I went to this race because it was my niece's first 5k and she asked for me to run with her. I was overjoyed that she wanted me to be there, so of course I said yes. I signed up online, which was very easy. When we got there we had a hard time finding where bib pick-up was. I finally asked someone who already had her bib where I needed to go. All the bib #'s where #1, because even though they had a timer going this wasn't an officially timed event. Ahead of time they had stations set up for all the teams to meet, they had a station where parents could buy shirts and then a hair coloring station. They did offer a zumba lesson ahead of time.

The goal of this event is to raise girls self-esteem and not worry about their pace as they are running. I felt a little awkward wearing my garmin after I heard this statement. After knowing the coaches knew about this, I was very surprised that some groups the adults took off and left the kids in the dust. If it wasn't for me running with my niece and her friend they would have been out on the road by themselves.
For a race that isn't about time and is to help girls, I was surprised there wasn't more volunteers along the race course to make sure the girls where ok. Especially, when a lot of their parents didn't run with them and they were on their own. They had great signs set up, so the girls knew when every km was done. I was talking up the water stop to the girls as we were running, only to get there and realize they weren't prepared at all. Some women where putting cups in the coolers to get water, while others were pouring water out of individual bottles. After waiting for over two minutes I finally grabbed a bottle of water and gave it to my two girls to drink and we ran back with it. The girls and I ran back to the finish, where they gave each girl a nice medal. After they finished they got a bottle of water. I was surprised that for a race that is usually the first 5k for girls they had no oranges or any food for them to eat afterwards. By the way it was set up I would think this was their first year, but I know that isn't the case.

This year my son and I ran this race as a team. This is a women's only race and only the mom's are supposed to get the shirts for the race. I know my 9yr old didn't want a shirt with a rose on it, so I was completely fine with that. This race was the same as last year, but the trail part was modified. Last year people got lost through the wooden section because it wasn't well marked. This year the marking were wonderful. My only complaint was we stayed for the awards this year and noticed they gave awards for females under 19, but not for males. I understand not doing this for the adult males because it is a mother's race, but I think you either do it for all kids or no kids. They were nice and gave awards for the top five mom/child team.

This was my first year doing the event. I was very excited knowing that it would be the largest event that I would have attended so far. The weather was rainy and cloudy at the start. The rain stopped right before the race started. They had all the runners line up by pace and the walkers start way in the back. This is always a great idea, but some people never listen. There were so many people in the race that it took a good two minutes to cross the start line and then the weaving in an out of people started. The good thing with this race is your time didn't start until you actually went over the start line. This was a nice race through Albany. People were lined up in different spots cheering us on. We got to run through Washington Park and then back down to the state museum. Even though there was a lot of people running this race they were very organized. Water stops during the race and at the end were well organized. After we finished we headed towards another area, which if I wasn't told by another runner I would have missed to get our bag and all our goodies. From there we could go to a tent to see our official time. Overall, this was a nice race. I would do it again, but it is a tricky time of year and to do it on a Thursday is always tough.

This was a wonderful family event. My husband and two young sons ran this race with me. It was a very hilly race, but on quiet country roads. The 10k started first and the 5k started 10 minutes later. There is no kids race for this event and that is why I entered my 5yr old in to run the full 5k. Registration ended an hour before the race started, which is very unusual. Most people just stood around waiting for the race to start. After the race there was a great food spread, plus a glass pint glass of either hard or regular cider. For the winners of their age groups the runners got an apple key chain with their place engraved on it. Fly Creek is a great family store, so it was a wonderful place for us to go anyways. This has become a new family tradition and I can see us running this again next year.

First 1/2 of the race is all up hill. This is not a good race for a beginner. This is an out and back race except for one loop. Shirts hadn't arrived on time, so no one got them the day of race. I think if the weather had been better we would have stayed around for the after party and activities.