All-Star 5k had problems at beginning and finish line
Yael T. AbouhalkahThe All-Star 5k race Sunday morning had problems at the beginning and the end.
The start was held up for at least eight minutes while speeches and introductions were made.
That was a big mistake. All of the speechifying should have been done before the scheduled 7:30 a.m. start on a warm, semi-muggy morning.
Several thousand runners were lined up before the start - then had to stand in the heat while the delays went on.
That hurt the elite runners, who were warmed up and ready to go - and it hurt many other runners sandwhiched in the narrow, gate-lined areas in the 80-degree heat.
Then, the narrow finishing chute and the large crowd of runners coming in after the 30- to 40-minute marks created a backlog at the end.
Several runners complained about it, one saying he had to walk at least the last minute as people were straggling in across the crowded finish line.
Organizers tried to get people to leave the finish line area and turn east up toward Sprint Center. But the crowd was too big.
Jeremy Deeken
11 months, 2 weeks agoYes, I echo your sentiment Yael. A lot of the difficulty can be chalked up to a larger than expected turnout. This is what happens when you put the equivalent of the entire Hospital Hill field in a 5K race. The finish should have been around 10th and Grand instead of where it was, this would have allowed the finishers to clear along a wide strait away instead of a narrow elbow. In addition, many of the results for the late registrants did not register, including my own.