The concept of this race sounds fun. A 5 mile trail race lit up by glow sticks. However the execution left a lot to be desired. I was really excited … MORE
The concept of this race sounds fun. A 5 mile trail race lit up by glow sticks. However the execution left a lot to be desired. I was really excited for this as my first night run since Zion at Night but was very disappointed in this race. This was a race that was retired 4 to 5 years ago and then revived this year during 2020 of all years as part of a trail race weekend here in Rochester. This was the first race produced by Rochester Running Company this year and honestly they just didn’t seem prepared. For starters this was initially going to be a 3 day trail race series where you could sign up for the series and get a pint glass or sign up for the individual races with no swag. Since I already had a race Saturday I just signed up for the Friday and Sunday races. However they ended up canceling the Saturday race and changing the series to just Friday and Sunday and adding extra waves to each race as those races were more popular after I already registered. So if I was disorganized and registered later I would have signed up for the series and got the pint glass but since I registered early before the change I didn’t. All these changes also happened over a period of like 10 days since the race was announced about 10 days before this weekend. I feel like they should have done a survey or something for interest instead of just changing their plans on the fly. Packet pickup was easy at their store the day before. Only issue was if you did the series you got one bib but since I registered for the 2 races individually I got two bibs. The bibs were generic and identical other than number so they had to write which bib was for each race. I feel like even if they couldn’t give me the pint glass since I wasn’t a “series runner” (which I guess I understand the reasoning because they may have had limited numbers of them – to be honest I don’t even know why I want the pint glass so much when I won’t use it but it’s the principle), they could have still given me just one bib but anyways. At the race they had glow-stick necklaces and bracelets to give to the runners and that was literally the only swag (except that dang pint glass if you signed up for the series). The start on the course was kind of strange. It was unclear where the start was and most people were lined up by the finish line initially. The start just had a race company banner and we lined up spaced out on a soccer field. There wasn’t as strict of protocols as other races I’ve done during covid but all the runners wore masks and were voluntarily spread out. They said go and we left. This was again a race with no start timing mat but an end timing mat. The race went through trail on the park. The course had a lot of twist and turns they said that this was so you would see many runners around you lit up with their head lamps and glow sticks but in the end it just meant everyone got lost. This race course was so hard to follow. There were little yellow flags that did not reflect well and the occasional glow stick or other sparkly thing. I spent most of the race concentrating on finding the yellow flags which meant a very slow pace and didn’t really get to enjoy it and get in my usual running zone. Almost everyone got lost. Some people got really lost and ended up running a couple extra miles. I ran with another slower runner I met since we didn’t want to run this alone and then the people who got really lost followed us even though they were faster because they really didn’t want to get lost again. The course was also a little technical for night time. I’m pretty sure everyone tripped at some point too. I had two minor falls on some light sandy areas and then tried to pick up my pace at the end and had a big fall. Luckily no major injuries but I have some nice scrapes and bruises on my knees. I was very happy for this race to be over and go through the finish line. My pace was awful. This was my slowest pace on a race I completed since I walked a 5K in high school. The course was definitely tough but not any tougher than the dirt cheap race or the dirty dozen race I ran earlier this year and I actually walked less in this race than those and my pace was still like 3 min/mil slower. The slow pace was mostly due to difficulty following the course not the course itself. At the finish line there was no food. I understand not serving a ton of food or having the usual post-race festivities but a granola bar would have been nice as I was getting hangry and it was past my usual dinner time when this was over. I do feel like this race had potential but I think they need to change the course to something easier to follow and/or have a lot more glowsticks and make the course much clearer. Even though this was cheap, local and on a weekday night so not competing with other races I don’t think I would do it again unless they really modified the race. But honestly I think this race should just go back to retirement. I am now worried about the race tomorrow but at least it is in the daylight so I won’t have to worry as much about getting lost and I know there will be food. I laughed today when I got the email with the instructions for tomorrow’s race that now included a comment about it being “very, very well marked” and included a cell phone number for who to call if you got lost since so many people must have complained about getting lost during this race. Again as my title says I would only recommend this race if you like getting lost and injured.
Great if you enjoy getting lost&injured
The concept of this race sounds fun. A 5 mile trail race lit up by glow sticks. However the execution left a lot to be desired. I was really excited … MORE
The concept of this race sounds fun. A 5 mile trail race lit up by glow sticks. However the execution left a lot to be desired. I was really excited for this as my first night run since Zion at Night but was very disappointed in this race. This was a race that was retired 4 to 5 years ago and then revived this year during 2020 of all years as part of a trail race weekend here in Rochester. This was the first race produced by Rochester Running Company this year and honestly they just didn’t seem prepared. For starters this was initially going to be a 3 day trail race series where you could sign up for the series and get a pint glass or sign up for the individual races with no swag. Since I already had a race Saturday I just signed up for the Friday and Sunday races. However they ended up canceling the Saturday race and changing the series to just Friday and Sunday and adding extra waves to each race as those races were more popular after I already registered. So if I was disorganized and registered later I would have signed up for the series and got the pint glass but since I registered early before the change I didn’t. All these changes also happened over a period of like 10 days since the race was announced about 10 days before this weekend. I feel like they should have done a survey or something for interest instead of just changing their plans on the fly. Packet pickup was easy at their store the day before. Only issue was if you did the series you got one bib but since I registered for the 2 races individually I got two bibs. The bibs were generic and identical other than number so they had to write which bib was for each race. I feel like even if they couldn’t give me the pint glass since I wasn’t a “series runner” (which I guess I understand the reasoning because they may have had limited numbers of them – to be honest I don’t even know why I want the pint glass so much when I won’t use it but it’s the principle), they could have still given me just one bib but anyways. At the race they had glow-stick necklaces and bracelets to give to the runners and that was literally the only swag (except that dang pint glass if you signed up for the series). The start on the course was kind of strange. It was unclear where the start was and most people were lined up by the finish line initially. The start just had a race company banner and we lined up spaced out on a soccer field. There wasn’t as strict of protocols as other races I’ve done during covid but all the runners wore masks and were voluntarily spread out. They said go and we left. This was again a race with no start timing mat but an end timing mat. The race went through trail on the park. The course had a lot of twist and turns they said that this was so you would see many runners around you lit up with their head lamps and glow sticks but in the end it just meant everyone got lost. This race course was so hard to follow. There were little yellow flags that did not reflect well and the occasional glow stick or other sparkly thing. I spent most of the race concentrating on finding the yellow flags which meant a very slow pace and didn’t really get to enjoy it and get in my usual running zone. Almost everyone got lost. Some people got really lost and ended up running a couple extra miles. I ran with another slower runner I met since we didn’t want to run this alone and then the people who got really lost followed us even though they were faster because they really didn’t want to get lost again. The course was also a little technical for night time. I’m pretty sure everyone tripped at some point too. I had two minor falls on some light sandy areas and then tried to pick up my pace at the end and had a big fall. Luckily no major injuries but I have some nice scrapes and bruises on my knees. I was very happy for this race to be over and go through the finish line. My pace was awful. This was my slowest pace on a race I completed since I walked a 5K in high school. The course was definitely tough but not any tougher than the dirt cheap race or the dirty dozen race I ran earlier this year and I actually walked less in this race than those and my pace was still like 3 min/mil slower. The slow pace was mostly due to difficulty following the course not the course itself. At the finish line there was no food. I understand not serving a ton of food or having the usual post-race festivities but a granola bar would have been nice as I was getting hangry and it was past my usual dinner time when this was over. I do feel like this race had potential but I think they need to change the course to something easier to follow and/or have a lot more glowsticks and make the course much clearer. Even though this was cheap, local and on a weekday night so not competing with other races I don’t think I would do it again unless they really modified the race. But honestly I think this race should just go back to retirement. I am now worried about the race tomorrow but at least it is in the daylight so I won’t have to worry as much about getting lost and I know there will be food. I laughed today when I got the email with the instructions for tomorrow’s race that now included a comment about it being “very, very well marked” and included a cell phone number for who to call if you got lost since so many people must have complained about getting lost during this race. Again as my title says I would only recommend this race if you like getting lost and injured.