Get Your Rear In Gear 5K

Overland Park Kansas…..  Run on July 8, 2011 

This is the most disappointing race I have run in to date.  I believe that logistically,many things were lacking, as several issues could have been handled better.  This race was run in a part of Overland Park KS, through busy streets, residential areas and a small business park.  The charity involved with this race was funding for colon cancer research and awareness, which, is certainly a good thing.  Several racers who had lost a loved one to colon cancer,  wore memorial shirts in their honor.  One of the several disappointing aspects of this race, they didn’t use the “chip timing” system, where  your time is accurately recorded through a computer chip worn on your shoe or bib number.  They used a more antiquated “tag timing” system, where an electronic, hand-held stopwatch is used to record each runners time.  This requires attendants at the finish line to record the finish line crossing of each and every runner.  This may be fine for a small race, where there are few runners, like perhaps the Merriam Turkey Creek Festival, which had only a couple of hundred runners total, but this race had over 600 runners, which is much too crowded, in my “humble” opinion, to use that system.  Especially as I believe du to human error, it may have cost me several seconds on my official time, and a third place finish.  I am unsure if I will run this race again.