Falling For You 5k

I'm excited to join a new link up that just started last week.  Join your hosts Coach Debbie Runs, Running on Happy, Confessions of a Mother Runner, Mile by Mile, Runs with Pugs, and Fauxrunner each week for the Runners' Roundup linkup!  You can post your favorite running tips, experiences, race and training recaps, workouts, gear, and coaching ideas. 

I'm going to recap the Falling For You 5k that Mike and I ran last weekend. For the back story, we had signed up for a 5k with this company in January.  However, that 5k got cancelled at the last minute due to course flooding.  The race organizer gave us a code to use to sign up for one of their other races and we saw that this one was not that too far from us so we chose it as our replacement race.

And I'm glad we did!  It was a beautiful course without much hilliness.  It was on the C&O Canal Tow Path  by Great Falls.  There was a half marathon at 8am, a 10k at 8:30 and the 5k started at 9am.  Since it was at the Great Falls visitor center, there was plenty of parking and real bathrooms at the start.  There was a $20 fee for parking since it's a national park. 

The parking was handy since it was a cold morning and we could just wait in the car until 15 minutes before the race.

The 5k was pretty small with around 60 participants.  Since it was such a small race, bib pick up was just the morning before the race.  There was no option to pick it up in advance.

The course was on a crushed gravel trail and this time of year, a lot of the trail was packed dirt.  Thankfully it wasn't too muddy.  I was surprised by that given all the rain we've had recently.  The trail was of course open to others as well so there were a couple times that we had to pass groups of hikers.  But it wasn't too bad given that it was Winter and not too many people were out.  Mike and I were in the back of the pack anyway so we had plenty of room.

The only downside I have for this race is that they didn't have any food at the end.  I would have appreciated a banana.  It's not a big deal for us since we just did the 5k.  But I'm surprised given that there was also the 10k and half.  I would have given up the shirt and medal to have food instead.  It's clear where my priorities are!

But other than that, it was a great race.  Small but well organized and really friendly.  The beautiful trail is of course what really made it.  And it is close to Great Falls and the Billy Goat Trail in case you wanted to go hiking afterward!  We just took a photo of the falls and headed out to get food.

Winter Hains Point 5k

Well, I posted a couple weeks ago that one of my goals for 2020 was to do more local races.  And the first one was supposed to be the Winter Hains Point 5k on January 26th.  Sadly, the race didn't happen but I did want to share the experience.  I'm joining Fairytales and Fitness for their Friday link up to talk about how the morning went.

So we had found a cheap hotel room downtown and stayed there Saturday night.  This was Mike's first 5k that he had trained for so I wanted to make it as easy as possible.  We had an early dinner and an early night so we would be refreshed for the morning.

 

And some wine tasting with dinner

The race started at 8am and was only a 10 minute Lyft ride away.  We got up at 6:30 and called the car at 7:15.  So we were at the race start by 7:30.  There was no packet pick up in advance so we had to pick up that morning.  But it went smoothly and we were able to get our bibs and shirts with no problem.  Of course, we had no where to put the shirts so we just wore them over our existing shirts and under our jackets.

 

The shirt design is pretty cute, with runners going past the Lincoln Memorial statue

It was cold that day but not too bad.  It was in the low 30s but with a feels like temperature in the mid 20s. The race was a 5k and 10k, and I had looked up the course in advance so knew that the 10k was just 2 looks of the 5k course.  We realized that something was probably wrong when we saw the police talking to the race organizers right at the 8am start time.  Long story short, it turns out that the course was flooded from the rain the day before.

The race organizers knew that and had planned an altered course to avoid the flooded area.  This would have been a shorter course that would be 2 loops for the 5k and 4 loops for the 10k.  It would have been kind of congested but fine.  Unfortunately, that's not what their permit was set up for.  The police were indicating that they couldn't let the race go on the altered course.  This was all explained to the runners at 8am, i.e. the time the race should have started.

 Pretty sunrise while we waited

The organizers were trying to work with the police to get approval from their supervisors for the altered course.  But there was still no answer by 8:20.  And by that point, we had already been waiting in the cold for 50 minutes.  We pulled up Google Maps and saw that it would be about 2.5 miles back to our hotel in a pretty scenic part of the city.  I realized we could just add some more scenic sections and make it our own 5k while heading back to the hotel.  So that's what we decided to do.  And we ended up throwing out any thoughts of racing for time given our cold muscles and the fact that I knew we'd have to stop and check the map a couple times on the way.

So we just had fun, took photos, and enjoyed the morning as we did our own, personal 5k.  We did pretty well with the course as we hit 3.1 miles when we were only 4 miles away from the hotel. And then we still had plenty of time to get dressed and make it to our brunch reservation in time!

 

Yum!  The brunch buffet had lots of salads as well as grapefruit brulee, and roasted carrots

We definitely made the right decision because the race did end up cancelled after they were not able to get approval to change the course.  The race company did email us a code that we could use for free registration at one of their other races this year so that wasn't a complete loss either.

Here are some photos of the sights we saw during our run.

So even though the race didn't work out, I think we made the best of the situation and still had fun!  And I guess that's a good lesson for Mike as someone new to races. You can't control all the factors on race day but you can make the best of what the day gives you.