How NOT to Put on a Race - The Cupcake Run 5k Race Report

I really should know better than to do local races... but I want them to be successful, so I do local races!

Trying to keep my one-race-a-month streak going, I needed a race for November. I saw this one, saw that it had a medal, was inexpensive, AND local, so I took a chance.

The day before, I went over to the local Fit-2-Run to pick up my shirt and bib. This was really the first inkling of how bad the race was going to be.

I got there and didn't see it anywhere... it was in the back of the store. So I walked over there. Wow, only one person in line! I hopped in line and waited. And waited. And waited some more. At one point, I realized I may have line-jumped some people... There was a whole family behind me (I had assumed they were actually shopping since they were in the racks, not a line). I was a total passive bitch and didn't say anything, because if they were in line, it would have taken me an hour to get my stuff (yea, the group was moving that slowly!). So I just pretended I didn't see them there and stayed where I was... Sorry, lovely family behind me! I'm not usually horrid like that, I swear!

Anyway, so after 5-10 minutes, it's my turn. They couldn't find my bib. The guy gave me a notepad and told me to write down my name and info... they were missing a lot of bibs, and he expected to find them on the day of the race. After I did that, he sort of tossed the pile of bibs at me and told me to look for myself. Uh, okay. Within a minute, I found my bib. Okay, so one less worry.

I signed up specifically for a 2X women's tank. They didn't order any. I could either get a women's XL or a men's XL. I chose to get a women's tank. Dammit! I really was looking forward to getting a tank in my actual size!

Lastly, they gave out raffle tickets, but they didn't have any pens to fill out the back with my name and whatnot, and after seeing the prizes (I think a water bottle and a hat), I wasn't all that upset to not win.

If packet pickup is this disorganized... what will tomorrow look like?

Oh my... little did I know...

The race started at 8am, so I got there around 7:30, after taking hubby to work. It was at Depot Park, a newly constructed urban park in my town. I parked on the side, near the Cade Museum and made my way to the starting area.

Looking towards the Start Line Area

It was very busy, with a few hundred runners waiting to toe the line.

Just standin' around

The pond is very peaceful this morning

They had someone from a local gym come out and do stretches for us.

Reach high, high to the sky!

I just kind of stood around for 10-15 minutes until it was time to line up.

Let's just not mention that hair, okay...?

A lot of us stood around... there wasn't a lot of direction from the race directors. We didn't know which way we'd take off (towards the Museum or towards the trail?) so no one lined up.

Well... where are we going?

A few minutes before the start, we finally got directions, and were told that there would be a staggered start. Ainsley's Angels (who benefited from this race) runners would take off first. Five minutes later, the half-marathon runners would take off. Five minutes after that, the 10k runners. Then, yep, 5 minutes later, the rest of us measly 5k runners.

Okay, we're all going THAT WAY!

HOWEVER... a lot of the runners didn't hear that announcement, so it was a huge clusterfuck.  They sent out the Angels, and a bunch of folks in the crowd thought everyone was going, so the rest of the crowd who knew what was going on explained the process.

Then the 1/2 marathon people went, and there was a bunch of 1/2 marathon folks in the back, because they didn't know there'd be a staggered start, so they tried to push through the crowd, all while other folks in the crowd (who still didn't know about the staggered start) tought it wast time to go so they tried to go... repeat for the 10k folks... Ugh, it was near pandemonium, and very confusing for everyone.

And speaking of confusion, who thought it would be a good idea to let (no offense) slow, walking moms with jogging strollers go FIRST? Not a good idea, folks! Luckily the trail is wide, so I don't think anyone got run over.

Finally, almost 20 minutes after the advertised race start time, we 5k folk could finally take off.

I feel there should be some Telephone Hold Music for waiting this long

The first runner (no idea what distance he was running, could have been 5k or 10k), passed me at 13 minutes in! Winter races in Florida rock!

The course was a very basic one. We walked through the nature trail area, then hooked a left onto the Depot Trailway, ran down to SE 21st Ave, then returned. My Garmin didn't track this run, so I'm super-grumpy about that.


We had to cross a street at 4th Street, and there were no barricades, volunteers, or policemen, so it was a bit of Frogger...

Don't get hit by a truck!

At least at Williston Road (a major state highway), there were police officers to stop traffic.

Yay! A Police Officer!

When we got to 21st, there was, again, no police officers, and you guys...

The water stop - and the TURN-AROUND - were on the OTHER side of the road!

What the actual hell?

From the EasyWDW School of Picture Writing

I refused to cross the street just to get water and turn around. I'm sure the 10k and half-marathon people didn't care that the water was on the other side of the road, but it made NO sense to do this, seeing as though the majority of the participants were doing the 5k. Bad planning, people! Bad!

Even Plank is surprised about this

So, skipping the water, I turned around at the end of the path and headed back. It was an out-and-back course for the 5k, so nothing new to look at.

I came up towards the finish line. My official time was 52:30, which is actually pretty damn good for me!

About .25 miles to go

Finish!

Ugh, you're killin' me, Smalls! Why are there SO many people just loitering around the finisher chute? Granted, I'm not speedy, and there's no way I'd barrel into any of these people, but again, bad form, folks. Bad form.

Seriously, what died on my head?

Then, to add insult to injury... they handed me my medal. Still folded up inside a plastic bag.

Like how it came from the trophy place. In a fucking bag.

See!? They're still in the damn bag!

I unbagged my own medal and took it out so I could take my finish line photo.

It sure is cute though...

Look at the medal, not the hair, please...

And then I went searching for water (you know, since there wasn't any safely available water on the course).

Nope. No water. No bananas. Not even any jelly beans.

At one point, this was full of little cups of jelly beans

A few minutes after I finished, they made an announcement that there would be more water coming. Okay, I can wait. let's go find a cupcake. They're from the Flour Pot Cafe & Bakery, which is a fancy bakery in town.

Oh, they aren't here yet either... The Cupcake Race doesn't have any cupcakes, folks.

Are you making this face yet? I'm making it right now.

So, I decided to see how much worse this thing could get. I sat down near the lake and cheered on the 10k runners.

I was in the next 100 or so photos because of where I sat...

You could tell when the cupcakes had arrived, because swarms of people began to descend on the park and form huge lines.

You are gonna have... cupcakes... at your cupcake race, right?

More bad planning? Rather than have ALL the cupcakes in one place, they split them up! They had multiple varieties of cupcakes (I remember chocolate, red velvet, peanut butter, raspberry, and I think, carrot), and put some of each at a few different tents.

I mean, seriously, look at the line in the background!

Okay, makes sense, until you realize that 200 people have no idea what you're doing. I'm way back here... as the line got closer to the tents, multiple lines formed. The line I was in ran out of carrot cake and raspberry (fine by me)... did this mean if I wanted one, I needed to go get back in line for the other tent? They should have had ALL the cupcakes (and fewer varieties, come on) at ONE tent. I could have walked up and said, "oooh, I'd like chocolate please." and been on my merry way.

I was lucky enough to grab a red velvet and a double-chocolate.

Red Velvet (L) and Double Chocolate (R)

I took both cupcakes home to share with Hubby. I wasn't impressed with either one.

But I was more impressed with them than I was this race. Apparently a lot of people felt that way... There was a lot of complaining while we all stood around, both before and after the race, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

We got three different emails from the son of the Race Director.

First... they hadn't even uploaded everyone's NAME to connect to bibs, so no one could find their times. We got this email. 

Email 1, explaining the problem

Then, we got the next email, about timing screw-ups.

Email 2, about result screw-ups and volunteer shortages

Finally, we got this last email. You could tell from the tone of the email that a lot of participants had been very vocally rude to these folks.

Email 3, defending his father from what I can only assume are assholes

I commend Brent for sending this out, as he could have just said fuck everyone, but he didn't. So points to you, Brent. I felt kind of bad about all my anger for this race, after reading this email.

With all that being said, though, will I do this one again? Maybe. I want to see local races flourish (I mean, 34 years ago, the Melon Run was a new race, and look at them now...). I want to see more races on the local race calendar. Knowing what I know now, I think I'll be much more patient with Craig and Brent. If I can't run it, perhaps I'll volunteer to help out and work towards its success.