Race for the Cure 5K Run Recap

Good causes and Sunday FunDay

Today, I ran the Race for the Cure 5k.  I signed up for this race on a whim because it’s six days before my next half marathon, and I wanted to be able to get a race in just to get back into that “running with other people” mode since my last race was almost a month prior.  Besides that, the race entry fee was super cheap and is for a good cause.  Additionally, an old friend of mine’s mom recently passed away from the disease so it was also a cause that I could relate to.

Saturday night I stayed up way too late, catching up on episodes of a favorite show of mine (name withheld as it’s too embarrassing to admit that I watch it) but at least I was hydrating while doing it.  When the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. on I was really regretting my sign up, especially when I saw the temperature registered at 48 degrees.  6:00 a.m. is just too early to get up on a Sunday – I usually like to snooze a bit longer on Sunday mornings… either way, I got up and readied myself for the race, just hoping for a good time, not a PR.  We left the house a bit later than planned and I chose not to drink any coffee before this run, since I didn’t want to have to make six bathroom stops at a 5k race.  Big mistake – more on that later.

On the way to the race, our normal exit was closed and we ended up having to park quite a ways away, and had to seriously rush to the packet pick up.  Silly me, not picking up my packet until the day of!  When I got my packet, they had run out of pins for the bibs…being the semi-prepared runner that I am, I had some extra pins in my wallet and just used those.  As I’m in the middle of my rush, they’re announcing “runners on the left, walkers on the right.”  I’m in total panic, but lucky for me the race started at 9:15 a.m., not at 9:00 a.m. like I originally thought.  Whew.  I got in line with plenty of time to spare, and even had the fiancé snap a quick pic. 

The race began at 9:15 sharp, but due to the number of people, I actually didn’t cross the start line until about 8 minutes later.  From the beginning, I knew this was going to be a slow race.  About a half mile into the run, the girl in front of me, dropped most of her stuff – keys, wallet, phone (why you just have all these things in your hand to run is beyond me) but I wasn’t about to just run over her stuff – I gathered up as much as I could, handed them to her and kept running.  The race was a mishmash of dodging people and trying to get around walkers who were not paying attention at all.  Side note:  the race had separate courses for the runners and walkers, but apparently people decided to sign up for the run and just walk the whole time, MAJOR annoyance.  There were three water stations, which is a lot for a 5k, but at each of the stations, the water cups were full of only about a tablespoon of water.  What a waste of paper cups.  The race was mostly through the streets of the city and at the end I was happy to be done, but really disappointed in how disorganized things seemed.  My watch at the end reflected that I had actually dodged  run 4.1 miles instead of the normal 3.2 of a 5k.  While I was happy to have gotten in more mileage than anticipated, it wasn’t the race I had hoped for. 

After the race, the fiancé pointed out that most people probably just do this for the cause, and don’t really care about racing – that was very true.  We walked around for a bit after, and stopped at the Komen store where I got this super cute shirt.  It was an expensive shirt, but for a good cause, and I loved the phrase.  I’m such a cheesefest when it comes to inspirational quotes and things.

While I was out on the race course, the fiancé had gone around to all of the different stations and gotten me some of the free giveaways, scarf, chap sticks, lanyard, etc. – fun, race things.  We have a tradition after my races that we usually go get a post-race beer or bloody Mary, depending on the time of the race, and because I didn’t drink my coffee that morning, I was only craving coffee.  Sad to break tradition but was able to stop at Starbucks and have my love, a Skinny Vanilla Latte, on the way home.  The person at the counter gave me 50% off my order since I still had my race bib on wished me luck with my next race. 

I will participate in this race again because it is for a good cause, but I will also go in knowing that I should use it as a fun run/walk, and have some friends join me as opposed to thinking I’m going to get a good race/run in. 

 What type of good causes do you run for?  Do you ever buy an over-priced t-shirt at a race just because you think it’s super-cute?