Austin Somlo's Staging Area

I had low expectations coming into this, but it turned out to be good enough to be called a “race.” It was too dark to see, so the smart thing they did was placing the green glowsticks on the concrete trail. The biggest issue was the several idiots running on the left side with no regard for the incoming runners (who were also wearing headlight lamps!). The awards ceremony came quickly afterwards which is nice so I could go home already. However, it’s not a race I would come back again for, and I didn’t like it when they delayed the race by 15 minutes when it was scheduled to start at 6 PM.

This review is not about the fact that it was very rainy and windy with some lightning. Rather it’s how they handled the race and communication beforehand. I was spending a lot of time monitoring the weather situation and seeing what the race organizers were going to do. There was almost no constant communication even up to my arrival there: just a small news here and there which was hardly adequate and satisfactory. I felt sure they were going to cancel the race at the last minute although they didn’t.

As for the race itself, the road is terribly suited for distance running because it’s constantly slanted, enough to give me hip problems. I was trying to find the level portion, but it was very challenging all the way through. There were barely any volunteers out there, especially when it came to pointing the correct way. At one juncture, I couldn’t tell at all if I needed to go straight or make a right. I know somebody who kept running ahead the wrong way before coming back, and that was near the finish line! At the same time, they should have blocked the road completely; there were too many vehicles either way close to the participants or going too fast.

The awards ceremony start time took too long. Just get on with it an hour after the overall winner had been established, and hand out the rest on the side as the runners come in over time. Some of us just want to go home already.

If the organizers won’t care about or respect the health and safety of the participants, they should cease holding the race permanently.

I’ve been doing a lot of downright awful races in Texas the past two years because of ineptness one way or another, but this race is the gold standard of how to do it right. Fast, flat, and certified with no sharp turns, I finally got to set my personal best. Everything was perfect and flawless: the way the course was set up to prevent participants getting in the way on purpose and how it’s blocked off from traffic by cops with cones. Even the volunteers were good and there was surprisingly decent race support along the way. There’s ton of communication through e-mails with enough info on the website of what to expect. I’ll be coming back next year for sure.

I got a lot for my money’s worth. The race was well done and all professionally organized. No complaints from me, but……note to these idiot Texans when it comes to race etiquette: STAY TO YOUR RIGHT SIDE AND STOP CROWDING THE LEFT SIDE OR BEING IN THE WAY OF THE INCOMING RUNNERS.

Horrible, ridiculous, and beyond stupid is the course. Starting off on the track is fine, but we had to go through a tiny gate with 2 series of steps and there’s no way around it when I ask why not move the starting line a bit further so that way we can go out through the much wider gate with NO STEPS in the way. Then, after doing the loop until back to the school, the lead pack including me were directed by an idiot volunteer to the wrong way by going to the baseball field and then the track when we were supposed to keep going straight ahead. As a result, we got stuck behind the huge pack of walkers who were still going through the tiny gate with 2 series of steps, hence losing a lot of ground and time to the runners who were ultimately directed the correct way and were finally ahead of us. After going through the 2nd loop, we had to go inside the building, and I was shocked to find out that we had to run through three flights of stairs and then go down as well (I tried to get inside beforehand to have an idea, but the doors were constantly locked). WHY? WHY? WHY? IT’S SO STUPID. After that, I crossed an intersection where the runners/walkers were still passing us before we could cross over to the baseball field. WHY? WHY? WHY? IT’S SO STUPID. Worst of all, the race turned out to be far too short and not 5K at all.

At the same time, I knew the race was in trouble because of Adam Holt who runs Outsiders Anonymous for the timing services; he is 100% incompetent, and they should have used either IAAP or Athlete Guild. Case in point, I knew somebody running in the race, but she was 2 minutes behind in the line before she could officially cross the line to start the race, hence the chip time. But the gun time has her placed 2 minutes behind. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS. Use the chip time!

Overall, it was an awful race, and I’m certainly never coming back.

Race director Jeff “Happy to Help” Fedorko failed to respond back to me about a question that I had which wasn’t addressed in the website. I’ve sent messages three times but to no avail. Okay, fine…if that’s how he’s going to treat the prospective runners like me, then I’m gone and will look for a different race. See ya. By the way, Jeff…don’t ever mention to anyone with these words “happy to help” if you aren’t going to do it at all.

Good race, but it’s a very challenging course. Everything was well-organized. I’ll be back again. If there’s a change I’ll like to see, the starting time should be moved back to either 7 AM or 7:30 AM, that’s all.

The race was fine. Simple rectangle format, all flat and certified. Plenty of cops to cordon off the area, no problems about that. The race director was very responsive through communication. I had several issues. After the Star-Spangled Banner song, we lined up at the front, but it just went off too quickly; so, please give us time to prepare for a few minutes. The second which is an annoying Texas thing, a lot of people are rude and not respectful, especially when it comes to parking and driving in the lot. Anyway, the race isn’t what I’ll come back for again. The third, the volunteers handing out water cups need to be trained! I had 4 chances, and they all dropped the cup on purpose before I could grab one. Come on!

Everything was good and very professional. Still…they need to shut down all roads completely, especially on Las Colinas Blvd, because the automobiles are going too fast, creating danger for the runners and walkers alike. If nothing changes, one day somebody will be hit and die as a result. And that will be the race director’s fault for not making the necessary changes.

Everything was first-class all the way through. Thousands of people all over. Lots of crowd support along the course. Yet several things need to be addressed. One male runner in the top 20 cheated during the race as an unregistered male was running from point to point to feed him energy bars, etc. It’s illegal per USATF rules. Two, I had to yell at a guy to get off the course repeatedly because he was walking toward me, obstructing my way. Three, many broke down in the final 5 miles because of the super long incline. The problem was there were water stations on the left side for the half marathon race but almost nothing on the right side for the marathon race. If you wanted one, you had to go through densely crowded half marathon “runners” which was pretty unfair. The race organizers need to fix the issues by completely forbidding any unregistered runners and cyclists on the course and setting up water stations on the RIGHT side of the marathon path.

The biggest mistake is combining the 10K race with the 5K race. When they both intersect about 30 minutes later, the pack will start to swell, leaving little to no room for runners because the path, especially on the sidewalk by Frontage Road next to 1604, is narrow, thus making it very hard for the faster runners, especially in the 10K, to pass through unobstructed. Afterwards is another idiocy: the awards show for the 10K isn’t for another 3 hours after the start of the 10K race. So, anyone who won an award was forced to wait, wait, and wait, especially for the stupid exercise program to end. As for myself, because I placed well, I got a free entry for next year’s race, but I will not go again because I don’t like the overall setup. Also, I asked about the location of water aid stations, but nobody could give me the answer which wasn’t good since I needed to know and be mentally prepared for it.

If you notice the times for 2023, they are so fast that it’s due to the course being very short…like 0.30 of a mile short. The start time took forever, and the organizers decided to put people with strollers and those who’ll push people who are physically disabled in the front before everybody else. Obviously, I knew what was going to happen next. They made passing them difficult by the time we hit the River Walk which was already very narrow to begin with and full of non-participants. It’s not their fault, but it was just a bad idea from the get-go. By the time we hit the end of the “halfway mark,” it got so confusing that we were in a merry-go-around before going back to the River Walk (there was nobody to lead us on bike or whatever the entire time). At one point, there was supposed to be a slight diversion, but the volunteers didn’t do their job at all, skipping it. After the race was over, the host on the microphone kept babbling on and on and on and on (that took forever!), just like she did prior to the start, until finally the awards ceremony got underway. It’s the worst organized and most inept “5K” race I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve done hundreds of them.

Let me tell you a story: a runner woke up at 4 AM, drove almost 2 hours to a race, warmed up, ran 13.1 miles over a tough course, and won it as witnessed by all of the organizers at the finish line. Then, he found out 30 minutes later that his time went missing in the system and the 1st place medal was awarded to somebody else who came in 2nd almost 20 minutes later. How would you feel? Well, it happened to me, and I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, having run many races and winning some of them. They had a chance to correct the error but really never did, and I was forced to file a claim with my credit card company for fraud. This Adam Holt, the race director, has to be the biggest idiot and liar I’ve seen, and he should be ashamed of himself.

Hey Adam…if you are reading this, why did you give the 1st place award to somebody else after you saw me win the race? You are such an idiot.

I emailed about the trail race for February 2024 (Natural Bridge Caverns Trail Run) sometime in the spring and was informed it was going to be moved early to October of 2023. Afterwards, the race director barely responded to my emails about registration for months because nothing was posted about it. Finally, registration opened up in July, and I promptly did although I thought, “Wow…pretty late, not enough time for others to sign up as well.” I sent a couple more emails to get the course map and all that since it was on private grounds and therefore locked. Nothing for the longest time. To my amazement, I got an email 11 days prior to the race that it had been postponed to February 2024. Incredible because I had a backup race planned for that same weekend for many months, I was ready to give up on the trail race, and the prices for it went up over time (I ended up registering for the backup race right after the email announcement albeit paying more when I usually do it early to save money). Okay…I have had enough of the unprofessionalism shown by Tere Szostak and Sean Parrish of Personal Best Events, LLC and will never do a single race held by their company ever again in my life. I don’t appreciate any of it and have never seen anything like it before.