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Castle Rock Fling - Run5k


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Castle Rock, CO, Colorado
United States
Castle Rock Fling
65F / 18C
Sunny
Total Time = 00m
Overall Rank = 1/75
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 1/
Pre-race routine:

Up at 6:30 am, ate 3/4 of a Clif Bar, some applesauce. Had a GU about 25 minutes before the race. Drove down to Castle Rock, check in (which took a little time).
Event warmup:

Maybe a 1/4 mile warmup run.
Run
  • 00m
  • 3.11 miles
  •  min/mile
Comments:

Was planning on doing a different race that ended up being cancelled so I registered for this one on Friday.
Lined up at the start for the mixed race start (5 miler/5k). Good start and felt strong, hung around 6th place or so. At the turnoff to the 5k, I was in 3rd place and feeling great. Quickly moved to second and passed 1st place a few minutes later. Then the fun began...

So I was a bit nervous before the race because there wasn't a good map posted and the course was explained to us at the starting line. "Lots of Boy Scouts to show you where to go!" we were told. At some point, we were supposed to get off the bike trail however there was no one there to show us where and no cones, markings, etc. to show the way. I don't know anything about Castle Rock and was pretty much running blind. At some point, I looked at my watch and noted we were pushing 19 minutes, which should have been pretty close to the finish line. Like a few hundred meters from the finish line. So now I know I'm f@cked. I had really dropped 2nd place so he was nowhere in sight. Kept running hard until about 23 minutes or so in case of a long course error and then knew it had all gone bad.
Stopped, walked up a hill to figure out where I was, stepped on a catcus. Turned around and jogged back down the bike trail to a major road. I had actually run to the next major road south of where the event started. Started asking other people out for morning runs how to get back to the Douglas County Events Center.
Eventually I made it back joining in with the 5 milers, 48 minutes after I started running. I think I ran about 6 miles. Because there were no mile markers and I wasn't wearing my Garmin, I have no clue how fast I was running. It felt like 19:30 or so. Second place runner thought I was around 19:00 pace. We'll never know :(
The three of us "fast" runners had a pow wow with the race director and got the placings worked out. He was extremely apologetic and stated that we were so "fast" that he didn't have his people in place in time. The crappy thing is that they had a bike rider leading the 5 mile group but not the 5k. The other two guys turned around a little earlier than me and made it back about 15 minutes before me.
What would you do differently?:

I don't know. I guess I'll research courses a lot more thoroughly from now on. This is the second race to have this happen in.
Post race
Warm down:

Well, my "race" incorporated a 5k run and about a 3 mile cool down. Met the family, had some breakfast, hung out.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Training pretty basic right now.

Event comments:

Nice little breakfast afterwards. Kid's fun run ended up being a 50 yard dash. Don't think I need to reiterate the course issues. Again, the race director was very apologetic and sincere. They ended up giving us three a gift certificate to a local restaurant to make up for it...

Look, I don't get to win races very often. Felt like I was kind of robbed of my glory here. I'm no egotist but would have been nice. Just saying...




Last updated: 2009-08-23 12:00 AM
Running
00:00:00 | 03.11 miles |  min/mile
Age Group: 1/
Overall: 0/75
Performance: Good
NO mile markers.
Course: First mile on road, then dropped onto a bike trail.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? No
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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2009-08-23 8:46 PM

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Subject: Castle Rock Fling
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