The Greenville Zoo held its Zoom Through the Zoo 5k Race and Children’s Fun Run on Saturday May 12th. Since I have participated in the Riverbanks Zoo’s 5k run for the past two years, my wife and I were fairly interested in seeing how another zoo does their spin on an event like this. We registered about six weeks before the race’s date at a very reasonably price of 25 dollars a person. We loved our visits to Greenville in the past and thought we’d make a day out of it; our son’s high school had other plans which we didn’t know about until later so we had to cut that day’s activities short. Nevertheless, we looked forward to doing the race and checking out the Greenville Zoo afterwards. I couldn’t quite make out the course on the map but saw that some of it took place outside the zoo right around it.

We received several emails from the Greenville Zoo the week prior about packet pick-up which if you could make it, would be at the Fleet Feet store in Greenville. Or you could get your packet the morning of, starting at 7 AM since the first race started at 8 AM. We went with the second option and hit the road at 5 in the morning and got up to the zoo’s parking lot just after 7 AM. The race packet included a free pass for one person to enter the zoo; our bib and four safety pins; fliers for the Pelham Medical Center and its services; upcoming events for the Greenville Zoo to include a Brew at the Zoo extravaganza, a concert on the zoogrounds, and a zoo camp for kids; and of course, the race shirt. The shirt is a tech shirt from Expert Brand. I’m a big fan of tech or performance shirts for running and exercising so this race was starting to look good in my eyes. A little after 7:30, I saw a longish line form for packet pickup. I later learned that over 1100 people registered for either the 5k or the 1 mile fun run.

At 8:15, almost 900 racers got in the starting corral area. Before I knew how many people were in the run, I could see the crowd forming there. I love starting in the far back and working my way up as much as possible throughout the race. For this race, however, I started towards the back with my wife, but not too far back since we saw over a dozen jogging strollers back there and the first 100 meters or so before and after the starting line was a little narrow. I am going to spoil the end of the race a little, but I came in with almost a two-minute difference between gun time and chip time. The 30 other people who finished before me in my age group, except for one, had an average difference of 15 seconds between gun and chip time. That is how crowded it got towards the back.

Once I cleared the starting line, I felt like I was back in the military with my three to five second rushes between groups of walkers and runners before I would slow to an almost stop when I came across the next group of people. While most would find this frustrating, and probably jockey for a spot closer to the start line, it’s this chaos at the beginning that I love to be in the middle of, though I do wish the occasional two-person group of walkers wouldn’t stroll down the exact middle of the course while giving mean glances at people trying to go around them. After about a third of a mile, the crowd started to thin. The hills were not mountainous, but I could definitely notice them, especially in the motions of some of the runners before and around me. Depending on where they pop up in a race, I love hills (again, something that hearkens back to my military days) and I watched as people slowed down or started walking up these little challenge barriers.

While running, I ended up checking my Strava app several times because I never saw a course mile marker out there. Another thing that was a complete surprise to me was the complete lack of water stations along the course. At roughly the two-mile mark, I slowed down to figure out where the water was. The overall course was very shady and under tree cover, though, and it greatly helped that the weather was cool with a small breeze hitting me at all the right times. After running for 2.5 miles, we hit the entrance to the Greenville Zoo and I got to see a pair of vultures, the red pandas, the siamangs, and some lemurs while running around inside the zoo property. I finished the race with a time of 26:35, but the gun time was displayed and I felt bad for myself when I saw I cross at 28:30. I knew the hills at the end of the course were messing with me, but I didn’t think I did THAT bad. The organizers, SVE Timing, had a table set up to pull up results and that’s when I realized it took almost two minutes for me to even get to the starting line when the race occurred.

Some areas that could be improved with the Greenville Zoom Through the Zoo run would be to have some of the numerous volunteers hand out water along the course and at the finish line; you had to go to the refreshment area to get bottled water once you were done with the race. There were plenty of volunteers out there, so water management would have been a boon out there. I also wish I could see a mile marker somewhere along the course, even if it would just be a sign that pointed out the halfway point or the two-mile mark.

But there were a lot of positives for this race, too. I was really surprised at how many people came out to take part because I don’t remember the crowd being that big for the Riverbanks Zoo run. The overall course was fairly nice especially with the amount of tree cover; in fact, the course could have been great with any name. Being associated with the zoo was a bonus. For the price, getting a tech shirt and free admission into the zoo afterwards was well worth the cost. I don’t know if I’ll travel up to Greenville again next year just to do the race, but if I am in the area when it takes place, I wouldn’t have to think too hard about it.