The Cure 5K

Today was The Cure 5K at Garden of the Gods. The turnout was amazing. 7300 people registered for the run/walk. It was great to see soo many people support such a great cause. 

I get that the point of this race/walk is to raise money for the cure, but as big as the race was (registered runners/walkers, volunteers, bands, booths, police, even porta-potties) it lacked in a couple of very important areas, in my opinion.

1) The shirts they gave out to registered participants were t-shirts, not a nice dry fit runners shirt that they could have easily had donated by a running shop.

2) The race did not use chip timers. 

3) The race WAS NOT OFFICIALLY TIMED AT ALL!

4) They almost started the race 7 minutes early. The lady on the microphone said well it's not quite 8:00, but close enough. Another lady had to step in and say well actually we have 7 minutes and people are still trying to make their way towards the start line so we better wait. 

5) They asked that spectators register (aka pay) to cheer on the runners and walkers.

Other than that (haha) the race was great! The first hill is still brutal and the view is still breathtaking! I realized that I suck at setting and keeping a pace. I tend to start out fast and strong and then taper out at about the half way point. Then in the end I run as fast as my little legs will carry me. The good news is I finished the race under my goal time of 30 minutes and I didn't stop to walk. I know that it sounds kind of silly to still have the goal not to walk, but it is soo tempting when you see people around you stopping.

I finished the race in 27:51. Not bad!

Embarrassing story, I puked right before the finish line. I had to hold it in my mouth until I crossed the finish line. See the person bent over in the black pants with the white and pink shirt. Yep that's me puking.