It’s already the third month of the year but I’ve just gotten started with road races with my first event of the year, the 8th AmCham ScholaRun.  I’ve been joining road races for more than a decade but this event was still able to introduce something new for me…

This event came at a not-so-ideal time for me.  My right ankle was still a bit swollen so I didn’t really think that I’d be able to run.  I even considered forfeiting the race but being my first event of the year, I eventually decided otherwise.

As I walked towards the starting line on the morning of the race, I was surprised that my ankle didn’t act up and I was able to jog.  But as it was my first time to do so in quite a while, I still was very cautious.  Eventually, I arrived at the starting line, late for my event’s gun start, but it’s fine as I realized I can do some running.

Being late this time was quite pleasant for me and my ankle as there’s hardly any runners around and I can run in peace and at my own pace.  It took a while until I reached the end tail of the crowd and that’s approaching the first station of the race where they served pizza!

Food is what set this race apart from other road races I’ve joined for the past decade.  The event was truthful to its theme, “Eat and Run,” and they did serve food in various stations along the route.  The first one I passed by served pizza, but as runners flocked the area and I didn’t want to wait to get a slice, I just continued running.

A few kilometers later, I approached another station, this time it was serving donuts.  This time though, I got lucky as I was able to grab one quickly without stopping long.  I immediately regretted eating the moment I took a first bite out of that donut though—not that it’s bad (it’s actually good!), it’s just that eating bread while running makes your mouth really dry and chewing adds energy expenditure!  And so, I ended up carrying that donut all the way to the finish line!  I only ran a 5K so I’m not aware if there’s another food station.

In the end, I completed my 5K race (5.5 km as per my GPS) in 29:06.  You may view your official race results here.

Remarks

It’s very seldom lately that I add remarks to my recap of races I’ve joined as we’ve reached that point when just about every race delivers what is expected.  This time though, I will provide some so that whomever was the organizer of this event may improve on for their next events:

1. Crowded finish line.  Race officials were handing out the medals to finishers on the timing mat so there was a long queue before you cross the finish line and formally finish your race.  I had to stop running meters before the finish line and lost seconds before I was able to reach the timing mat.  I suggest keeping the area clear for finishers and hand out the medals before they exit the area.
2. Unorganized baggage counter.  It actually took me longer to claim my bag than to run my 5K race!  There were six persons manning the 5K baggage counter but it took minutes just to get a single bag out.  I suggest implementing a system that would store the bags in such a way that would make it quicker for them to be retrieved.  Hint: sort the area into sections based on the bib numbers of the bag owners.

Overall, I think the event was pretty good and was successful in introducing something fun and new to road races.  Thank you to everyone that made this event possible and congratulations to everyone that completed their races!

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