Race Report: Indian Lake Loop 5 miler

Ahhhh... Thanksgiving... the day for family, food, and football. Nothing like the prospect of consuming 3000+ calories to bring people out of the woodworks to run a 5 mile race. Much like Easter Sunday guilts some to church that one day a year... thanksgiving guilts everyone to try to put a dent into that calorie consumption, by knocking out 700 calories or so before 9:00 am.

Luckily, to offset my own impending calorie consumption, I didn't have to navigate the 7800 participants of the Boulevard Bolt, instead, I opted for the local 5 miler in my hometown. I even convinced my mom (who always balks at distances over her 4 mile comfort zone) and Vandy Montana (who had to drive like 40 miles roundtrip for the race) to run.

For whatever reason... I just wasn't into this race. Maybe, I started off too fast, or maybe it was the long stretches of slow climbing hills... but, honestly... I think a big part of it was the landscape. I mean... running around Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Movie Theater, Talbots, etc... is just not the ideal for me. I understand that it was a good area to loop around with new wide roads, etc... but blech! It was boring as crap.

More complaints? Okay... The results were gun timed. Which, I'm totally fine with. EXCEPT... when I'm wearing a chip on my shoe and am expecting the results to be chip timed. If I had known that the chip was only going to work at the finish line... I would have busted and elbowed my way closer to the front of the starting line, instead of letting all the pansy ass walkers in their race day t-shirts get ahead of me.

Also... continuing on the complaint theme... there were no door prizes. Throw us a bone, ya know... give away some socks or some powdered gatorade for chrissakes!

But, by far, my biggest complaint was the lack of mile markers. There weren't ANY mile markers. I mean... in a 5k race, I'll give the race director a pass if there aren't any mile markers. But... a 5 mile race is a little different. I need to know when I've got 2 miles left or 1 mile left, so that I know when to kick into highest gear. I honestly, don't think that's too much to ask. Particularly when every half a mile you've got a printed logo-ed sign that's directing the different route for the 5k walker. For real? You can spend the money to have professionally printed signs all over the course, so heaven forbid, the 5ker doesn't walk anymore than they have to, but you can't afford 4 pieces of cardboard and a sharpie to make up Mile Markers?? Unacceptable.

On the upside... the food afterwards was incredible. I mean... too incredible. The last thing I want to do after burning off 700 calories on Thanksgiving is consume 1000 in cookies, breads, pastries, all BEFORE I sit down at the thanksgiving table. Jeez. I appreciate the sentiment though. I really do.

Do I sound crabby about this race or what?? Well, that's probably due mostly to this:

My mom, showing off her FIRST Place Medal...

Vandy Montana showing off his THIRD Place Medal...

Me... showing off... my NOTHING. The sole LOSER of the bunch...

Yeah, I sucked. I was like 7th out of 14 or something medicore like that.

Despite being a loser and despite my complaints... I am glad that my hometown puts on this race and upped it from the 5k it was last year to a 5 miler this year (I spit on 5ks).

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving (and fared better in their local turkey races than I did)!