I beat my 10KPR!!! 1:04:58 For this run, I saddled up and drove over 350 miles of sun-bleached, blistered terrain to «The West’s Most Western Town»: Scottsdale, Arizona. «The Night Run,» Arizona’s oldest night race and a 25-year tradition in Old Town, beckoned. And I listened. You see, I had four BIG reasons for making this trek: I had yet to run an evening race; Phoenix just so happens to be my 5th through 7th grade stomping grounds; as challenged by Adam Richman, Chompie’s had forever been bookmarked; and I wanted – no, I REALLY wanted – that glow-in-the-dark Night Run medal! But to beat my Personal Record in AZ, it wasn’t easy… At 7:20pm – sundown in the wild west – it was still a dry 84 °F. Over 1200 shoe-laced die-hards, armed and necklaced with glowsticks, sidled up to the starting line. There were mosquitos… And at 7:30pm, we were off! The double-looped course for the most part ran alongside the city’s streets – red cones separating runners and traffic – but then it also wandered in and around the park and pond of the Civic Center Mall. It was very dark at times, and although volunteers assisted, waving glowing batons, the cars being so close felt a bit dangerous. Maybe it’s just me. Yet I pushed. This route was pretty much flat, and I knew I could maintain. I had to. I needed to. I did. Nevertheless, I had great fun, Scottsdale! And I’m sure that next year«Owl Be Back!» =]
Kristin J.
Place rating: 3 Phoenix, AZ
The Night Run is an unusual run in a nice setting. Earlier tonight(by this time of night, technically yesterday) I participated in the 5k portion of the Night Run for the first time. I’ve done a lot of races, but this was the first one that I ever did that was completely in the dark. I found it to be a generally good race, but with some important organizational hiccups. Here’s the breakdown of what I thought was noteworthy: PROS: — Unusual, novel event, unlike other races — Very family-friendly, with kid-inclusive side events — Good course in a good part of town — Ample police presence and road closures for runner safety — Plenty of volunteers along race route, most with lighted batons and easy to spot — Everyone gets a glow-in-the-dark medal! CONS: — There was a huge amount of disorganization at the event for bib, goodie bag, and t-shirt pickup. I got there more than an hour early and it made very little difference. Extremely large crowds made it impossible to view most expo booths.(Was there some kind of prize wheel? I would have checked that out.) Bib pickup was the worst. There was no real separation of bib pickup into alphabetical groupings. Getting your race packet meant you had to wait a very long time in a huge confused crowd for your bib, then walk all the way around the expo to avoid the bib crowd to go to a separate table for your bag, then get in ANOTHER separate long line for your t-shirt. Amazing. Also, the event confirmation email said to ask the people giving out bibs for a timing chip if you decided you wanted to buy one — but that was not true. The person who gave me my bib could not even tell me where to get a chip and did not try to help. Turns out that was yet another separate table and separate line! I’ve never gotten into so many separate, long lines just to assemble the pieces of my packet. It took forever, and no one seemed to know what was going on. — There were two water stations on the route, but the first was completely unmanned. It was just two orange cooler-dispenser things surrounded by cups and a huge crowd of stationary runners, waiting their turn. This does not make any sense in a chip-timed race. I did not get water at the first water station because I did not want to have to completely stop moving, just to wind up standing in another line, in the middle of the race. — There was very little light at the finish line, making it hard to see well enough to even get a medal. To top it off, race organizers or volunteers were spraying everyone with these squirt gun water-tube things.(I saw that they had prepared tubs of water to fill these things with, before the race, so it wasn’t just some random person playing a prank. I didn’t find out what the tubs of water were for until the end of the race.) This wasn’t a mist; it wasn’t coming down from above; they were spraying these things at us, pretty much sideways. I wear glasses, so when the water went right in my face, I couldn’t see where I was going. It was not helpful, not refreshing — more like a huge annoyance and a very real hazard. I appreciate that they were trying to do something nice, but spraying water in my face and all over my glasses, when I already can’t see because it’s so dark, AND I have runners coming down the chute behind me, is NOTNICE. Do you know how disoriented runners are when they come down the finish chute? Seriously, everyone is sort of mentally gone. You just don’t do this. INCONCLUSION: Would I do it again? Maybe, but only if: 1. I carried my own water, 2. I was able to get to the running store to pick up my packet in advance, and 3. I could get some assurance that no one working for The Night Run would spray the race finishers in the eyes with a big squirt gun, as the runners staggered around in the dark in a state of running-induced mental vacancy. The problems with the race could easily be fixed. I’m assuming that the race organizers are good people who want to plan a safe and fun event, so I’m hoping that this detailed feedback is useful to that end.
