Race for Literacy
Sunnyvale, CA
- Half Marathon, 10K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Enjoy the onset of the Bay Area summer with your family and friends, amidst the glory of nature, and help raise funds to create a 100% literate India. The race provides opportunity for a half marathon, 10K, or leisurely 5K walk/run at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale with your family followed … MORE
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Well Done Charity Race; Indian Food!
Event & Course Description: The Race for Literacy benefits the educational charity, India Literacy Project. 2018 was its 20th annual running. The race starts and finishes in Baylands Park in … MORE
Event & Course Description: The Race for Literacy benefits the educational charity, India Literacy Project. 2018 was its 20th annual running. The race starts and finishes in Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, and there are three distances, 5K, 10K, and half marathon. In the 2017 running there were ~700 finishers among the three distances. I ran the 10K.
The 5K and 10K courses are out-and-back. All distances started at different times, near the corner of a parking lot where the Baylands Park Trail begins. All followed it more or less eastward for about a mile and turned more or less southward onto the San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail. After about a third of a mile, at Old Mountain View-Alviso Road, 5K runners turned around and headed back. 10K runners continued about a mile and a half farther and turned around near Agnew Road. In this section of the course 10K runners passed by Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, and California’s Great America theme park. When 5K and 10K runners reached the Baylands Park Trail, they followed it back toward the park, but when they reached the park they turn northward along a bike trail toward the bay and circled the park, finishing at the Baylands Park plaza. Half marathon runners did the 10K course, but an extra out-and-back leg along the bay, almost to Moffett Airfield, was added during their return along the Baylands Park Trail.
The course is almost entirely exposed, so sunscreen and a bottle of water are a must. 2018 weather was ideal! Temperatures were in the low-mid 60s, and the sky varied from overcast to filtered sunshine. I still wore sunscreen! Other than about 3/4 of a mile, cumulative, at the start and end inside the park, the course is entirely paved trail.
Organization & Production: The number of volunteers was almost amazing – numerous, friendly, and helpful. Pre-race check-in was as smooth and quick as any I’ve experienced. The pre-race email said parking was $6, but when I got there it was free (a mistake I don’t at all mind). Between the website and the email the information was pretty much all that was needed – register-and-run. There were two water-only aid stations on the course, with plenty of friendly volunteers. One was just before the 5K turn-around, and the other just before the 10K turn-around. There were volunteers on bicycles who patrolled the course, looking for runners in trouble. About 2/3 through my 10K one of these volunteers chatted with me briefly to be sure I was doing OK.
One moderate concern was at the turn for those doing the half marathon onto their second out-and-back leg. Even though it was well marked before the turn with two signs I think I saw two runners miss it, and when I passed the turn-off outbound I redirected one who would have missed it. After that I let inbound half marathon runners know of the upcoming turn, for the next 50-100 yards. When I passed the turn-off on my inbound leg there was a course marshal at the turn-off. I think the fastest half marathon runners were a little faster than anticipated. The turn was well marked with signs, but tired runners get tunnel vision. I spoke to the course marshal in passing and I think they’ll fix this minor glitch next year.
Bib: The bibs were color coded, medium dark blue for the half marathon, medium dark green for the 10K, medium dark red for the 5K, with black numbers and characters. Across the top was the name of the race, and the logo of a sponsor. In the middle was the bib number, and then along the bottom is the website for the timing company.
T-Shirt: The race T-shirt is tech type, bright lime green. Across the chest, in black and white, is the race logo, plus “20th Annual”. On the back, along the bottom, are sponsors’ logos. It’s not particularly special, but it is nice.
Finisher’s Medal: The 5K and 10K finisher’s medal is a catalog type medallion (winged running shoe and stopwatch with a star in the background) hung from a white ribbon. On the back is a stick-on disk engraved with “ILP Race for Literacy 5K/10K Race Finisher 2018”. I did not see the medal given to half marathon finishers. See my comments below about expectations and different types of races.
Finish & Recovery Area: This was a large grassy area, used before the race for race day registration and check-in. It was about 20-40 yards from the start arch and 50-100 yards from the finish arch. I didn’t check out every table in the spread out area, but I did notice an announcer’s table, from which race and age group winners were announced to receive their medalsand tables explaining India Literacy Project’s work. There was also a large race logo banner for people to take pictures, and a serving area for the post-race meal. Indian food! Very! Tasty! One of the dishes served, possibly dal, was hot as well as spicy (which was fine with me, but worth knowing for some one considering the race), and another with chick peas that was spicy but not hot. It was, unsurprisingly, vegetarian. Did I mention that it was tasty?
My Results & Opinion of the Race: I have different expectations for a 20,000 runner Rock ‘n’ Roll race than I do for a 700 runner trail race. And I have different expectations for a race put on by a for-profit business that does 20 or 30 races a year than I do for an annual volunteer-run race that benefits a charity. I expect a charity to be very careful about how much money it expends to put on the race so as to actually benefit from the proceeds of the race (just as I expect a for-profit organizer to make enough profit to stay in business and support the owners).
This was the first time I’ve run the Race for Literacy, so my expectations were based on prior experiences with charity races. I knew it was timed, so I expected the bib to have a timing “chip” and a start/finish arch. It is common for charity races to have cotton or cotton-polyester race Tees, and no finisher’s medal. And it is common for charity races to have just water at aid stations and cut up bagels and fruit in the recovery area. The bibs were slightly nicer than I expected, there were start and finish arches, and the aid stations were water only. The tech type race tees (Greenlayer, a good brand) were a bit of a surprise. I did not know there would be finisher’s medals until I saw them when I was about 30 yards from the finish arch. They aren’t fancy, but when one expects nothing they were pleasant (the engraved plate identifies the race and year, so if I look at it 5 years from now I’ll know what it was for). I knew, from the race website, that there would be catered food, so it wasn’t more than I expected when I got to the recovery area. But it was more than I expect of a charity race.
India Literacy Project had LOTS of volunteers. The check-in stations were well organized and staffed, The distances each had a unique start time, and the 10K (and probably the 5K) was started in 2 waves, 2 minutes apart. The aid stations had four volunteers at each station, easily adequate for the busiest times so that the volunteers were not too busy to be encouraging and watchful. Bicycle-mounted course monitors, while not unique, were good for runners’ safety and a good use of volunteers. Race for Literacy is a really well organized race!
There were also a lot of families doing the race as well as teams of friends (the names of the teams were printed on the backs of their race Tees (not by the teams), something I’ve not seen done before). This made for a warm family-like atmosphere over all. I would definitely do the Race for Literacy again.