Davis Stampede Half-Marathon: a Photo Spectator Report

Okay, now that we’ve heartily congratulated Patrick and Chris for their stellar performances this weekend and berated Christina Aguilera for her craptastic one, let me tell you about a race a little closer to me:  IronHubs raced the Davis Stampede Half Marathon and turned in a spectacular top-20 finish!!

Between the two of us, we’ve participated in this race five times in the last four years and covered all three race distances – I’ve run the half marathon twice (my personal worst performance in 2008 and my current PR from 2010) and the 5K once (a PR at the time), IronHubs ran the 10K in 2008 and this year’s half-mary.  To get the complaining out of the way before I brag about my awesome husband, I’m pretty sure this will be our last year of attending.  It’s never been a favorite race, but this year there were extra difficulties:

• The day-before packet pick-up was only four hours, from 12 – 4 pm.  Over 3000 registered participants picking up packets in four hours??  No bueno.  There seemed to be plenty of volunteers, but it was still ridiculously unorganized.  The line was ONE HOUR long and there was no goodie bag reward.  Here’s your T-shirt, here’s your bib, buh-bye.  Why did that take an hour??  Race Directors, take note:  throw in a coupla Clif Bars, my kids were hungry!
• There were 30 Porta-Potties at the race start.  Final tally came up with 3800 people racing and they only had 30 pots?  WTF?  A little over a half-hour in line and IronHubs barely made the start of his race.
• The sound system didn’t reach to the Porta-Potty lines, so LOTS of people missed their race start!
• The Race Director cut costs and it was obvious – the shirts were very plain (in years past, the shirts have been bright and colorful, with big bold designs) and the medal was straight up insulting.

This year’s medal on the left, last year’s on the right – ouch!

A little chilly at the start with 20+ mph winds and Porto-Potty lines as far as the eye can see!

Can you believe it?!?  I actually got a picture of IronHubs at the start of the race (blue shirt and calf sleeves with some sweet-lookin’ Brooks)!  Upon seeing this photo, he commented, “Wow, only 30 feet into it and I’m already heel-striking!”  It’s okay, those Green Silence can handle it.

This photo sort of makes it seem like the spectators were paying attention, but believe me, they weren’t.  One of my least favorite things about this course is the poor spectator support, so I made sure to ring my cowbell and cheer for everyone out there.

Finish Time:  1:24:21, not quite a PR, but good enough for 19th OA and 7/69 AG – woo hoo!!

I’m so proud of my super speedy husband!!