I was originally planning to do a half marathon in NY this weekend but a the last minute had to change plans to go to Tampa so I decided to … MORE
I was originally planning to do a half marathon in NY this weekend but a the last minute had to change plans to go to Tampa so I decided to look for a replacement race. This was the only race I could find but I was happy to find something. I didn’t have high expectations as the race website was really terrible but somehow it didn’t even meet my low expectations. To be fair, while some bad races seem to be “money grabs” where race organizations care more about making money than putting on a good race, this race organizer seem extremely nice but extremely incompetent. I don’t think any issues were the RD trying to cut corners as much as the RD not knowing how to run a race. There were frequent emails though not particularly organized. Just random updates. The race takes place in Starkey Wilderness Park outside of Tampa. This was a very nice location for a race and the one major positive I have. Packet pick-up was at a Pavilion in the park. It was a “cold” day for Florida so they had a fireplace to warm up at. The packets were pre put together. You got a page with bib, shirt, and some packets of Gu. The shirt is a tank. It is pretty mediocre but what I was expecting. When registering they didn’t ask about cut (men’s/women’s) and I assumed this meant the shirt was unisex so ordered a medium but it was women’s cut and is a little small since I would have ordered a large if I knew it would be women’s. I also prefer men’s cut so would have liked the option. The course had a timing mat at the start and they had half marathoners go first, then 10Kers, then 5Kers. The course is on a paved bike path. It is a really nice for a public path course. It had nice scenery that had different vegetation in different areas along the park and was very flat (only about 50 feet elevation gain the whole race). It was very cold for Florida but absolutely perfect running weather coming from Western NY so I enjoyed the run. However the race aspects were pretty terrible. There were aid stations at the turn around for each distance. However the 5K aid station appeared to be missing the sign to turn around as I saw a bunch of 5Kers go too far and turn around after it. They were not able to get many volunteers so the aid stations were just mini water bottles laid out on a table with no garbage can next to it. I had a handheld water bottle and refilled it at a few stations and just left the empty water bottle on the table. The course was pretty easy to follow but there was one part with a split and there was only one sign for the turn on the way to the turn around point and there was no sign on the way back. It was pretty obvious but you could get lost if bad at directions. The worst part is they placed the half turn around point too early. Some people ran past it to make it a true half and others didn’t so not all participants went the same distance. I would have been really annoyed if I actually traveled for this race or if I chose it over a different race. As it was this race or nothing since there wasn’t another half near Tampa today I just let it go and at least I had a nice long run in perfect weather. Also the RD did send an email apologizing for the mistake which is better than the last race I did where this happened where the race company tried to hide the mistake. The finish line was terrible. There was no one at the timing station and no one cheering you on. There were also timing issues so they weren’t able to give age group awards. This was a pretty small race with maybe 300 total participants. Most other races I’ve seen even the chipped timed ones have staff members at the end double checking results and manually recording things. For a race this small, it does not seem that hard to do. This clearly was not a very good timing company (though again the person was very nice just very incompetent). I also have yet to see results. I found the website for the timing company (my race results) and there are like only 7 times recorded. I hope this gets fixed. My time was pretty good given I am still building back my endurance. There were medals at the table by the finish. They are pretty mediocre but about what I expected for this race. At the pavilion there were the cupcakes made by Sugardarlings. There were multiple flavors and they were delicious. This race itself was a hot mess and I would not recommend this race nor recommend this timing company. The course is nice and the cupcakes are delicious but you are better off just buying the cupcakes and running in the park on your own. I would however definitely recommend visiting Starkey Wilderness Park and getting Sugardarlings cupcakes if you are in Tampa.
Update – they did fix the results and I got an official time
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At least the cupcakes were good
I was originally planning to do a half marathon in NY this weekend but a the last minute had to change plans to go to Tampa so I decided to … MORE
I was originally planning to do a half marathon in NY this weekend but a the last minute had to change plans to go to Tampa so I decided to look for a replacement race. This was the only race I could find but I was happy to find something. I didn’t have high expectations as the race website was really terrible but somehow it didn’t even meet my low expectations. To be fair, while some bad races seem to be “money grabs” where race organizations care more about making money than putting on a good race, this race organizer seem extremely nice but extremely incompetent. I don’t think any issues were the RD trying to cut corners as much as the RD not knowing how to run a race. There were frequent emails though not particularly organized. Just random updates. The race takes place in Starkey Wilderness Park outside of Tampa. This was a very nice location for a race and the one major positive I have. Packet pick-up was at a Pavilion in the park. It was a “cold” day for Florida so they had a fireplace to warm up at. The packets were pre put together. You got a page with bib, shirt, and some packets of Gu. The shirt is a tank. It is pretty mediocre but what I was expecting. When registering they didn’t ask about cut (men’s/women’s) and I assumed this meant the shirt was unisex so ordered a medium but it was women’s cut and is a little small since I would have ordered a large if I knew it would be women’s. I also prefer men’s cut so would have liked the option. The course had a timing mat at the start and they had half marathoners go first, then 10Kers, then 5Kers. The course is on a paved bike path. It is a really nice for a public path course. It had nice scenery that had different vegetation in different areas along the park and was very flat (only about 50 feet elevation gain the whole race). It was very cold for Florida but absolutely perfect running weather coming from Western NY so I enjoyed the run. However the race aspects were pretty terrible. There were aid stations at the turn around for each distance. However the 5K aid station appeared to be missing the sign to turn around as I saw a bunch of 5Kers go too far and turn around after it. They were not able to get many volunteers so the aid stations were just mini water bottles laid out on a table with no garbage can next to it. I had a handheld water bottle and refilled it at a few stations and just left the empty water bottle on the table. The course was pretty easy to follow but there was one part with a split and there was only one sign for the turn on the way to the turn around point and there was no sign on the way back. It was pretty obvious but you could get lost if bad at directions. The worst part is they placed the half turn around point too early. Some people ran past it to make it a true half and others didn’t so not all participants went the same distance. I would have been really annoyed if I actually traveled for this race or if I chose it over a different race. As it was this race or nothing since there wasn’t another half near Tampa today I just let it go and at least I had a nice long run in perfect weather. Also the RD did send an email apologizing for the mistake which is better than the last race I did where this happened where the race company tried to hide the mistake. The finish line was terrible. There was no one at the timing station and no one cheering you on. There were also timing issues so they weren’t able to give age group awards. This was a pretty small race with maybe 300 total participants. Most other races I’ve seen even the chipped timed ones have staff members at the end double checking results and manually recording things. For a race this small, it does not seem that hard to do. This clearly was not a very good timing company (though again the person was very nice just very incompetent). I also have yet to see results. I found the website for the timing company (my race results) and there are like only 7 times recorded. I hope this gets fixed. My time was pretty good given I am still building back my endurance. There were medals at the table by the finish. They are pretty mediocre but about what I expected for this race. At the pavilion there were the cupcakes made by Sugardarlings. There were multiple flavors and they were delicious. This race itself was a hot mess and I would not recommend this race nor recommend this timing company. The course is nice and the cupcakes are delicious but you are better off just buying the cupcakes and running in the park on your own. I would however definitely recommend visiting Starkey Wilderness Park and getting Sugardarlings cupcakes if you are in Tampa.
Update – they did fix the results and I got an official time
Cupcake 5K - Train Wreck that ended good
SO MANY BAD THINGS HAPPENED. BUT, the race director did the best he could and the timer got an F BUT now the timer gets a B+. I will leave … MORE
SO MANY BAD THINGS HAPPENED. BUT, the race director did the best he could and the timer got an F BUT now the timer gets a B+. I will leave everything for the most part but the timer was able to correct all the times and actually was exact on what my Garmin said.
The location is great but … no results link on the website or anywhere else butt… it came the next day after all the corrections were made the timer did a good job there.
1. Timing was way off. It said Chip start and Chip finish but that is not true. It was no chip start even though you ran over the mat, it did not record times.
When I ran across the finish, it said 30:04 which is not the time I ran the race, it was just the time clock readout. I ran in 29:39 according to my Garmin and my Garmin is spot on.
***Correction – The timer took 1-day to correct the times for the runners and he did a GREAT job because all the times were spot on!
2. The awards could not be given out because the timing company had a problem with the times. You think… That’s ok because the timer wanted to make sure everyone had their correct times which he did and now the race director is mailing out all the awards.
3. BIGGEST thing was no turnaround marking for the 5K. Not a cone, sign, marking on the ground, or anything so most of us ran farther than we should have and some people ran less than a 5K because they heard that the turn around was not marked so people just turned around when they heard the crappy news.
– I can’t say this was corrected or ok but the race director did get to the turnaround and marked the 5k turn around eventually but many runners were already affected.
4. All the shirts were 1 or 2 sizes too small. That sucked because it was a nice-looking shirt. The “Finisher Medal” was plain and most likely from China.