Most races are pretty much all the same. First there's packet pick-up, and then awards. But sometimes, something goes wrong somewhere to make the experience awful. There have been 2 races that I've done in the past year or 2 that I consider to be the worst races I've ever done.
The first one was on Dec 13, 2009, the Victory Junction Half Marathon in Randleman, NC. It was the most miserable race I have ever ran in. The organization of the race was awesome. Packet pick-up went very smooth and didn't take very long. They had a bag check, there was hot food at the finish, and there was transportation back to the start. Everything was very well organized. What made it so awful was that it was about 32 degrees outside and raining. Not only was it freezing and raining, I had not ran in over a week because I had been sick. The day of the race was the first day that I had felt well enough to do anything. Also, I wasn't prepared for the rain, so I wasn't dressed appropriately for it.
After halfway through the race is when it really started to be miserable because by that point all my clothes were soaked all the way through including my shoes and socks. At one point I was so cold that I was actually shivering while I was running. At mile 11, I started walking because I was just so cold, wet, and absolutely miserable. So that's why I label the 2009 Victory Junction Half Marathon one of the worst races I've ever done. Other than the weather and stuff, I would definitely do the Victory Junction Half Marathon again. The organization of the race was great, it was just the weather that made it so miserable.
The second one (and most upsetting race I've done to date) was the Lake Norman Turkey Trot in Cornelius, NC on Thanksgiving Day 2010. There were 3 race distances: half marathon, 10k, and 5k. I ran in the half marathon and my boyfriend did the 5k (he doesn't like to race long distances lol).
We arrived in Cornelius about an hour before my race was supposed to start in order to give us plenty of time to park, pick up our packets, use the bathroom, and stuff before our races. By the time we finally found parking and got over to where packet pick-up was, there was only about 20 minutes until the start of the half marathon. The line for packet pick-up was really long (because they had all of the events and race day registration going to the same table) and I was thinking to myself "I'm not going to make it to the start in time." After about 5 minutes of standing in line, I finally skipped the line, went to the front, and picked up my packet letting everyone know that I was running in the half marathon that was starting in less than 15 minutes (they were ok with me skipping). After picking up my packet, I had to go through ANOTHER line to get the timing chip activated. I skipped to the front of that line too. Then I headed to the bathroom, where there was yet another line. By the time I got to the bathroom I only had 5 minutes before the start of my race. I was kind of freaking out inside. As soon as I left the bathroom, I found my boyfriend, gave him everything I had that I wasn't going to race with because there was no way I was going to have time to go to the car to drop it off. I barely made it to the starting line before they started the half marathon. It was just poor, poor organization of packet pick-up and race day registration. It was awful.
All of that isn't even the worst part! The absolute worst part of this whole thing is that ALL of the race distances were NOT ACCURATE!!!!! The half marathon was TWO MILES SHORT!! For those people that don't know, a half marathon is 13.1 miles, but this race was only 11. I was so mad. I had trained hard for 8 weeks for this race, for a half marathon, only for it to end up being 2 miles short.
Well, other than the race having the worst organization of any race I've ever done and the fact that the course was 2 miles short, I was the female champion and my boyfriend got 2nd in the 5k. And we will never run in one of Lake Norman's races ever again.
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| My boyfriend and I with our awards |
