This weekend was an outdoor kind of thing for me, which is good. I was the timer for a benefit 5K on Saturday morning (Carson High School Safe & Sober). The weather gods sort of cooperated in that it didn't actually snow or rain, but was chilly with a cutting breeze (at least for those of us simply standing around and not running), that made it more difficult to log in late registration runners on my phone's timing app. Nothing like fat-fingering in an entry when you can't feel your thumbs.
All in all, the event went down fairly well, with a couple of glitches. The most egregious one was the race itself. We had a route map posted, marshals at all the major intersections and turns, yet, yet the race leader made a wrong turn. He ignored the race marshal pointing in the correct direction and yelling at him, and instead of going straight, turned right. O_O
As is usually the case in a race, everyone else simply plays follow-the-leader, assuming the one(s) in front know where they are going. In this case, they didn't. As a result, we had people all over the west side of town, and people coming to the finish line from both directions after completing anywhere from the scheduled 5K to around 5M. Oh well. It's a fun/benefit run, not a competitive event. After the runners were in, and food being ingested and music being listened to, instead of giving awards for all the various divisions, I think there was a pretty unique way to reward the division winners. All of the runners' tear-off bib numbers (after finish time was verified) were entered into a raffle drawing. Each of the division winners got extra entries into the raffle. Pretty cool way to reward division winners if you don't have a lot of prizes available.
All in all, the event went down fairly well, with a couple of glitches. The most egregious one was the race itself. We had a route map posted, marshals at all the major intersections and turns, yet, yet the race leader made a wrong turn. He ignored the race marshal pointing in the correct direction and yelling at him, and instead of going straight, turned right. O_O
As is usually the case in a race, everyone else simply plays follow-the-leader, assuming the one(s) in front know where they are going. In this case, they didn't. As a result, we had people all over the west side of town, and people coming to the finish line from both directions after completing anywhere from the scheduled 5K to around 5M. Oh well. It's a fun/benefit run, not a competitive event. After the runners were in, and food being ingested and music being listened to, instead of giving awards for all the various divisions, I think there was a pretty unique way to reward the division winners. All of the runners' tear-off bib numbers (after finish time was verified) were entered into a raffle drawing. Each of the division winners got extra entries into the raffle. Pretty cool way to reward division winners if you don't have a lot of prizes available.
Later, I met with the planning committee over a beer. I think we will be doing two things differently next time: (1) moving the event to the fall for an overall better chance at nicer weather and less competition against other events, and (2) moving the route. I'm excited to scope out a new 5K race route, and equally excited to get it off the streets. I have a few in mind...
Sunday was my day to go for a run. I did a mutated Devil's Butterfly route at Centennial - mutated because I saw a trail I wanted to check out. I was solo despite posting it as a run, so all was good in doing some exploring. Adding the mutation distance to the standard route made for an 8-mile run. Well, actually, a 7.99 mile run and an .01 mile roll across the rocks.
Centennial apparently has a lot of tripping hazards. They obviously target me specifically too, since of the five diggers that have resulted in spillage of my blood and/or trips to Urgent Care for X-Rays, three of them have occurred at Centennial. This time, as I pitched forward out of control, I was determined to put my Pailum Kung Fu training from 30 years ago into action and roll through the crash, and not simply bounce across the rockodiles on my hands and knees. Overall, I think the plan worked: no significant wrist or knee pains from impact, though scrubbing the dirt and detritus from the scrapes on my left ankle, knee, thigh, hip, elbow, across my back, and on both palms wasn't a fun time. At All. It was an Advil PM kind of night, too. I'll have to try a short shakeout run today, just to get it all moving again.
Sunday was my day to go for a run. I did a mutated Devil's Butterfly route at Centennial - mutated because I saw a trail I wanted to check out. I was solo despite posting it as a run, so all was good in doing some exploring. Adding the mutation distance to the standard route made for an 8-mile run. Well, actually, a 7.99 mile run and an .01 mile roll across the rocks.
Centennial apparently has a lot of tripping hazards. They obviously target me specifically too, since of the five diggers that have resulted in spillage of my blood and/or trips to Urgent Care for X-Rays, three of them have occurred at Centennial. This time, as I pitched forward out of control, I was determined to put my Pailum Kung Fu training from 30 years ago into action and roll through the crash, and not simply bounce across the rockodiles on my hands and knees. Overall, I think the plan worked: no significant wrist or knee pains from impact, though scrubbing the dirt and detritus from the scrapes on my left ankle, knee, thigh, hip, elbow, across my back, and on both palms wasn't a fun time. At All. It was an Advil PM kind of night, too. I'll have to try a short shakeout run today, just to get it all moving again.
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