Never fear, I wasn’t troll-napped! Instead, I am sad to report the bridge troll did not make an appearance at this year's Cable Bridge Run. I, for one, was both simultaneously relieved and disappointed. There was, however, a Santa Claus who was hoisted up above the start line, and some pretty sweet costumes. (My favorite group costume was the nine guys, eight of which dressed as reindeer, and one as Santa. I’m pretty sure they ran in formation the entire time.)
It was cold and misty that morning, but once we got moving it felt pretty good. The course was pretty stellar sporting some rolling hills (the most noteworthy being the bridge itself), and some nice flat stretches. I finished in 57:29 (a 9:16 mile), and it felt infinitely better than my last 10K, though I wasn’t a whole lot faster. The shirt is pretty spectacular: long-sleeved with a pair of cartoon polar bears running across a backdrop of the Cable Bridge—easily the gaudiest race shirt I own. Second gaudiest: the 2011 Salt Lake City Half Marathon which was bright yellow with a giant iron-on logo. Not even kidding.
There were a few problems with this race though. First, their Web site was pretty much useless. It had zero info on the race course, start and finish locations, and aid stations. It did, however, go into great detail about the timing chips. I need a sarcasm font… When I went to pick up my packet the night before, no one could tell me the physical location of the finish, and it was the same story in the morning of. So my parents were left to their own devices to try to follow the poorly printed, miniscule map I finally got my hands on the morning of the race. The finish line was indoors, which at first seemed cool, but in actuality, was a nightmare. Everyone came running in through this giant bay door, which was great, it was just everything past that point that was pretty much terrible. The mass of people milling about made it impossible to find any post-race refreshment (I never even found water). Exiting the building was also disastrous; the race volunteers weren’t letting people leave the way they came in. Instead, they were forcing the 3,000 runners and numerous spectators out through one, small side door. Don’t worry; people were trying to come in through the same door, too. I got stuck in this mass of people and couldn’t move forward or backward for several minutes, all the while feeling more and more claustrophobic. It was seriously a little bit scary. People could have been trampled, and if there had been any kind of an emergency, people would have died for sure. Thank goodness, everyone was pretty chill, but by the time I made it out the door I was feeling pretty panicky.
