Skye E's Staging Area

It has been two years now I have tried to run this race. Both times we get screwed over by the parking situation. And this year we got their early and we still had to go through the ordeal with parking.

They have parking near the starting line and near the finish line. Great, right? The way to get to the starting parking is a road with only one way in and one way out to then go on the other side of the college campus, only accessible through a round about way. They do not close parking when it’s full and make you drive through the whole way round rather than, say, put up a sign, or redirect traffic. So although we got their early, we waisted 45 minutes just being ushered through the worst parking set up imagined by, I don’t know, someone who hates runners. And then, the spots that are available near the finishing line (depending on your definition of near, I guess that’s accurate) is, so far from the start that it was another 20 minutes before we got remotely near the starting line. No we did not make it.

In addition to signs and just telling people there’s no parking, I suggest having early arrivals go to the further lot. “Why would you punished the people that show up extra early??” Oh no. They have to walk/run. At a running event. Stop. Police.
And then the late arrivals can park closer and maybe make it to the race. And it was not just us. There were at least 20 or 30 of us scrambling through this mess, that I saw. No idea how many people just dipped instead of try and make it.

They say third times the charm, but I’m no going to try again next year. It sucks because it’s one of the most beautiful areas of the city. It’s a simple course, but they really need better parking organization or something.

Unrelated to my grievances with the (lack of) race, it’s also insanely easy to cheat at this race. I did not cheat. Like I said, I didn’t get to run it. However, our bib track some how still managed to get captured. We did not make it near the starting line. It was in our sight, but we gave up when we saw them turn away some of the other people that got screwed over by the bad parking situation. Then we had to walk all the way back to our car, past the finish line. Apparently it was enough. I did not even realize the bib was active until I got an email saying I ran a 19 minute and some seconds 5k. I run a 17 minute mile at the moment, 15 if I really push. There is no way, but hey, maybe just some other weird organizational thing.