there's no way in hell I'll ever do this race again if they're not going to recognize any runners other than the overall male and female winners.
posted by Lance Collins at 10:48 AM
4 Comments:
The bad thing about this race was that they did not record times. The good news for me was they did not record times. The average male runs a 5K in 25 minutes, my 20:13 was pretty sad. The reason why came with the diagnosis today-stress fracture. So now I begin the recovery process with vicodin and beer chasers. For those of you who can still train, press on. PR's are the result of training not just showing up.
SteveS
I wanted to do this one, but I had other plans, sounds like I made the right choice.
Doing the Katy 5k tommorow, but perhaps I can join you in a training run to while Steve S. cheers on the beer chasers!
Lance,
Good writeup. Very disappointing that any race would not have complete results in this day and age. I know this is race management 101, but you don't need chips to produce race results. They aren't even particularly helpful for small races. They are very helpful for scoring large races fast. For small races there are lots of easy (and free) ways to score a race. Pull tags and a laptop does the job, for example.
Steeeve
i'm glad i didnt bother paying $25 for this one...although they did try to entice me with the 'drifit' tee. was it cool or no?
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