Judebert
Today I ran the Corporate 5K. This is my first real 5K; I've done the Dick Batchelor Fun Run, but that was just walking to see if I could even complete it. Today I actually ran a 5K.
I was really quite disappointed. It was nice to hang out with coworkers I haven't seen for a while, and to test my limits. I was ecstatic about my performance: 30:57, just a hair under consistent 10-minute miles!
My problems were the race administration and the crowd. There were more than 12,600 people there. There were no proctors to line us up according to time; we just jammed into a mob taking up an entire city block or more. They had given us colors for elite, runners, and walkers, but they didn't make very much difference. The organizers' idea of communicating with us was to blast distorted instructions out of ear-splitting amplifiers.
At the Fun Run, they gave us little electronic dongles to put on our shoes. They kept track of times and published them. The Corporate 5K was decidedly low-tech: they had big LED timers around the course. To find your time, subtract the moment you went over the starting line. This website post is the only record I'll ever have of my time, and I've got nothing to compare it to.
The crowd made it a lot harder than I expected. I had to slow down, speed up, make way, and plan a route as I ran. I expected the crowd to thin out as we got going, but it didn't seem to. Going around corners was especially interesting.
I'm still deciding on whether to do this again. Maybe something smaller, or better organized. We'll see.