I will start off by saying I kind of feel bad writing this review. This race was for a great cause helping animals and the race organizer was extremely nice … MORE
I will start off by saying I kind of feel bad writing this review. This race was for a great cause helping animals and the race organizer was extremely nice and enthusiastic but this was definitely one of the weakest races I have participated in. The race is located by Watkins Glen. It’s over an hour drive but worked out conveniently since this was an evening race at 4:30pm and Canandaigua where my first race was is on the way to Watkins Glen. I didn’t receive any pre-race emails and the race page was pretty limited. The link the facebook page didn’t work. I eventually searched facebook and found the race page since I wanted to make sure the race was on and found there were a lot of updates on facebook. There was also apparently an email that went out the week before the race that myself and a number of other participants didn’t get. Although the race organizer was extremely nice and sent us the email from her personal email when she found out we didn’t get it. The race takes place along Catherine Valley Trail which is a pretty and non-technical trail. Packet pick-up was outside at a nearby elementary school parking lot. It was outdoors. Packet included a T-shirt. It is okay. It is cotton, the design is cute and it’s a nice color. You also got a beer cozie with the cute design. The swag was fine but it wasn’t the greatest swag ever especially since this was a $30 race. This year there were not many people who signed up for the race. I think there was maybe 30ish. I guess they had bad luck as a few races near Watkins Glen moved to this date and most people don’t run two races in a day like myself. I also think an improved race page and better advertisement would make more people sign up. The start was about a quarter mile away from the school at the start of the trail. There was a sign with the race name and balloons. The race organizer described the course and apologized it wasn’t on run sign up and said she had issues with run sign up this year. That might explain the email. Still other races haven’t seemed to have problems with run sign up. There was a 3K and a 5K option. You didn’t choose when register you could just decide the day of. I guess that is nice but everyone did the 5K so they wasted time measuring and marking the 3K. The trail is actually quite nice. It is non-technical and very pretty. There was a slight incline and two minor “hills” on the way out and the way back was mostly downhill or a slight decline. Better elevation profile than this morning. It was easy to follow but there was one intersection that maybe could have been confusing that didn’t have signs but it was easy enough to figure out. The course was also not measured right either. I got to the turnaround at about 1.45 miles and the course was just under 3 miles. Oh well. It was manually timed and not by a professional timing company. I saw someone record the times but then they emailed me to confirm my time so who knows if they did. I haven’t seen the race results yet. I had to answer a page so I wasn’t very fast so if I never see published times my life will go on. At the end there was just lukewarm water bottle with no food and I was hungry since I didn’t eat much lunch. The race was also too expensive for the swag and production at $30. If it were a $15 to $20 race I’d probably add a sneaker. The good news is that even though there were so few participants, the race was so low budget that they did actually raise quite a bit of money. If you are looking for a great race where you will get your money’s worth, this is not the race for you. But if you are looking for a pretty run in the woods and to give money to charity then go for it. While I wasn’t particularly impressed with the race I’m not opposed to doing it again if I’m in town more as a way to give a donation to help animals. I just won’t set high expectations.
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Great Cause but Not a Great Race
I will start off by saying I kind of feel bad writing this review. This race was for a great cause helping animals and the race organizer was extremely nice … MORE
I will start off by saying I kind of feel bad writing this review. This race was for a great cause helping animals and the race organizer was extremely nice and enthusiastic but this was definitely one of the weakest races I have participated in. The race is located by Watkins Glen. It’s over an hour drive but worked out conveniently since this was an evening race at 4:30pm and Canandaigua where my first race was is on the way to Watkins Glen. I didn’t receive any pre-race emails and the race page was pretty limited. The link the facebook page didn’t work. I eventually searched facebook and found the race page since I wanted to make sure the race was on and found there were a lot of updates on facebook. There was also apparently an email that went out the week before the race that myself and a number of other participants didn’t get. Although the race organizer was extremely nice and sent us the email from her personal email when she found out we didn’t get it. The race takes place along Catherine Valley Trail which is a pretty and non-technical trail. Packet pick-up was outside at a nearby elementary school parking lot. It was outdoors. Packet included a T-shirt. It is okay. It is cotton, the design is cute and it’s a nice color. You also got a beer cozie with the cute design. The swag was fine but it wasn’t the greatest swag ever especially since this was a $30 race. This year there were not many people who signed up for the race. I think there was maybe 30ish. I guess they had bad luck as a few races near Watkins Glen moved to this date and most people don’t run two races in a day like myself. I also think an improved race page and better advertisement would make more people sign up. The start was about a quarter mile away from the school at the start of the trail. There was a sign with the race name and balloons. The race organizer described the course and apologized it wasn’t on run sign up and said she had issues with run sign up this year. That might explain the email. Still other races haven’t seemed to have problems with run sign up. There was a 3K and a 5K option. You didn’t choose when register you could just decide the day of. I guess that is nice but everyone did the 5K so they wasted time measuring and marking the 3K. The trail is actually quite nice. It is non-technical and very pretty. There was a slight incline and two minor “hills” on the way out and the way back was mostly downhill or a slight decline. Better elevation profile than this morning. It was easy to follow but there was one intersection that maybe could have been confusing that didn’t have signs but it was easy enough to figure out. The course was also not measured right either. I got to the turnaround at about 1.45 miles and the course was just under 3 miles. Oh well. It was manually timed and not by a professional timing company. I saw someone record the times but then they emailed me to confirm my time so who knows if they did. I haven’t seen the race results yet. I had to answer a page so I wasn’t very fast so if I never see published times my life will go on. At the end there was just lukewarm water bottle with no food and I was hungry since I didn’t eat much lunch. The race was also too expensive for the swag and production at $30. If it were a $15 to $20 race I’d probably add a sneaker. The good news is that even though there were so few participants, the race was so low budget that they did actually raise quite a bit of money. If you are looking for a great race where you will get your money’s worth, this is not the race for you. But if you are looking for a pretty run in the woods and to give money to charity then go for it. While I wasn’t particularly impressed with the race I’m not opposed to doing it again if I’m in town more as a way to give a donation to help animals. I just won’t set high expectations.