Stomp the Quarry

A great cause… a not so great race(s)! Sorry girls, you deserved better, but Daddy’s proud of you regardless!

I was a little reluctant to write a report for this race. The thought was not to take away from the cause, but to report my thoughts on the events of day. I’ll start here… I have two beautiful young girls (ten and twelve) that love to run and want to not only run for the fun of the sport but also, like most, become stronger runners. Now by stronger, I mean faster. lol Each daughter entered into a few runs over the summer but they wanted more. My girls approached me and mentioned that they heard of a race called Stomp the Quarry, it was relatively close and the price although expensive (for a 5K) would help a good cause. They saved up their own money for this even Impressive I thought to myself. I was excited to see them train hard or the weeks leading up to the race. They were ready to tackle the 5K. Every chance they had, they mentioned the race to a friend, they were pumped! Well race day came, excitement and of course a little nervous they were up early and raring to go. I entered the half, which started an hour earlier, so I figured I had a chance to see them finish if I had a good day… Well off I went, a nice 9 K and on pace to surely meet them, then the course went from bad to worse, never had I seen a course this bad, not just ridiculous hills, but dirt, rock and overall just horrible (for a road runner). This was not what I signed up for. I pushed through the race, far from any personal best, and disappointed that I would surely not meet up with my little road runners and see them finish. After the race I eagerly looked for the girls, I wanted to hear all about the their run and see the smiles I’ve become accustomed to after their efforts. Odd…. I looked around everywhere and became a little nervous, as I didn’t see them anywhere. Nor did my friends who were looking out for them. Surely a 5K for my girls would not exceed a 45 minute time. Well needless to say worry all but turned to panic. I started heading out on the 5k course, looking for the girls. But wait… here they come… something’s wrong I thought. They look destroyed, tired, beat up. And to boot… over an hour into a 5K. Well they did finish the race. They were not the happy girls I’d seen after other races. They were confused and sad by the time they had seen on the clock.  I also was confused .Then I started hearing it, the complaints, anger and disappointment from other runners. WHAT DISTANCE WAS THIS!, WHERE’S THE RACE DIRECTOR? THIS IS THE WORST COURSE EVER! And a few more comments that would require some creative editing. Okay, the half was off a bit in distance and the course was pathetic, the 10K was as I was told not a road race either. But here’s the kicker, the 5K, well that was actually closer to 7.3K. My poor girls, saved their money to enter a race, for a good cause, and what did they got, was to little beat up bodies and a feeling of disappointment in themselves. I spent the next several days trying to get them to feel good about their effort and accomplishment, after all they had never run that far on that type of ridiculous course. As with my girls, many people train for races that they expect are the distances they sign up for. Perhaps this race was the only event of the year, or a first time 5K. I saw the disappointment on my kids and many others that day, across the 5, 10 and half distances. To be honest, the course beat me up too and even ended my race season with an injury.  The director of this event should be ashamed of hi self. The fact that when people approached him, he shrugged it all off and down played the concerns. That was disheartening. As for me and the girls, well we’ll be back running races soon enough, just not this event.