Latest reviews by Heather

(2016)
"Fun race, inaccurate mileage, should be billed as fun run and not timed"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management

I'd recommend this race to a friend but with many caveats. My coworker signed a group of us up and it looked like a lot of fun. I didn't realize it wasn't put on by the farm, but a national entity that travels around putting the race on. I thought the race entry fee for the level of swag was really impressive. Although the half zip "hoodie" we got was really really thin, tacky, and HUGE. It'll likely be a throwaway for me at another race.

The race is billed as a chip timed race. Yet upon reading the info packet, the organizers encourage runners to "have fun" and "not run fast!" This is a huge contradiction. If you're going to host a race and tout its chip timing mechanism (and time it at all, really) you should NOT tell runners to "not run fast!" This was hugely disappointing as someone who is a competitive runner. The entire race I had to shout "on your left!" which brings me to the next negative point.

The waved starts should actually be seeded starts, if again, you plan on timing the race. We ended up in a later wave due to space, and the entire race was spent yelling to walkers that we were coming by. You need to at least tell people to stay to the right so others can pass.

The course is billed as a 5K. It was 2.91 miles. That's significantly shorter than a 5K. Again, if you're touting this as a chip timed race, it needs to be accurate.

I felt the atmosphere was great, and the venue was great. The terrain was really rough - and I don't think that was made entirely clear (unless you had time to read the lengthy info packet).

Overall, a fun race. But it needs to be marketed as entirely a fun race and not have a timing component. It's not fair to the runners who are actually trying to race - if you don't want them there, then you need to ditch the timing aspect.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.