This year was the 16th Annual rendition of the Green to the Green race event. It took place in the Five Points district and over 1800 people participated between the 15k, the 10k, 5k, and 1 mile walk/run races. Overall, this was a great race to be a part of and I hope to continue running in it.

Race packet pick-up: Packet pickup took place on Friday, the day before the race at Athlete’s Arena off of Millwood Avenue. Parking there wasn’t too much trouble other than a delivery truck blocking a couple of spots as it dropped off packages for the pet store next door. Once inside Athlete’s Arena, I was greeted by race staff who asked for my last name. I also told them that I was picking up my wife’s packet as well, with which they had no problems. Once I got our bibs from the first table, I proceeded further inside to get our shirts and then our goodie bag, which consisted of a cinch bag (or drawstring bag, depending on where you’re from), several flyers for upcoming races, a voucher for a free workout at Athlete’s Arena, and a wristband to enter the St. Patrick’s Day festival at Five Points after the race. That wristband is almost worth the cost of the race alone, more on that later.

Race Day: Eggplant Events have used social and traditional media to good effect here. Between their Facebook posts; people talking about the Get to the Green on Twitter; interviews, commercials, and stories on television, radio, newspapers, and billboards, it was easy to find where to go. Several sites had maps showing where to park. Parking is also important because the starting line is about half a mile from the finish line with the distance between completely shut down to traffic due to the race and the festival that takes place afterwards. The surrounding area is residential and if you plan on staying a while for the party, you should park in the designated spots for the race so you don’t get towed or have your car stuck at that spot until the next day.

We walked down to the starting line at got our picture taken with our running group. Afterwards, we mingled around and watched one of the people from Athlete’s Arena try to warm up (and pump up) the 10k and 15k crowd before the start of their race at 7:30 AM. The same routine started again for the 5k and 1 mile groups as we gathered near the starting line a little before 8 AM.

The course itself was basically easy. The first half mile takes you over a flat surface and it is almost at exactly the half mile mark that you start your ascent up a hill. Once you crest the hill and turn right, it is relatively smooth coasting with one or two noticeable uphill spots afterwards. This is a familiar area for anyone who has run through the Shandon area of Columbia; the most noticeable race I can think of is the Red Shoe Run that happens in this area, but several summer races happen in this neighborhood as well.

The crowd was huge for the Get to the Green event. Out of the over 2300 people registered for the Get to the Green, 1400 ran in the 5k event. If you are looking to get a good time and hope to place in your age group or even overall, you will want to start as close to the starting line as possible; I always start at the end of the pack, and my mile times showed. My first mile registered with an 8:30 pace while my second and third miles were averaging just over an eight (8) minute pace. While it was crowded out there, at no point did I feel anyone shove or push me to get ahead. There were two women who did impede the very beginning by walking down the very middle of the street which blocked up race traffic within the first three minutes of the race, but they were the only ones I noticed.

The water stations were around the 1 mile marker and 2.5 mile area. I am sure the second water station was there more for the 10k and 15k runners than the 5k participants since we could see the finish line from the water tables. There was plenty of water at those two stations as well as the one at the finish line. The finish line water station also had bunches of bananas, different granola bars, and even cookies to hand out.

After finishing the race, I was greeted by volunteers handing out the finisher medal which also doubles as a bottle opener. Besides the refreshments tables, Athlete’s Arena and Orange Theory had booths set up to give more information about their gyms. A massaging service was also there offering free services to runners. The race results tent has two or three computers set up to print our individual results and even the overall results scrolling on a big television screen behind the tables.

My only complaint for this race, and it didn’t affect me personally, was the lack of a bag check. Our son was with us, so I made him the pack mule of the family and handed him my keys and jacket before the race. However, while running the 5k race, I saw several people running with their cinch bags on their backs and shoulders on the course.

This was a very festive race with the vast majority wearing green for the race. I even wore my Ireland rugby shirt that I picked up at the Shannon airport in Ireland last year when I was travelling back from the Middle East from Army training. I spotted several costumes out there as well, to include someone dressed as a beer keg and another person pretending to be a banana.

If you want to see a quick reel of what the race looked like, go to this: https://youtu.be/sl8TC69EyTg