Live action Frogger, anybody?

Saturday was the Hot Chocolate 5/15K race at National Harbor.

To say it was a ClusterF is an understatement.

Quick run-down of why I WON'T ever run this race again:

1. Took us 1.5 hours to make it across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and exit into the harbor.  Which, made us approximately 25 minutes late for our race's staging time.
Just FYI - staging a race with 20,000 people and only one entry point to the venue is a bad idea. 


2. The walk to the start line was 2 miles away from parking.  Not the most inconvenient in itself, the problem was that you had to dodge the 5ker's that were headed the opposite direction on the same SMALL path. 


3. Because of traffic issues that they somehow hadn't forseen (who doesn't see a problem funneling 20k people into one spot?) The 15k was delayed 90 minutes.  In 36 degree weather.  With no shelter to stay warm in.
I actually count myself lucky to have been stuck in traffic.  Because, it was warm.  A couple of friends got there earlier and froze for nearly three hours.  


4. There were too many runners for the course.

The course. 

Only one lane of 210 was shut down.  That's where the Frogger reference comes in.  Because of the small lane, you never had a chance to "stretch out" and actually run.  You were constantly ramming into the back of someone else, or someone was ramming into you.  It was awful.  So, if you wanted to stay away from the runners, you could dodge cars/trucks instead!  Occasionally you'd be pushed out into traffic anyway, because there were just too many people crammed into the lane.  It was pretty dangerous.  While I was lucky and didn't sustain injury, I've heard reports of many people getting injured (I assume from being run over from other runners) and because the road wasn't closed ambulances/aid trucks couldn't get to them.

5. Uhm, where's the chocolate?

Most of the Fondue dippers were already in my belly.  By most, I mean the other two.
Marshmallow and rice crispy treat. 

Oh, that's it?  Maybe, just maybe, that was worth running the 5k.  Not, the 15k.

6. Then we had to hike 2 miles back to the car.

At least I look pretty sexy.  I'm pretty sure my orange arm sleeves and socks kept me from being run over.