Sunday, 01 January 2012

• 10-Mile Race (Sort Of ...)

  To get 2012 off to a good start, I decided to participate in the New Year's Day 10-Mile Fun Run, hosted by KC's track club.  It was definitely the least organized race I've ever been in -- by far! 

  There was no advanced registration, so on the day of the race, you just signed a waiver, and you could run the race.  At the 10:00 start time, there was a long line of people that still needed to sign a waiver.  Therefore, they came over the PA system and announced that if you hadn't signed a waiver yet, you didn't need to and to get to the starting line.  There were no starting groups by anticipated race time, so everyone started together in a giant blob.  I ended up at the front, meaning that for the first mile, everyone was passing me, which is a little disheartening.  Also humorously, they warned us over the PA system that there was ice on the first bridge, "...so be careful, especially if you didn't sign a waiver!"

  The instructions - again given over the PA prior to the race's start - was that there would be a marker at miles 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  At mile 5, you were to turn around and reverse the course, therefore totaling 10 miles.  In reality, though, this was not the case.  At some point past the mile 3 marker, the trail branched out, giving the options of straight or left.  There was no sign saying where to go, and although most people ahead of me were turning left, that didn't seem correct to me.  Confused, I paused.  Just then, another runner came back toward me from straight ahead.  He informed us that the trail was under construction and closed in that direction-- so I turned left.  However, that just made a loop and got us back on the main course to reverse the route back to the start.  Confused, I ran the loop a second time, trying to figure out where to go to get to the mile 4 sign.  As it turned out, there was no mile 4 sign, and returning to the start at that point was my only option. 

  Apparently the instructions given at the start were incorrect.  The course could not be 10 miles, for the trail was under construction heading west, and the city of Leawood wouldn't let the race include their part of the trail (meaning we couldn't run east).  So I'm not really sure how far I ran.

  There was no shirt for the New Year's Day Fun Run.  However, the track club had leftover shirts from an 8K they hosted in November, so they were giving those out.  I am currently sporting my "Cliff Hanger 8K" shirt -- which is appropriate, since I did run at least 8 kilometers, and any shirt claiming I completed the 10 mile New Year's Day run would be inaccurate.

  Now I need to find an actual 10 mile race to sign up for, as this one doesn't really count...

  Happy New Year!

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