Registration: Available online, until race day, $30. Shirts were not guaranteed after a certain date.
I registered late and still received a short sleeve, unisex cotton shirt inside a drawstring bag with a slap coozie, lip balm, pancake breakfast coupon and letter opener.
Expo / Packet Pick up: There was no expo. You could pick up your bib and shirt before the race. There was plenty of parking in a nearby lot or on a side street. There was live music by Dave Zollo. The port-o-potties were located steps away from the finisher arch and pick up area.

Pre-Race: Participants were told to line up behind the spray painted starting line. There was a short description of the course including there might not be a volunteer at every intersection, but each would be spray painted with an arrow. A child said "go" and the race was on!

Race / Course:
-paved / asphalt
-roads open to traffic
-little to no spectators
-no photographers
-one water stop around the halfway point with plastic water bottles
-rolling hills
-Police at major road crossings, most other intersections had volunteers
-no mile markers

Finish / Post Race: An inflatable arch signaled the finish. A volunteer was writing bib numbers down in the order people finished. There was no clock or timing chips. A volunteer was handing each finisher a bottle of water and a banana.

Results and awards were announced minutes after the last finisher. Overall winners and age group.

My race: I was one week post marathon and I can't resist a small town 5k. This one I had never ran before and it fit into my schedule. I arrive with plenty of time to get my bib, listen to the live music and get a short warm up run.

When it was time to line up for the race, I was shocked at the low number of participants. Maybe 50 people? There were at least 3 other area 5ks the same day.

This is a tough race course, while the hills are not steep, I am certain we ran every hill in Riverside! Add in the humidity and I did all I could to keep pushing the pace. At one point I had my sights on catching someone in a white cotton tank top & baggy shorts, but I just couldn't do it.

I came to the finish line and when I looked at the distance on my watch I had 3.03, so I kept running to get to 3.10. I had a decent for me time of 28:xx minutes. This was good enough to win my age group. However, I think there were only 2 of us.

Overall: This is the definition of small town racing. I like these races, you can explore these small towns on foot and get a feel for the community. Despite the course being a tad short, the price was fair and I felt like this was a great little 5k.

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