gobble gobble 4 miler

4Oct

Stayed dry, 2 < 1

I pulled out of work early yesterday to head up to the site of last evening’s race. I had already assumed I was going to be getting really, really wet. I drove through torrential rain for most of the 10 mile drive north. When I got there the ground was wet but the rain had stopped. The skies still looked pretty menacing, I assumed the rain would be resuming shortly. Well the expected precipitation never returned, a very lucky break.

This race I had less things to worry about since we decided to not chip time it. This race includes a ton of participants that are not regular runners, many of which in the past would show up, get a timing chip and never do the race. We would lose more timing chips at this race than any other every year.

We used to advertise the race as a 5K when in reality the course is actually at least a 1/4 mile short of that distance wise. We would have runners cross the finish line thrilled that they established a new PR only to realize that the only reason for that was a short course. So anyway, not chip timing the event made sense for these and other reasons.

Although I did not have to lay down timing mats I still found myself quite busy leading up to the race. I had online registration for the race open all the way until two hours before the race, something I can’t do when chip timing is involved. I had to get the last minute online entries pulled in on the race site, utilizing my wireless hotspot. At first I thought I was having more bugs with the timing software when I was getting a multitude of errors downloading the entries. It turned out the errors were tied to a flaky internet connection. Once the link firmed up I was able to pull in the 30+ people that registered online yesterday.

After that was done I kept busy with race day walk up entries which we had a decent amount of. In total the race wound up with just over 500 entries. The registration table was greatly simplified by the lack of a race bib and timing chips. Each team captain walked up and was handed wristbands for their team members which entitled them to a t-shirt and the food and drink after the race. It kept the lines way down. The only long line I saw all night was the people lined up for burritos afterward.

Timing the race was considerably simpler than I am accustomed to. All I had to do was start the finish line clock with the start of the race, done. With no chip times there were obviously no individual awards. Instead they handed out race beer glasses to the top 50 male and female finishers. The overall team winners were determined by team size. The winning team had 47 people.

All in all the race went well and I felt quite fortunate to emerge from it totally dry.

Tonight should be an exciting one. Earlier in the week Jeremy turned me onto a special discount code that could be used on Amazon Warehouse deals, it knocked 10% off already low prices. In the warehouse they had one of the LG tv’s I was considering buying that has everything I wanted, LED, 120 MHZ refresh rate, internet connectivity, smart apps AND 3D. Between using the discount code and my Amazon spiff dollars I got the tv very inexpensively, all along with free Amazon Prime two day shipping. I plan to get a copy of Avatar 3D to try the set out. It should be AWESOME.

Yesterday I had 3 boxes by my front door. In them were the custom race bibs we ordered for our Thanksgiving race. These bibs also include a disposable timing device on the back of them. Using these bibs allows runners to totally bypass any lines on the day of the race if they pick up their race packet early. Attaching the bib to your shirt means you are ready to go and be timed officially.

I have utilized this style timing device once before at the half marathon. At that race I had a lot of problems, missing about 5% of the runner finishing times. However that problem appeared to be tied to the distance of the race. 13 miles seemed to be too much sweat and jostling for some of the bibs, since at the halfway split we had nearly 100% read rates.

Another local timer I am friends with has used the chip bibs at many shorter races and has had very few problems so I feel ok trying them out once again. Plus, Ipico has done several revisions to the bib chips since January that supposedly enhance their reliability.

This is the first year the club is holding their own Thanksgiving Race. They decided to step away from the long standing Thanksgiving race this year due to a myriad of issues, some public, some that were behind the scenes. . Originally the plan was for the old race to simply transition to the new race which offers a better venue with more accessible parking, more race route capacity and ample space to house the many participants . It’s the same place we hold the Naples Half Marathon.

Originally the race director for the old race agreed to go along with the new race and venue since it would still be 100% supporting the same charity as the race did the prior year. Well in the last few months that spirit of cooperation apparently disappeared. The race director developed resentment and anger about the race change despite the advantages the new venue offered to runners. He decided he was going to relaunch the old race, creating something you typically never see, TWO Thanksgiving runs in a town.

I am friends with the race director of the old race. I can understand to a degree his feelings but am disappointed that he has decided that personal vendettas are more important than the greater good. I am also disappointed to hear some of the inaccurate information and half truths that are being spread regarding the race and our running club in general. The existence of two Thanksgiving races is causing confusion and drama in the local running community. The sport of running is all about releasing stress and escaping drama, not manufacturing it.

This weekends plan include a moderation of work seasoned with just the right amount of exercise and entertainment.

http://gcrunner.org/events/event/2013-gcr-turkey-trot/

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