DC Hot Chocolate 5K/10K

Beware: I am about to do some serious complaining. If you are looking for the executive summary, it's that you may want to think twice about registering for a Hot Chocolate 5K or 10K with Ram Racing. If you want the excruciating details, see below.

This morning, I woke up at 4:55AM to get ready to run the Hot Chocolate 5K at National Harbor. That's very early for a Saturday, but the wake up call seemed worth it for a good run followed by some Ghiradelli chocolate. Plus, I was shooting for a personal best today, hoping to finish the race in 27 minutes or less. I was hyped. I was really in the zone for this. Since the race was at National Harbor, there was no way to arrive by public transportation. Out of all of the travel options, it seemed best for me to drive to King Street and take the free shuttle to the race. This worked out just fine. But for others, travel did not come so easy. And this is where the problems start.

The race was set to begin at 7:30. After about an hour of ambling around, stretching, and a quick jog to warm up, I headed to the race corrals. And then I stood there for the next hour, along with about 20,000 of my freezing compatriots. The 5k race began at least 45 minutes late, and I hear that the 10K was just as bad. According to Ram Racing, the event sponsor, there was an accident on the road that caused a delayed arrival for many of the race participants, which required the delayed start. Race participants rushed to Facebook to express their skepticism about the accident; WTOP didn't report anything like what Ram Racing described, and racers arriving late did not report seeing any emergency vehicles. Many seem to believe that the traffic was simply the result of poor logistical planning on the part of Ram Racing.

While I was super annoyed about the late start, I am willing to give Ram Racing the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps this was out of their control. But there were plenty of other preventable problems with the event. Primarily, the course around National Harbor was not nearly wide enough for the 20K participants that Ram allowed to register. For the first portion of the course, it was nearly impossible to pass anyone and there was a lot of walking. My dreams of a personal best were thwarted by about five and a half minutes of walking because I literally could not run. This also got a little dangerous. Serious runners who could not bear to walk were attempting some parkour-like moves to get through the crowd. Others were running precariously close to the river. I think everyone was frustrated.

I heard a lot of other complaints from runners about lack of race volunteers to pour waters and mix Gatorade on the course. I experienced a lost shuttle bus driver. People paid for parking in locations that were not monitored for parking passes. Some felt that it was dangerous to run so close to a construction site and fast moving traffic. But worst of all, we were kept uninformed. Over and over again the announcer told us that we would begin in ten minutes. It would have been more helpful to let us know that it would be awhile so that we could leave the race corrals to jog, keep warm, and stretch. If there was an accident, they should have announced it while we were waiting for the race so that we wouldn't have gotten so frustrated.

I want to say "at least there was great chocolate," but if you want to pay $40.00 for fondue, might I suggest The Melting Pot?



And if you think I'm just being cranky about the race, it might be helpful to point out that I'm not alone ; )