Saturday, April 27, 2013

April Race #2- Bubble Run 5K

April 27th, 2013- Bubble Run 5K

Let me preface this post by stating that I really do not like running 5Ks.  My favorite distance is 13.1.  However, when my colleague asked me to run a 5K with her, I immediately said yes.  I had just started a new job and I was excited to make new running friends!  We signed up for the Bubble Run.  It's like the other "color runs" except this was with colored bubbles.  Other than that, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into.  It was a little pricier than I usually like to pay for 5Ks, but it was on Fremont Street here in Las Vegas and I thought it would be an exciting course.  We signed up months in advance and we got a discount because we signed up as a team. 

Red flag #1- Packet pickup.  Apparently there was an email with a website that gave directions.  I didn't get that email so I missed packet pickup the day before the race.  I was freaking out until I learned that they also had packet pickup the day of the race.  On race day, I decided to get there super early and good thing I did because there was a HUGE line for packet pickup.  I talked to a bunch of people in line and no one there had gotten the email either....interesting.  Luckily, they were super organized and the line went really fast.  The swag was pretty cool- a nice white t-shirt (to get dirty/colorful!) and a sweatband.  Race bibs were just given out randomly- they weren't personalized and there were no corrals.  I didn't really think that was a bad thing...until later.
Clean!  Pre-Race Smiles
I met up with my friends and we got a few pre-race pics. We were hoping to be super colorful afterwards!  We headed over to the start line and there was a huge crowd already.  Supposedly there were 6000+ people registered.  Wow!

Red flag #2- The race had a late start time.  By 9am it's pretty hot here in Vegas, but I figured I'd be done no later than 9:40am so I wasn't too worried.  However, it was really hot out that day and I didn't bring any water because there were going to be water stations on the course and it was only a 5K.  Bad idea.  We were at the start line about 20 minutes early and there was no shade whatsoever.  Plus, we were crammed into a little tiny space with 6000 other people.  I quickly realized that 90% of these people were not planning on actually running this race.

I was hoping to be more colorful...
 Red flag #3- Finally it was time for the race to start.  They then announced that they would be letting waves of 100 people go every 10 minutes.  What.  There were 6000+ people there.  Doing the math, at that rate it was only 600 people per hour.  It was hot, people were getting restless, and the time was dragging on.  We waited for an hour before we were able to run.  I had planned to be done and home by that time!!  People were finishing before 90% of the racers had even started!  I think they must have changed that plan pretty quickly, but it must have been done after we had already started.  The first mile was spent dodging groups of people walking side by side.  I'm talking like groups of 4 or more walking together, arms linked, blocking the whole path.  It was annoying.  It seemed like we were the only ones running.


That's the extent of our bubbles...
It's Vegas, baby!
There were 4 bubble stations each with different colors- pink, yellow, blue, and green.  By the time we got to most of the stations, they were running out of bubbles and we hardly got to run through any.  It was disappointing.  At the end, I hardly had any color on me.  My Sparkle Athletic skirt did get a little bit of yellow color on it, but it washed out pretty easily with just water.  The course was through a bunch of neighborhoods.  Nothing much to see for most of it.  Towards the end though we did get to run past a bunch of wedding chapels and the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (from the show "Pawn Stars").  The finish line was on Fremont Street and that's where we got to see a lot of bubbles (they weren't colored).  They had a bunch of snacks and cold water at the finish line which I greatly appreciated.  Other than that though, I was pretty disappointed with the race.  It was not timed so I have no idea how fast we ran, but I had fun with my friends and I guess that's all that matters.

The Finish Line
Overall verdict: One and done.  Never again.
  
"Good Clean Run"

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