If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll remember I left off by letting you know I was in Corral A (what?!). And that I’m gonna do some good ol’ fashioned complaining.
Side note: Since they didn’t tell us what corrals we were in and there weren’t any labels on them, no one (for the most part) actually knew which one they were in.
When the race announcers tried to get runners to cheer based on their corrals, and they called for people in corral C, it was dead silent. It was hilarious. The people in that corral just had no idea who they were!
Okay, so, corral A – I found this actually a bit stressful because, as you know, I’m not very fast. I didn’t like the idea of tons of fast people behind me having to pass me. Also, there were tons of walkers in front of me. (I was in the back of that front corral.)
Even though I’m not a competitive athlete, I definitely wanted to jog the whole thing since it’s only 3 miles. I was darting around people for what felt like forever. Not to mention there were characters posing for photo ops with people less than 1/2 a mile into the race (before we’d even had a chance to really thin out or get around people), but for the most part people were courteous, and they were going off to the side of the course for pictures.
In the middle of the race a woman who worked at Disney jumped in the middle of us joggers and started walking backwards, asking everyone to stay behind her so that cast members could cross (even though the cast members weren’t standing right there yet!).
Luckily, I was just seeing this from somewhat of a distance, so it didn’t really slow me down. I just kept moving forward, getting closer to her little makeshift barricade. I could see the people around her getting annoyed. A few people ran right past her, which made her annoyed, but it’s like “hey, lady, you’re standing in the middle of a 5k (in a section of people who are actually moving pretty well), paving the way for cast members who aren’t even ready to cross yet. Of COURSE people are going to run by you.”
Also, the race was not chip timed. There were digital clocks at every mile. Plus, most people had their Garmins or phones or whatever they use, but no official times. Speaking of the mile markers, they were brown…at night. If it weren’t for the digital clocks (or my running app) I easily could’ve missed them. (I didn’t even see the one for mile 1. I noticed the one at mile 2 when people had stopped to take pictures by it.
The finish line was literally a line drawn on the ground(!) – no banner or balloons or anything. I was looking around so hard at the end because I wanted to make sure I finished in under 40 minutes, but I didn’t see where the actual finish line was until just seconds before I crossed it.
Now, I might be sounding a wee bit harsh. I’m usually pretty laid back with races. But this was an expensive 5k!
You could do about 4 normal 5ks for the price of this Disney one. So, I pretty much expected it to be the best 5k anyone has put on ever in the history of 5ks. (I may be slightly exaggerating, but I did think it would be pretty incredible.)
They did light up the castle and have Tinkerbell fly down before the race. They also had fireworks and confetti at the start. It was very Disney-esque. But what about the normal non-Disney running stuff people have come to expect? Put up a banner at the finish, by golly!
Also, while I’m on this track of complaining, let’s talk about our “medals.” They’re cute, but they’re rubber. They’re not even actual medals. Again, if this 5k hadn’t been a billion dollars ($105(!)), then I wouldn’t be so grumble grumble about it…
(Also, I know sometimes people’s attitudes get lost in print. Just for the record, I don’t have any “real” complaints that I’m truly angry about. I’m just saying… )
And as if you haven’t heard enough grumbling, I’ll pick up here tomorrow.