Victoria Marathon Training - Week 12

This was a pretty low-mileage week for me since I decided to focus on a 10K race on Sunday. I was hoping to set a new personal record, but in the end I missed it by 39 seconds, finishing in 56:38...The event was the Nike+ Human Race 10K in Vancouver and here are my thoughts on the event:

Nike+ Human Race 10K

Positives:

-amazing spectacle to behold: a red ribbon of thousands running through the city

-good shirt (red micro-fibre, good fit for women, printed on front AND back)

-gift at the end (bracelet) was a nice touch

-choice of 3 charities to run for (choice=good)

-personally, I liked the location (10 minute walk from my apartment, directly in front of my office, pictured below)

-ability to try on race shirt and get the right size

-lots of days before the race to pick up package

-video montage on big screens of race going on in other world cities earlier in the day

-number of porta-potties (enough)

-unique idea of having your number printed on your shirt

-generally a good route

-good weather

-great turnout (a few thousand)

-results uploaded to internet quite fast and with splits at a couple of points on the route

Negatives:

-long lines at the bag check (especially if your last name started with 'A' or 'B')

-late start (at least 20 minutes)

-high cost of entry fee ($50 in Vancouver)

-no entry into the post-race festival area except for registered runners or volunteers, and you couldn't even buy a ticket for your loved-ones (this was not publicized very well)

-jacquizzis on site (though I didn't actually see them) - not sure how that is supposed to help anyone after a race (ice baths would have been more appropriate of course - though less popular)

-only 10% of entry fee to charity

-location of porta-potties (not near bag-check=not convenient)

-no race bib to stick in the collection

-map of start/finish site should've been included in race package (a big area!)

-only 3 water stations as far as I could tell, that were under-staffed & too small (cups too small too)

-one spot there was confusion about which way to go, half the people went too far around and the other half had to stop at a bottleneck crossing a pedestrian bridge

-not much crowd support most of the way

-strange disembodied female voice recording on a loop repeating words of encouragement at a few points (may have been a positive for some, for me it was weird)

-last 2K uphill=not nice

-being handed a gift (bracelet) at the finish - when what I wanted at that point was a drink or a snack

-very limited or no free food or drinks as far as I could tell becuase the beer garden and BBQ required payment

Final conclusion: Glad to have done it for research purposes - but once was enough.