Driving for Meridian - Miles for Meridian Virtual 5k

Hi, and welcome to 2021! It's exactly the same as 2020... are you surprised?

Last November, in what may have been a stupid or too optimistic decision, I signed up for a race. It's Miles for Meridian, which I ran February 2020. Even as I signed up for it, I was skeptical that it would actually RUN, but it had a few things going for it... 1) it was only $14, 2) it has an amazing medal, and C) FREE deferral to 2022 IF it was cancelled or changed to a virtual. 

"Run the race virtually with your shirt, number, finisher medal..." 

Just a few days into January, we got the dreaded update... it had changed to a virtual. I never got any sort of email update from them, which very much annoyed me... I had to find out from Facebook. I waited a few weeks, to see if they would say anything about deferring, but they never did, and by the time I realized they hadn't sent anything, I figured it was too late to do so. I sucked it up and decided to just run it virtually, which I did on January 31.

The last time I ran a 5k was November 8, for a virtual Walt Disney World Wine & Dine Volunteer Run (no blog post about it), so I wasn't expecting any sort of PR. 

Instead, I got a view of an amazing sunrise, which made the 1+ hour time worth it. 

I was just happy to be back outside. As I've mentioned before, I wasted like 8 months of this stupid pandemic sitting on my ass. I let the "fuck it" mentality get the better of me, and I've been fighting my way back to where I was before. I've been hitting the gym 5 times a week, but I've not been running much at all (okay, none), nor have I even been walking on the treadmill at home... the poor thing is dusty. 

I'm guilty of using it as a drying rack for all of my gym clothes

Anyway, the run (mostly a walk) was a lovely time. 

I reported my time to Meridian and the following weekend, headed over to Town of Tioga for the "Drive-Thru Celebration."  This involved wearing your mask (because, of course...) and pulling up to get your swag. We got a huge reusable bag with lots of goodies in it, they took your "finisher photo" and that was it. 

My headband says "Just Don't Be Last"

I picked up some lunch on the way home and then checked out my swag. 

Small lunchbox full of swag (Samsung Galaxy J7 for scale)

Water, snacks, 3pc candy, hand sanitizer, mask, and small calendar

Bigger bag with more swag (44oz water bottle in the background for scale)

Chip clips, pens, water bottle, stress ball, 3pc candy

Long sleeve shirt (very long!)

Sweet-Tasting "Medal" with Kiss for scale

So, a nice mix of advertisements, branded junk, and candy, though for a "candy-themed" race, I expected more than six pieces of candy. 

But the thing that burned my ass? The "medal." What medal? you say... 

Exactly.

There was no medal. As you recall, the in-person race was going to have a medal, and the original registration email said that if it went virtual, we'd still get a medal. 

However, when the race switched to virtual, all mentions of an actual medal disappeared. 

LEFT: Original advertisement      RIGHT: Updated advertisement

From Virtual Race registration page - see "sweet tasting finisher medal"

So, yeah, I'm mad at this race... kinda at myself, I guess. I should have reached out earlier to inquire about deferral. But because I was under the assumption that we'd still get medals, why would I have known to reach out? Because of this, I'm hesitant to sign up for next year, which sucks. It's a good race, benefitting a good resource in our city. I guess I'll wait and see what the fall/winter have in store, but right now, if we have to do more virtual bullshit, I won't run this one again.