You Know You're at a Local Fun Run When....

5 min after the gun, you cant hear a sound besides your own footsteps

3 min later you have no idea which way to turn

21 min later your walking back to your car in time to see the first male 5k winner cross the line

Next day, you're doing a work out to make up for the race

The start line of the "certified" 5k is moved several meters just before the race because a car is in the way.

As you struggle on the return leg, someone going out shouts "it's just a fun run ya know".

Coldplay is blasted from loudspeakers at the start/finish.

When the course passes by a fire station and you get held up by a policeman for 15 sec because a fire truck is getting ready to exit.

(More important, I know, but 'chagrinning' the situation.)

Almost forgot about this one--

When the RD decides to start the race ~15 minutes early because "it looked like everyone was already at the start line."

seen it all wrote:

when hard core runners show up to show how bad-ass they are, and act like they don't care about the local 5k, but then pretend it's the NCAA champs, and are upset that it's 2.9 miles and they went the wrong way (their own fault for noth knowing the course), ran 3.2 miles and still win, yet want to complain to some volunteer over next to nothing.

gosh, some of you clowns are so funny at these local races. if it's not a usatf certified race, why do you put so much pride into it???

Unwad your panties you big Nancy. These are funny accounts of what takes place at local runs that are put on by people that know nothing about running. Yeah, sometimes it IS FUNNY.

Everyone talks about how long their Garmin said the race was

When you have to dodge cars backing out of driveways, when dogs are barking at you at the start, and when people are crossing the street in front of the race without looking sipping lattes.

If first 10k youve ever run has a railroad crossing with a mile or 2 to go, of course a train came along at the same time as me and i had to stop for a few min and wait it out before finishing the race.

Or if the biker guiding a certified, chip timed out and back 5k you had to drive 80 miles round trip the previous day to register for(no race day reg), before making another 80 mile RT on race day forgets where to turn around adding an extra quarter/half mile to the race, ruining your goal race time youve been training for all summer, the next year they made it a loop.

When you run 3 miles home for a cool-down carrying your first-place-finisher's prize, a giant frozen turkey, over your head.

...if you told the people you won the 5k in 13:00 or 16:00, they honestly don't know the difference and would probably give almost the exact same reaction to both times thinking you are some sort of prodigy...at least someone thinks youre good for running 16:00?

When you compete in an indoor fun run, get lapped and come back to win (Pretty sure it was a marathon). Then by a 26.2 bumpersticker.

that runner guy wrote:

Everyone talks about how long their Garmin said the race was

^This.

Fargo Half Marathon 2012 finish

Andrew Carson was blocked by 10K runners in his sprint and lost to Joe Moore.

http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/63914/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NU4lqHLB6Q

When the course includes a flight of stairs.

the line for the one port-a-potty is so long that you don't know if you will get to the starting line on time or not.

waaay too many cars in the parking lot have 13.1 stickers and bike racks on them.

the race fee was the determining factor on whether or not you signed up

When everyone - and given the grammar in your opening post, I do mean everyone - has a better grasp of the English language than you do.

let's see

-when you show up an hour before race time so that you have time to warm up and stretch and you're one of the first people there.

-when people gently remind you that the race wouldn't start for a little while when you go on your warm up.

-when a little 13 year old kid asks if there would be a pace car/biker and the race director points at you and just says "just follow him, he'll be in the front."

-when you're in the lead pack and the course is so poorly marked that you all just begin making up your own course, running in and out of random cul-de-sacs at your own discretion.

-when the race volunteers who actually know where the course goes enthusiastically wave you around a corner (god bless them though haha).

-when you feel the need to thank every single person who says good job or tells you where to go while racing.

-when there's a guy playing the bagpipes at the second mile.

-when after winning, you run back to cool down with your friend who was close to finishing, and then run back again to cool down with your friend's mom who was also finishing, the race volunteers are starting to get annoyed at you.

-when the pace car is a cop who slows down to drive next to you and have a conversation as you get within 800m of the finish.

-when in the same race as above, 30 seconds from the finish line that you can't see but is just over this last hill, a race volunteer starts freaking out and sends you in a different direction (which would basically have been starting the 5k over again), so you look at the cop, he shrugs, you both go that way, end up running an extra 1000 and still winning.

-when the pace car/bike is actually a pair of 12 year old girls on horses.