Projo Running Blog

This e-mail from another disheartened Downtown 5K runner was waiting in my inbox when I returned from vacation. Read George Landberg's take on what transpired at this year's race:

I was at the CVS 5K with Bill Kenyon who you have already heard from. This was our annual event where we get together to run and reminisce our 40 plus years of running when we ran together regularly during the 60’s through 80’s. Out of 7,000 registered runners and walkers probably over 5500 took the wrong turn and ran the extra .41 miles. Although it’s nice to know how fast the elite runners went and how they were unaffected by the poorly marked course with no race marshals at the critical turns, it misses the real benefit of these type of events which is to promote a healthy living style as part of your plan for a life of quality living.

I was in wave 3 and it was an absolute mess with walkers interspersed with runners. I hit the start line more than 5 minutes after the gun time and was behind a group of walkers that had no intention of ever running. The first mile was a nightmare weaving through walkers who should have been in wave 4 but because they had no idea of how long it would take them to walk 5K they must have put in a low time estimate and got seeded in wave 3. I must have passed at least 1000 walkers and runners as I weaved my way to the finish line.

Based on my average time for 3.51 miles I actually would have hit a better time than I did in the 2005 race for 5K but now I’ll never know. It is a big deal despite the comments by the race officials. The 5500 participants who paid for this event and ran the long route did not come for the refreshments but came to test themselves against the course. A slice of pizza or a banana do not compensate for an opportunity lost to see if months of conditioning paid off in an improved level of performance.

Next year, if we are both able, we’ll be running in a small RI race without the elites and probably unworthy of news coverage. We’ll know how we did, meet some friendly people and look back on it with pleasure while we try to forget 2007 and the only time in more than 40 years of running where the race organizers forgot about the most important part of the event i.e. mark and post the course for ALL the runners.

George G Landberg
Apex, N.C.

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