Sunday, November 2, 2014

Milwaukee Beer Run 5K & .05K

Milwaukee Beer Run 5K & .05K - November 2, 2014
time = 24.35
pace = 7:55
placed 3 in my age group (40-44) out of 131
placed 13 in women out of 1061
placed 48 overall out of 1542

i want to preface this by saying that the course ran long.  turns out that the race organizers (via twitter) said that they made it long for "safety" at the turn around.  what a crock of shit.  the turn around went off the path onto a gravel chunk around some trees and back onto the path.  i've run the striders half that past 2 years and they have a turn around right on the path with no issue so i'm not sure what this race thought might be the issue with safety... makes me wonder if these people are even runners?  my garmin said 3.31 which puts my pace at 7:26 and considering my splits were 7:09, 7:31, and 7:35... i'm going with that.  i'm not buying the 7:55.  that's straight bullshit.  why this matters to me?  well, because i'm hyper-competetive.

bib and mug goodness

so... the race.  i'll say nice stuff first because there's not a whole lot to say:  the best thing about this race is that they gave out a hoodie and a beer mug!  that alone was worth the race fee.  even though i don't drink beer the mug is pretty great and it's cool that i have a mug that commemorates a race i've done.  estabrook park is pretty, and all things considered the day was perfect for racing.

i am disappointed that they didn't have age group awards.  this is a draw for me in that part of the reason i run races is for the recognition.  it's a hold over from my childhood (probably) and some serious psychobabble garbage but whateves... i like to be recognized for my accomplishments.  running is hard and (in my opinion) running a 5K FAST is REALLY hard.  i want it to be noted that i've tried to do that.  gosh... seriously not enough attention as a child... lol!

so THAT was a bummer.  the second bummer was that it was cold out.  i was really hoping that it would still be sorta warm given that it was 70 degrees only 2 weeks ago.  no dice... it was 35 degrees as we were sitting in the car waiting for the race.  it may have been in the mid-40s by the start.  the third bummer was that i was running this on a totally empty stomach because i am having a colonoscopy tomorrow and can have nothing solid today.  sucks.


at the start of the race there was confusion about where we were supposed to be.  the .05K went first and there were people milling all over the course so no one seemed to really know what was going on.  once those "racers" took off then the rest of the runners seemed to figure out what was going on and got out of the way.  after that was done then the 5K runners began lining up.  the organizers decided to do waves.
the people standing in front of me
8min mile and under first wave.  unfortunately people didn't listen and i was standing behind 3 people who were absolutely not running an 8min mile or faster.  i guess that's par for the course tho'... at the end kellie told me the same thing happened to her and she was stuck behind a whole group of people who she couldn't get around and she ended up missing her PR by 2 minutes or something ridiculously tiny like that!  it really doesn't take much...

kellie and i - happy finishers
another thing i noticed was that the volunteers at the water station were just standing there... they weren't handing out the water to anyone.  maybe they weren't instructed on how to do this?  i thought that was surprising... they must have gotten the hang of it because after the turn around they were doing it.  or maybe they were told not to do it until after people started heading back?  either way... poorly organized and disappointing.



the course was pretty unremarkable.  it was an out and back on the oak leaf trail.  pretty much following the same course as the striders half.  i like the out and backs only because you can see who's ahead of you.  other than that not so much.  this race i was really annoyed by the out and back because the runners on the way out were running 4-5 deep and edging us on the way back off the trail.  i actually yelled at a few of them to move over.  probably because i was finding it so challenging to continue running at a fast pace and with no nutrition to speak of.  i was getting more and more irritable by the second.  to say that i enjoyed this race would be a low down dirty lie.

this race left much to be desired.  i will not be running it again.

i suppose it is as much my fault as it is the race's for why i didn't enjoy it.  a race like this is going to draw non-runners and that will explain the lack of etiquette on the course with the 4-5 deep run/walkers as well as the starting in the wrong corrals and not caring about it.

i guess i take my running too seriously to run races like these.  if i'm going to pay for a race then i want to get out of it what i want to get out of it.  i'm just not a fun run kind of runner.









6 comments:

Josh said...

I had that whole "longer-than-it-should've-been" thing happen to me at a race last year. It sucked! Plus, I thought I was going to lose a thumb to frostbite because of how cold it was. None of this is to mention the issue of whether or not to put that thing in your Athlinks and have it make you look slower than you are. Not cool. The rest of that beer race doesn't sound too redeeming, either. Sorry to hear it. At least my experience last year got me free admission to a fair with good food to eat!

nikki said...

yeah... it seemed like a good idea at the time that i signed up for it. i had several friends who were signing up for it and it seemed like a legit race. i'm really disappointed by races that don't have age group awards. i really have to do more research before i just willy nilly sign up for a race because it "looks" fun and all my friends are doing it. hahah! i've come to realize that i'm too serious of a runner to enjoy a race that isn't a serious race. i just can't justify spending the money on a fun run. besides the fact that since the race ran long and they didn't adjust the timing... everyone's pace is jacked. are you on athlinks? i am and you're totally right! i was mad about that too! lol!

Josh said...

I am! I thought I tried adding you a while back... do you not get notifications?

nikki said...

i just looked at it now. nope... no notification. you should do it again.

Sun said...

I'm sorry you had such a bad race experience - from what I've heard via FB, blogs, etc., this one sounds like there's a lot of room for improvement. That is completely weird about the turnaround and I hate when things are disorganized at the start of the race and no one knows where to line up or when. Sounds like you made the best of it and ran fast and placed well in your age group! I hope you treated yourself in some way to make up for the lack of age group prize :)

nikki said...

i think my experience was compounded by my crankiness. unfortunately there was no treating to be had... i had a procedure the next day that required fasting and a liquid only diet from the time i woke up sunday morning until the procedure on monday morning. it is really interesting how much food i eat. i didn't really give it much thought until i COULDN'T eat whatever i wanted whenever i wanted... i just wanted to eat ALL OF THE THINGS ALL OF THE TIME. i was such a jerk on sunday! i was so hungry and all i could think about was food! lol!