Two very different races...

I ran the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge last night and the Special Olympics Summer 5K at lunch today.  I throughly enjoyed both races, but they couldn't have been more different!

Corporate Challenge
I honestly have a love/hate relationship with this race.  It's 12,000 runners and walkers (Oh my, there are walkers!!!).  12,000 people.  It starts at Boston Common, goes down Comm Ave to Kenmore Square, then you turn around and head back to the Common for a flat 3.5 mile round trip.  For comparison's sake, the BAA 10K has roughly the same course from the start and to the finish (with an extra 2.7 miles in between) and they cap the race at 6500.  About half of the mass of bodies during the Corporate Challenge.  A walking coworker took this picture under the Mass Ave Bridge

The Mass Ave Underpass. Runners on the return route, walkers heading out to Kenmore. To give you an idea, the woman in bib 2126 finished in 45:32, so it's not as crowded as it was when the 35 min finishers were heading out to Kenmore. Also, check out the snazzy Biogen Idec shirt!

3.10686 miles!

There's got to be few more annoying people at fun runs than the "data junkies". Like me.

This year, my family (me, hubby and my boys: 8 and 6) ran our second Color Fun Run.  We ran a Color Me Rad last year, and the inaugural Splash of Color this year.  If you check out my review from last year, you'll see it was, well... not a precision machine.  I thought it was just that "brand" of race, but it seems to be all of these untimed fun runs.

A few things that got to me this year:

More than I planned - 2013 Race Schedule

Yeah, I know the year's half over already, but, it's New England! The "running year" goes from April to October.  So I'm only a few months late ;)

I didn't realize how many races I had already (or plan to) signed up for until I "applied" to be a Runbassador for #RunChat (ok, it's not an application, it's a form to get free #RunChat tattoos and stickers!) and they ask you to list all your races.  And I forgot about the Corporate Challenge!  Here's my 2013 Schedule, even with finishing times! And I'll come back and update them as I finish them.

Hills, times and perceptions

I ran two 5K's just two weeks apart and my times were 32:46 and 33:44.  I figured it made sense, they're both at the faster end of what I've been running lately, and the second race was hillier (Boston vs the "Worcester Foothills".  So, I did what any good engineer would do and pop on over to RunKeeper to see what the difference in Feet Climbed was.  I was a bit surprised.

First race: BAA 5K.  It runs along Comm Ave, and the "biggest" hill is going under Mass Ave. for an almost 30 ft hill.  And yet, the feet climbed totaled 280 ft.  Here's my RunKeeper File.

Then, two weeks later, I ran the AMSA Inaugural 5K. I swear to you, this race felt like it was uphill, both ways.  In actuality, there was a short up hill, a long downhill, then rolling hills then reverse of the first two hills.  That was a 120 ft climb in about 1/3 of a mile, including one stretch that I need to put my Prius into "super break" mode to not roll backwards down the hill.  But, the overall climb was only 228 ft! That would be LESS hilly than the BAA 5K. Here, check out RunKeeper.

A minutes slower, but 60 feet less of hills? Different day, so it's within my normal error of pace?  Technical glitch? (I've seen most running app's get confused about elevation near water. Every time I cross the Charles, my elevation goes to 0 ft, even though I'm not walking on water!).

Color Me Rad "Race" Recap

Lessons from Color Me Rad Boston

1- Baby wipes are excellent at smearing the color around, but not that good at actually removing the color
2- They spray you with liquid color, which will soak through your shorts and create a really odd tied dyed pattern on your underwear
3- Your snot will be multicolored (or at least a weird shade of blue) for a good 24-48 hours
4- Wear a bandana around your nose and mouth (yeah, like a "bad cowboy"). It will limit the amount of horrible tasting stuff you inhale. It will not prevent Colored Snot (see item 3).
[Edited: Item 5-7 don't matter! Once you wash the clothing, all of the color comes out!  The only exception was on my husband's shirt. You can see in the photo where he sweat through his shirt, those areas kept the color. If your kids really want a souvenir, buy a tie dye kit and tie dye the shirts after the race.]
5- Soaking the colored clothing in vinegar, followed by ironing will fix the color, but will also turn what few white parts left on the clothing to an odd blue-green color. Use a spray bottle of vinegar if you want to preserve the pattern as is.
6- Wait until the clothing is completely dry after the vinegar soak and shake off the excess powder before ironing without steam.
7- When you iron the damp clothing or use steam during ironing and transfer the dye-vinegar paste to your iron, take a stack of paper towels and wet them, then iron the wet towels until your iron is clean again.



A very colorful family, post run. They may not look it, but they had fun!

All in all, it was a fun day. The race was short, as it was only 2.5 miles instead of the advertised 5K, which was a bit of a bummer. We had to get the boys up at 5 am, to get to the race at 630 for check in. It worked out well, as we got right into the parking lot and really didn't have a wait at the check in. Instead of waiting for the 830 heat we signed up for, we just jumped into the first wave, which worked out really well. I'm super proud of my boys (ages 5 and 7) for running the 2.5 miles in 37 minutes.

The course was in a mall parking lot, so it was not a very scenic course, but since we were there for the coloring, it really didn't matter all that much. We let the boys set the pace, and it was interesting seeing kids trying to run in a road race. Apparently, they can't run in a straight line yet. There was one near crash, but no one actually got injured, which was wonderful!

A few suggestions for the folks at Color Me Rad:

• If you bill it as a 5K, make it a 5K. Otherwise, just call it the Color Me Rad Run.
• Don't hide the whole "you have to pick up your bib the day before" in an attachment in the reminder email and in the FAQs. Announce it very clearly on the home page, the registration day, etc. And if you're going to have bib pickup the day of, say that as well. I had to find the info for same day pickup in a comment on the Facebook page.
• Don't have people register for a wave, if you then tell everyone to show up 45 minutes (if they got their bib or 90 minutes if they need to get their bib) before the first wave. Then completely ignoring all the waves and have starts every 5ish minutes just adds to the frustration. Just be honest, and tell everyone to get there between 630 and 8 am for check in, last person can cross the start line at 9.
• Tell the volunteers to aim for clothing not faces. The handful of blue dust in my hair and ear really didn't contribute to the cool tied-dyed effect on my shirt.