USATF-NE 5K Championships 2023

This year's USATF-NE 5K Championship race

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Cambridge, MA

Preface:  As I start this race report on the eve of the race, I reflect back on last year's USATF-NE 5K Championship race (Needham, MA in November) where I ran a 17:40 and came in 4th in my age division.  I was disappointed in that time as based on my 2-mile split of 11:02, I figured a PR (17:32) was in the bag.  

I am NOT anticipating a PR tomorrow.  The course is slightly flatter, but I'm not in the shape as I was in November coming off my marathon PR.  I'd be really happy if I could get a 17:40 tomorrow, so I'll call that my A) goal, 17:50 as my B) goal, and 18:00 for C).  Slower than 18:00, I'll probably sulk.

Race day:  Writing this now post-race, it looks like I'll be sulking.  Which I did and got out of my system.  Here is the back story.

Transport:  Had my typical race day breakfast of oatmeal with granola and berries and left the house at 6:15am.  The race wasn't until 10am, but we were picking up Matthew's friend at Exit 1 Park 'n Ride and driving to Quincy Adams to take the red line into Cambridge.  We had buffered in 15 minutes of extra time and used that right away when we arrived to see the red line just leaving and the next one 15 minutes away.  No problem, we planned for that contingency and should still have plenty of time for check-in, bathroom, run the full course as a warm-up, check bag, etc.  Or so I thought ...

Check-in disaster:  Arrived Cambridge 8:50am and at the race check-in at 8:56am.  There were six lines, four for 5K and two for the 5-Mile starting five minutes later than the 5K.  Spent the next almost forty minutes in line waiting for bib pickup.  Each line had a single volunteer that was looking up runners on a tablet, checking them in, getting their bib, and whatever giveaway (hat included, shirt for an extra fee).  Having only one volunteer at each line to take care of all these tasks resulted in a long backlog and a VERY slow moving line.

Bathroom debacle:  9:35am.  Now to use the bathroom and then whatever abbreviated warm-up we can muster, as there's no longer any time to run the course.  Fortunately, some CMS team members we know offered to let us put our bags at their tent, otherwise, there's no time for baggage check-in anymore either.  There are about eight porta-jons outside the check-in line, and another four or so outside the team tent area.  For about 2,000 runners!!!  Someone made a mistake there.  Long, long lines.  Again.  Great, we won't be able to use the bathrooms either.

Matthew, Andrew (Matthew's former UNH teammate), and I run a very abbreviated warm-up on side walks and city streets while on the lookout for a porta-jon.  Several blocks away Andrew spies one and saves the day.

Race start delay:  Lined up as close as I could get to the start, and gradually eased forward until I got about as far forward as I could, maybe ten rows back.  At 10am, an announcer came on the speaker and said the race would be delayed ten minutes as there were still about 300 people in line waiting to get their bib!  Ugh.  More standing around when it's time to race.

Race start:  Twelve minutes after scheduled race start, the race got underway.  The start on Linskey Way was really too narrow to support a mass start of this field size.  People in front of me were just running too slow for me and not properly seeded, but there was nowhere to go with the masses blocking the way.  I saw one runner go between two parked cars, off the road, and onto the adjacent sidewalk, and I followed.  Running the sidewalk was awkward and also adding slight distance, but I could run faster there than the clogged road.

After two hard lefts, we were on a much wider road:  Binney Street.  This was fine and I could open up for a while, until the right-most lane (the one I was in) was closed for some kind of construction and the construction cones narrowed in, forcing me back into the masses.

The rest of the 5K was pretty much uneventful.  I finally had enough room to run but every turn I had to run pretty wide around other runners.  I really had no idea how I was doing as there were no mile markers, and although I heard my watch beep at Mile 1 at 5:33 pace, I couldn't trust the accuracy given the tall buildings, wide turns, sidewalk running, lack of actual mile markers, etc.

On First Street, with about 1/2 mile to go
(Pic from Somerville Running Club FB page)

Only as I crossed the finish line did I see my actual time on my watch:

Final result:  Gun time 18:13, chip time 18:01.  231st out of 1,145 runners.  5th in 50-59 age group.  Full results here.

I was disappointed with my result and the whole experience at large, so I went directly to get my bag and moved away from the finishers so I didn't infect others with my negativity and sulking.  Waited for Matthew and Andrew, and then we went off for a cool-down in Milton at Ponkapoag Trail.

Kudos to Matthew and Keith for getting PRs in their races.  The race experience overall was not good, and evidently many others feel the same, as I see words like "poorly organized, "clusterf%#k", and "sh%t show" used liberally on posts and reviews, including numerous reviews like this one:

While I might have gone a few seconds faster if the race organization hadn't been botched, I wasn't going to PR today for sure and I own that one.  I'm mentally already moving on to the next race.