Waist Management: Fool's 5K--Saturday, April 5, 2014--Cedar Falls, IA

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Fool's 5K--Saturday, April 5, 2014--Cedar Falls, IA

A gorgeous, yet cold, but perfect morning for a race. We had to get up super early for this one, but that's okay, it's worth every second of lost sleep. We woke at 4:45 a.m. so we could leave at 5:08 a.m to pick up Tyler and then head to Cedar Falls and be in the park before 7 a.m. We wanted to be in the park early to get super awesome parking and we did. We parked right by the tents. I think we were one of the first 20 people in the park. This race takes place in Cedar Falls, Iowa which if you don't know where that is, it is Northwest of Waterloo. Here is a description of Cedar Falls by Wikipedia. The actual race location is in George Wyth State Park

Jason and I both won FREE entries to this awesome race. So we paid $0 to be in it. I couldn't believe our luck. However that aside. I would have paid to be in this race no matter what, it's that amazing. Best 5k around for sure.

Cool thing about the results: Last year my time was 32:00 on the dot. This year my time was 28:11. Almost a 4 minute improvement. Feeling pretty awesome about my time. Full results are here. and my results and video are here.

A bunch of Roosters. We are still missing a few, but here is a picture from Jill's camera that was taken at this race.

Good Points about the race:
Chip timed--Starting and ending time.
Dry fit shirt that is accurate to size
Really cute bib for your scrapbook.
Super organized race down to EVERY detail.
Flat course. Super flat, so flat that you never even see a hill anywhere. It's awesome.
Certified course.
Packet Pickup a couple days before and the morning of if you need it.
Chip timing system in the bib, so you don't have to worry about returning the chip.
Miles marked, (Even mile 3 marked so you can check your splits)
Printed out results at the end.
Lots and LOTS of food at the end. Yummy awesome food. There were the usual bananas and bagels, but then in addition to that there was chocolate milk, oranges, donuts, cookies, yogurt, gourmet popcorn, water, AND home made breakfast burritos. Maybe there was even more, because there was so much to choose from, if you went hungry then you didn't get in line.
Contests on facebook to win things before the race.
Very well marked course. You knew exactly where to go at all times.
Loud speakers at the beginning. You could hear all announcements at all times. Seriously this was great.
A large amount of port-a-potties.

Not so great points about the race:
No water station on the course. Not that I needed it, but for those slower runners/walkers who take 50 minutes or more to complete the race they I'm sure would have loved to have some water. I will let you know that any longer distance race that is put on by this race director always has LOTS of water stations.

No finishing medal. Although I don't care and really feel that finishing medals should be for LONG races only like 10 milers and above, but it's a nice touch and some 5K's have those. Not that I need anymore medals, just pointing this out, that some 5k races have them and some don't. This one doesn't.

Only an overall award for #1 Overall Male and Female. Personally a race of this size should have, in my opinion, overall awards for Top 3 Male and Females. This race is HUGE and to be Top 3 out of everyone is a big deal in my eyes.

Would I personally do this race again? You bet. The only thing that would keep me from this race would be if my one of my children had an event I needed to be at. I would even show up if I was injured to cheer on my non-injured friends and take pictures of them running.