Hot Chocolate 5k - Run5k

Not even bother!!

Big draw was supposed to be all the Ghiardelli chocolate post-race. We got nacho trays with a few snacks & the promised liquid chocolate..then told to "hurry along, move along, clear the area..." and if you really did as told, the chocolate started to solidify before you got to a place to stop! Hot chocolate was like swiss miss. No real post-race food like bananas or bagels, and heard there wasn't enough water at the end. Walked back to parking area to wait for carpool-mates, only to feel like salmon swimming upstream as my path back was now on the 15K course!


This was truly a clusterF on multiple levels, and without a doubt the most poorly organized race I've ever been in or heard of, from start to finish....so bad it's actually comical that a race organizer could find so many ways to screw up. The "race jackets" were glorified trash bags with sleeves, ran way too small, and some reportedly had logos from other cities' races....and apparently packet pickup was a nightmare. If you didn't have a car - as many in the city don't - you had to have a friend who did & could get it for you. Adding insult to injury, the 45-60 minute delays for both the 5K and 15K, 5K starting /ending before 15K started, and the organizers reportedly lied about some reportedly bogus traffic accident en route being the cause of the delays (that that had been a legit reason for delayed RAM race start in another city). Also they apparently deleted some negative posts on their FB page, yet with the hundreds of negative posts still there, can't imagine what they thought that would accomplish except to engender more ill will. Had some fun with my friends & shopping at National Harbor, but WILL NEVER PARTICIPATE IN ANOTHER RAM EVENT EVER AGAIN...tho happy to host a BYOC run for my friends in the park next year. Another friend reminded me that there are silver linings everywhere, and while I absolutely agree with that 100%, it doesn't change what a disaster of a race RAM put on.