mcfricklesnitz wrote:
No overall awards, just age group awards.
I was completely floored the first time I witnessed this. I emailed the race director afterward and said, "no podium?? Just age group awards?" must have been 60 trophies and they didn't even do top 3 overall. mind-boggling.
Concerned Citizen wrote:
When you run 3 miles home for a cool-down carrying your first-place-finisher's prize, a giant frozen turkey, over your head.
Strangely, this made me laugh really hard...
Reading this makes me seriously consider whether to ever run another road race.
When a plump middle aged woman wearing a fanny pack and a visor calls you and your teammates "those people" with disgust because you're all wearing singlets and racing flats.
When the participants are wearing Fuel Belts for a mile race (seen at Congress Avenue Mile).
Most conceited thread on the board spans nine pages...
When you run a 5k at 10k pace or a 10k at half pace and still win by minutes.
When you win the 5k and double back 15 minutes later to win the 10k.
When as soon as you arrive you are on a constant look out for anyone you recognise that might challenge you for the win!
Also when you spot a few guys before the race and at the start line that look really good and you get worried about them, but end up beating them by miles!
So many of these are true, but I do love these small races, and even enjoy their quirks; it makes life interesting.
I especially appreciated the out-and-back "feature". Walkers going 7 wide, so that the faster runners have to yell for them to get out of the way. They seem oblivious to the fact that more runners will be coming and don't stay moved over for the ensuing return runners. I was in one 5k where it was an out-and-back where the first and last mile was along a 6-ft wide paved path; running off it would have meant going through 3-ft high brush...came to a near standstill more than once.
Here's a couple others I've encountered:
-the guys that organized the event turn to each other and ask, "who's timing this?"....then one of them pulls out his iPhone and responds, "I guess I will".
-the race director approaches you after the race to tell you that their timing system screwed up for the first several runners, and asks if you had your time for them to use in the results.
- Top 3 get overall awards, the rest get finisher medals...for a 2 mile race.
- Winner gets an overall & age group award.
- Slip of paper given at the finish to write your name and time on.
- Finished runner-up at a local 3k and got a handmade piece of pottery with a slip of paper in it. It looked like an slightly oversized check with $300 written on it, started to get excited then realized it was a 6 month membership to the local gym and that was the retail value of the membership. I've never understood why they give gym memberships to the top finishers.
TheBigGreenMachine wrote:
- Slip of paper given at the finish to write your name and time on.
This one is great.
... race director hastily makes up new awards for the "2-Miler" when half the field mistake the Mile 1 pylon for the turn-around (on an out-and-back 5k course)
... at the end of a sparsely attended inaugural event, the race director makes an announcement pleading finishers to take extra post-race food and other perishables.
... entrants have to wait patiently or "get creative" for pre-race relief while City workers are summoned to open the locked park bathrooms
... at a fund-raising 5k for an alternative high school, none of the top 10 for either gender are students of that high school.
Awesome!! :)
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Here's a couple others I've encountered:
-the guys that organized the event turn to each other and ask, "who's timing this?"....then one of them pulls out his iPhone and responds, "I guess I will".
-the race director approaches you after the race to tell you that their timing system screwed up for the first several runners, and asks if you had your time for them to use in the results.[/quote]
not a med student wrote:
when a bunch of little kids start in front and run as fast as they can for the first 100 meters and then tire out.
____________________
First, that's almost EVERY race. Second, I equate a local fun run to a local race that is somewhat disorganized. Forinstace; Letting walkers clog up the streets as you approach the finish. No organization to move them. You are on your own sprinting through masses of walkers for the last 1/4 mile.
....when your overall award is the same as the age group awards
....when the pacer car continues to get in your way at every turn
....when the starting and finish line is drawn out in chalk
....when the overhead clock is a stopwatch
....when you cross the finish there is only a hand full of people cheering
Don't know if these have been mentioned:
No timing company:
When you get a popsicle stick with a number on it and you have to get in a line after the race to report your name and hometown.
When someone has to manually go through the resulting list of finishers to figure out the age group winners.
With a timing company:
When you have to wait 1 1/2 hours for the award ceremony as the timing company needs an extra hour to correct mixups such as people wearing someone else's number and messing up the age group placings.
how about this....when the race organizer does not have separate male/female age groups. (first year event)
When the results are only by age group.
Or...
You are at a 4 mile trail race. They around before the start it is going to be shortened to 3.2 because of a flooded section of trail. Almost 3 miles in, you are running a section in extreme mud, thinking "I wonder what the part they cut out is like," Then at the end of that section, the marshal directs you on a loop through the same part - now you are running through this deep mud on a single track trail around slow people. You get through the loop the second time, now about 4 1/2 miles into the race, and they tell you to go the same way again. So the top 4 guys just stop and work together to figure out a way back to the finish. You get there and there are all kinds of people at various paces coming from every direction.
When someone asks you if you'd be willing to take all the watermelon home.
TheBigGreenMachine wrote:
- Finished runner-up at a local 3k and got a handmade piece of pottery with a slip of paper in it. It looked like an slightly oversized check with $300 written on it, started to get excited then realized it was a 6 month membership to the local gym and that was the retail value of the membership. I've never understood why they give gym memberships to the top finishers.
Once, for a win in a 5k, I got a free one-month membership to a fitness center and a free tanning session there (a few of the random-drawing prizes were $50 gift certificates to nice stores and restaurants). I was going to take the gym membership to work for someone else to use (I threw out the tanning gift certificate immediately), but realized the day after the race that the gift certificate had expired the day before the race.