Wet n' Wild 5K Recap

Man.

I registered for this race awhile back, and it was SUPER cheap - like $25 - and less than 5 minutes from my house. Winner.

The Good
The Outfit - pink sparkle skirt and hot pink knee socks....

The course finished with a run through a lazy river at the water park - Awesome, every hot race should end this way.

Super sweet swag for a $25 race....

They attempted some type of corralling system - they had pacers with giant signs up with your anticipated finish time, and instructed people to find them and stick to where they belonged.

I got to meet Rose!

The Bad
No one listened to the pacers, except maybe us. Strollers, walkers, all of that, everywhere. Typical of any other 5K I've seen. (seriously, folks, WHY!?)

The race started at 8. We've had some CRAZY hot weather the last week or so, and I know the weather is unpredictable, blah blah whinycakes. But maybe an earlier start time would be nice (seriously, it was 80*, sunny as hell, and HUMID when we started).

And speaking of that earlier start time, they were still taking registrations at 7:30. The race was CLEARLY bigger than they could accommodate. Dumb.

There were water stations (good), but poorly manned, and dumb cups that don't crush so you can drink them. DUMB.

The course was weird, but that's my fault - I don't like loopy courses. But it also wasn't super well marked, and was VERY crowded in parts... again, I think they just ended up with way more people than anticipated. Which is what happens when you take registrants until the very last second.

Getting into the lazy river was a pain the arse. The volunteers were handing out plastic bags for your stuff (I planned ahead and brought my own), so people were literally just grabbing them, and stopping dead in their tracks to pack up their stuff, and take off their shoes. PEOPLE. MOVE TO THE SIDE. The volunteers should have instructed them to do so. It probably took me 5 minutes or so to get INTO the river. I know, I know, it's not a race to do for a PR, and that's fine, but some consideration for the folks around you... not too much to ask.

The UGLY
So, finished with the race, you want to cross the timing mat, grab your water and snack, and move on to remove your chip and whatever.

Oh, but picture this with sweat and lazy river wetness everywhere around you, crammed into a space about 5 feet wide...

There was no water at the finish line. Eventually (I had some time, I was obviously not going anywhere any time soon) someone dumped a box of these water bottles on the table...

Randomly, there was some chick standing in the middle of this mess with a box of medals - serve yourself style (I didn't even realize they were giving medals!) Then, like right there,was a sign to remove your chip, but it was like 6 inches from the finish line, so everyone is just... stopping to remove the chip. There was randomly a guy holding a box with everyone's removed chips, but he was just standing there, with the box. I just happened to see him.

UGLY. I wasn't hungry, thankfully, because I never did get to the food - it was too crowded.

Anyway. I don't know if I'd do this again - maybe if a bunch of friends wanted to do it, possibly... it was super cheap. But what a cluster.

(PS, my time was 37:xx, which, if you're a creepy stalker you'll recall was my Corona del Mar 5K time from 2010.... That include walking about half a mile of lazy river and stopping for 5 minutes to get into the water. I totally need to find a 5K to see what I can pull off....)