Sunburst Marathon (#8) Race Rating...

Post-Run Thoughts...
Marathon #: 10
State #: 8
2009 Marathon #: 5!

This was my 5th marathon of 2009 with the shortest rest time (2 weeks) between the last marathon. We started the run at the College Football Hall of Fame. By mile 6 I could feel that I was a lot more tired than I normally am so early on. A lot of that I attribute to not putting a lot of rest time between attempts to "race" the marathon instead of running. Racing a marathon-- trying to go for a goal pace-- takes a lot more out of you and a lot more recovery than just running. However, I was bored (an stubborn) and decided to try and race it anyways. I stayed pretty on pace until about 19 then I had to slow down.
Hopefully I held back enough, and will spend enough time recovering this week so that I can stay under 4:00 for the marathon this weekend... #9 Hatfield-McCoy! That is one of my new goals. I was purusing the new message board on MarathonManiacs.com (my new home) and I found a new goal... 50 Sub 4! This is a group similar to the 50 States club, however its a 50 states in <4>

Lessons Learned:

~ DONT attempt to race less than 3 weeks apart (4 would be preferable)
~ DO run smaller events as they're more organized and less distracting
~ My new goals... plan your races so you can get sub 4 for most. Ie. if I know I have a race in a week, hold back so that I can make BOTH under 4 instead of one great one and one slow one.

Ratings...

Overall Race Rating (weighted): 3.0/5.0

Average Calculated Rating: 3.2

~For a small race it was decent. They need to work on the merging of other races with the marathon. It should be noted that the announcer tried to announce EVER marathon runners name as they came onto the field from the football tunnel that was playing the Notre Dame fight song. This was a good way of highlighting the marathoners and it was a nice ending to a race!

Organization: 5.0/5.0

~This race was very well organized, especially considering they had to start and finish 4 other races while the marathon was going on! There were only about 600 runners so this wasn't much of a challenge. They had MULTIPE GU stops (always a plus!) and a water stop just about every mile. Also ~*and if you're a race director and want to get an immediate 5 on SFMC pay attention*~ They had POPCICLES AT THE END!!! Also, right when it started getting hot and you were out of the shade, they provided frozen towels. These were VERY much appreciated!

Course: 2.0/5.0

~The course was FLAT-- NOT my favorite thing, but most runners apprecaite it. It did have a pretty run along the river and apparently you ran right in front of "Touch down Jesus" where they snapped your picture-- but they brought you at an angle that you may not have notice (I sure didn't!). I found out when Brightroom sent out the pictures from the race (see below!). Also, while the race was going on there was also a Half Marathon, a 10K, a 5K and some other run started. This would have been fine if they had planned for the shorter distances having SLOW walkers. This led to a course CRASH!!! Anyone at an 8:30 pace or below (possibly even higher) ran RIGHT into the other races and had to run THROUGH them. It was messy and if you had headphones on you COULD have gotten caught up and assume you were supposed to join their mass.

(Left: MB running in front of TD Jesus, Right: Steph apparently Hopping in front of TD Jesus)

Spectators: 3.0/3.0

~For a college campus AND reunion weekend you would have thought the spectators would have been better. They did have a couple of cute stops where people were dressed up. They also had a lot of water stops with a ton of people. I gave it a 3 because well... there were only 600 runners- you can't expect THAT many spectators to come out!

Pace Group: DNE and didn't need...

Runner/Corrals: 2.5/5.0

~No corrals were needed, but they did have people hold up pace signs a few minutes before the start. Suprisingly, runners LISTENED!!! You saw a wave of people move backward. In fact, the 5-7 min/mile areas were practically empty! This does NOT happen in large races where walkers sometimes sneak their way up to the 7 min/mile pace group. Hate that! This section got docked a little because of the OTHER racers. At the end of the marathon you merge with the 5K, 10K, Half marathoners and they were often across the road 5-7 abreast. If marathon RUNNERS are trying to RUN through, you get out of the way! Just a thought. Also, runners weren't particularly friendly in this race at all. Apparently MB had a different take on this... making friends with the mustache man-- but the runner around me kept to themselves and didn't even say good job to the winners when we passed them in the opposite direction!

Expo: 3.5/3.0

~There technically was an expo, but again with a small race you can't expect much! You could get your GU and sports beans, and any last minute/forgotten race items, but there wasn't much past that. It was good for such a small race!

Results...