Taking a 5k Trip Through Wonderland
This was a pretty cool 5K as it took you behind the scenes of the San Diego County Fair. I had seen this race advertised for some time and one more email reminding me about it was enough. What was cool about this race was you got entry into the fair after the race. Even better was you got to get into the fair wayyy before any one else. You also got a second free ticket into the fair and a $4.00 off coupon. A lot of bang for your buck.
One thing that you will learn about me through this journey was I hate to be late for anything. I am always and hour or two early when getting to the airport or a meeting. I am great at hunting out the nearest Starbucks to be able to sit and wait.
So I thought I got up early enough to not have to rush to get to race, it helped that it was just done the road from me in Del Mar. I got to fair grounds and was about to park and realized I left my phones at home. Yes plural as I have a personal phone and a work related phone. I am one of those that cannot and I mean cannot run without music or some sort of noise in my ears. So I ran back to the house and grabbed them and my hat that I had also forgot, good thing my head is attached and ran out of the house. Anyone want to guess what happens next…yep locked my keys in the house! Thankfully, my sis is across the street and has key although it was just 6 am and I had to wake her up. Good thing she loves me.
By the time I got back to the race, waited in line to park and walked somewhat of a distance to the start line, I had lost a bit of motivation. But this went away as I waited in the corral and the person warming us up got us dancing. I started the race and decided to pace myself with two ladies. They took off running and I decided as long as they were running I would run. Well they were really good because they ran and ran and kept running and well so did I. Around mile two they finally stopped and I did for about a minute and then started running so I could get a head start before they started again. 32:49 seconds later I finished ahead of those lovely ladies. I was so thrilled I had set a PR. I found them and told them thank you because they really kept me paced at the beginning where I usually slow and walk. Their names were Lisa and Lisa and it was funning sharing my story of running. These races are about me getting healthy but more important I am meeting people along the way that are amazing, funny, nice and have helped me keep this journey going.
This was a good race, well organized but a couple of things I would suggest to them for next year. First off no medal REALLY, do you not know your audience. Just so you know I made my own medal. The course took you though the fair grounds and almost right off we were corralled through stairs in one of their smaller arenas. This was challenging and I was surprised no one fell. If you were going to push for a good time, that stopped pretty much at this point. Then it was twists and turns though the fair and then out onto the race track. I have to say I was initially excited to run on track, in theory I am sure it was a good idea. But let me tell you, that is not the easiest surface to run on and I saw several people trip. How the heck to the horses run on it. But the one thing I would change above everything else was running us through one of the stables. It was right towards the end of the race, I was breathing pretty heavy trying to keep up my running. And then they ran us through the buildings with the animals, OMG the smell was so bad I gagged. Again been running for about 29 mins, breathing hard and oh the smell, this was not popular with any of the runners.
There also was no timing chip but there was a timer at the end so you had to be sure to have your phone out to take the pic, or least try to. Bonus on this race, free beer, although it was Miller Light, but as hot as it was that tasted pretty good.
Overall this race was fun and I would probable do it again next year.