 |
| Ready to start |
The Bibs. (I think).
As I dont have my official time yet, I am not sure if they worked. But the Bibs themselves had strips built in to them & were more sturdy than tyvek bibs. So no need for a 'chit' to attach to laces & turn in for recording time. That was nice.
Lack of real mud.
most mud was trudging through calf high water/mud. So easy to clean up from.
**not necessarily a 'right' thing, just nice after the difficulties to not have to wait in lines for showers.
OK and that is it.
Lets talk about the things that need improvement.
Registration.
I am an anomaly. I was a part of no race. When I registered they were taking registrations for weeks, yet there was no space to select which race to join (5k Leisurely Longhorn or 10k Raging Bull) I had to email them. They fixed it for others but me I was part of "Unknown Event".
Parking.
The car parkers did not have a clue, and people were being parked in such a way they were being blocked in.
Check in.
There were 3 lines, for different parts of the alphabet. Course the signs indicating what part of the alphabet were obscured as they were at knee height, so one person in line & you had no idea where to go.
 |
| Most everything |
Event Grounds
This event is for people & dogs, but the day started out with - only a few porta johns & no water areas for dogs. The drinks, those not from the food trucks, were stored outside & then moved to iced coolers, so after a while only not so cold drinks. (and no Cola or diet, Beer, Beer, Beer, 7-up & water were the options). The registration, free snacks, store, volunteer check in weer all one tent, making it hard to figure out where to go & get around. The changing areas were hidden off to the side along with the cleaning area.
 |
| Everything not under the 1 tent. |
 |
| Food arrives |
Race Start
So the race was to start the first heat at 8am. They left more like 8:15 per my phone & watch.
Realizing this I was happy to be in the 8:30 heat, as I feared by later starting heats would be way off with times.
Race Course.
Not a well designed course a few times we wandered aimlessly wondering if we were even still on the right path. the 5k people were to follow green flags, 10k orange. I rarely saw any orange flags.
Race Obstacles part 1
You will see when the video is posted this was a difficult course for short folks. It was not meant for short people at all. There were several obstacles that were basically get from point A to point B using upper body (rings, ropes, etc.) If you were not tall enough or could not jump high enough you could not even get started let alone make it through. Just rehanging a few items with 3 inches more rope would have made a world of difference to many of those I encountered on the course.
Race Obstacles part 2
Several obstacles were completely unattended, or even incomplete. There was a set of 4 ropes on the course, no one around & no point to them. Should we go up? maybe rope to rope? Who knows. How about the slack-rope over dirt, no water or mud just the ground. So where does one 'start' & 'finish'? There was a trench we were not sure was still part of the race (due to the aforementioned lack of markings) that had been started water, had been added & some logs & then abandoned, as it was another place no one was around. I am glad no one I saw got hurt as it would have been difficult to attain aid.
 |
| Erika took this pic of one of their staff, the zip line was too slack, and the pulleys kept getting stuck. She tried to help & her hair got all caught up in it. |
Im sure with out thinking too hard I could find more to complain about. I really had no intention of just ripping on the race, it was a good charity & a good idea. I know from experience it is hard to put on an event, especially the first time. Things will go wrong. Especially when one is in an 'outlying area' with few facilities. But one also need to think more about what they are doing, that people will have different wants/needs/objectives and that all people are different so sometimes it takes a fresh eye to spot issues that one has become blind to in the planning stages.
I did get to run a race & get some ideas how to better plan for my upcoming Spartan Trifecta. I met some nice people, and got some exercise (and eegees).
 |
| After coming down the slide. |
 |
| Time behind me is from the 8am heat so a bit misleading. as I was 1:37 |
But that said, will I do this event again - no.
**UPDATE 9/16**
Apparently this was the second time this event was run, and per some participants this incomplete course w/ bad planning was 100% better than the spring version. (and that they purge negative comments from their FaceBook page)
Makes me wonder how bad that one was.
No comments:
Post a Comment