First, you might want to read this little rant about aid stations, from last year's race. Nothing really has changed. This year might have been worse in a couple respects. Look at that photo above again.
There were lots of people trying to be helpful, wanting to throw their cups in the garbage. That's nice. I heard many apologies for missing. That's nice too. People were almost tripping over the curbs to get close enough to hit the targets. That's not so nice. I'm just happy nobody tripped. Several people missed, then went back against the flow of traffic to get it and put it in the garbage, even though a volunteer was standing right there, dealing with it.
Even worse, people congregated around the containers. Serially. In parallel. Groups, even. Taking up running space. Just off to the right is a pole in the middle of the path. One guy nearly left his family jewels on it, trying to dodge around someone, who was trying to dodge around people just standing there. Lots of people were running with (apparently) no idea there was anyone else around them.
I'm glad I wasn't racing through there. There was a nasty cold wind much of the time I was there. At least I got a nice photo of the reservoir.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Playing with a new photo app, meaning I'm waiting for nearly 5000 photos to load onto the iPad. 45 minutes on the bike feeling pretty good. Core and stretching after. My legs are beginning to feel much better. BBQ some tenderloin in a Linda marinade. As always, very yummy.
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ReplyDeleteOh that would suck to trip over those curbs. This is why I try to avoid using the aid stations- they just seem like disaster zones.
ReplyDeleteGood seeing you out there! Thanks for the cheer.
ReplyDeleteThat aid station was annoying. It has to be wider to serve drinks on both sides. There was nowhere for somebody to go if they wanted to skip the aid station and avoid suddenly stopping runners. The other aid stations, I could just go to the far side, but that one, I had to attempt to get dead centre, and even then almost ran into people. It's not like I was going super fast either.
Deb, that is exactly what I said about that aid station in last year's post. I couldn't believe the noise of everyone shouting "water gatorade" at the top of their lungs, constantly. People forgetting which hand had which fluid. From a process perspective it was brutal. Read your blog, sounds like you had a really good race and you can check that one off your list!
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