Miles for Moffitt 5K: race review

I ran a 5K on Saturday in memory of a wonderful woman.

It was not my best 5K performance, and I did something really stupid: I stopped at the wrong finish line. Yeah, I was that girl.

Idiot

The event, Miles for Moffitt, is held on the University of South Florida campus. I assumed because of the location, parking wouldn’t be an issue. Parking wasn’t an issue, but getting to parking was a bit of struggle. It was slow going getting onto campus and getting to a parking spot.

The event had a 5-mile run, a 5K run, a 5K walk and a kids’ fun run. They all had staggered starts. The 5-mile run started at 7:30 a.m., the 5K run started at 7:45 a.m., and the 5K walk started at 8 a.m.

The 5K run started on time, but I think a lot of the 5K walkers decided to start at that time, too, instead of their scheduled 8 a.m. start. I went across the start line and immediately had to start dodging walkers.

It was a pretty packed course throughout. It was a constant dodge-and-weave run for me. That is not my favorite way to run … at all. That is why I run at night.

And, this course had “hills.” I put hills in quotes because a hill in Florida is probably more of a slight incline. People that deal with real hills will call me a wimp. But, when you’re not used to dealing with inclines of any type, this adds another level of difficulty to an already difficult race.

And, speed bumps. Holy cow. I forgot how many speed bumps are on a college campus.

Oh, another thing: it was hot. And, I was wearing a heavy cotton T-shirt. Yuck.

But, it was cool to see all of the people running in honor of or in memory of someone who battled cancer. And, to see all of the money being raised for the Moffitt Cancer Center.

As I made my turn toward the finish line, I kicked it in. I felt really good about my speedy finish, and stopped my watch and started walking at what I thought was the finish line. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the finish line. Sorry to anyone behind me.

Heading toward the "finish line"

I noticed everyone else was still running, so I started running again to the “next” finish line. It wasn’t too far away.

Oops.

I'm getting ready to cross the real finish line. Looking at the photo,
it seems pretty obvious.

I’m still not sure why there were two mats and two finish lines. I didn’t look at either of them clearly (obviously), so I’m not sure what happened.

The time on my watch: 35:08. Yeah, not great. I know I’ve got a much better time in me waiting to bust out. It just wasn’t at this race.

My official time: 35:26. So, my finish line snafu probably cost me about 15 seconds. Sheesh.

Me and Theresa in the shade ... where we belong

The food spread after the race was incredible. The most food I’ve ever seen for any race. I didn’t eat anything after the race, but I took some for later (I have a problem resisting free stuff).

Post-race food (minus the Double Big Gulp; that is the iced tea my
boyfriend used to stay awake for the race)

I wasn’t going to miss this race this year, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again.

It’s a bit of a drive for a short race, the traffic was a pain, the course was not my favorite, and all of the walkers in the run are really frustrating.