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Lupus Loop 2011!
Oct. 6th, 2011 12:55 pmThe Lupus Loop was last Saturday. I raised over $500 for it, and my whole team raised almost $2000! It was awesome! We didn't win a top prize, the race itself was miserable, and we almost got ripped off for our pledge prizes, but it was still totally worth it.
Note to fundraiser organizers: if you are going to invite skaters, please consider our needs. If the course is going to be in open traffic and involve darting from sidewalk to road to bike path -- that is not typical. We need to be warned of that in advance!! The organizers of this race made a special course for the skaters because the runner's path wasn't paved in parts. That was good! Unfortunately, the skater's path took us on a very rough public road where there were no signs at all directing us and no notice to drivers that there was any race going on. We were beeped at a lot and several of us took wrong turns at one point or another.
There have been 5k races starting off from the exact same place that stayed on sidewalks and paved paths the whole way and they should have gone with one of those routes. As it was, Morty -- who is the whole reason we were there and wanted to skate so badly -- had to stop halfway through and didn't complete the entire race. MESSED UP.
It also would have been very nice if the skaters had been able to start a few seconds before the runners, or if we'd been able to just line up in front of the runners. Instead, the serious runners lined up front and squished all of us skaters into the 3 feet next to the river. RIGHT next -- there was no barrier, so if I'd taken a step to the right, I would have fallen in. I didn't object because I figured we'd get a head start. But we didn't.
Naturally, when they blew the whistle, those us on wheels were a bit hesitant to take off at full throttle when a wrong step would run over a tiny little marathoner or throw us into the river. As a result, we got stuck behind a huge crowd of runners and couldn't break through. It was extremely nerve wracking and irritating. I tried to be courteous and careful in my passing the runners but I still got dirty looks and I still didn't break free until a third of the way through the race. My time was actually worse for this very easy course than for the challenging Portage race, because I couldn't skate fast for a third of it! What it the point of a race when you can't go FAST?! I am bitter.
Also, we didn't receive the free stuff that the runners received and we weren't offered our pledge prizes. We had to go seek them out when the runners were given their prizes when they signed up. AUGGGH
And it RAINED a miserable drizzle ALL MORNING.
On the other hand, we raised a ton of money and we got a picture with a Pittsburgh Steeler. AWESOME!!! Next year, we will raise even more and we will CRUSH those Butterflies of Hope!
Note to fundraiser organizers: if you are going to invite skaters, please consider our needs. If the course is going to be in open traffic and involve darting from sidewalk to road to bike path -- that is not typical. We need to be warned of that in advance!! The organizers of this race made a special course for the skaters because the runner's path wasn't paved in parts. That was good! Unfortunately, the skater's path took us on a very rough public road where there were no signs at all directing us and no notice to drivers that there was any race going on. We were beeped at a lot and several of us took wrong turns at one point or another.
There have been 5k races starting off from the exact same place that stayed on sidewalks and paved paths the whole way and they should have gone with one of those routes. As it was, Morty -- who is the whole reason we were there and wanted to skate so badly -- had to stop halfway through and didn't complete the entire race. MESSED UP.
It also would have been very nice if the skaters had been able to start a few seconds before the runners, or if we'd been able to just line up in front of the runners. Instead, the serious runners lined up front and squished all of us skaters into the 3 feet next to the river. RIGHT next -- there was no barrier, so if I'd taken a step to the right, I would have fallen in. I didn't object because I figured we'd get a head start. But we didn't.
Naturally, when they blew the whistle, those us on wheels were a bit hesitant to take off at full throttle when a wrong step would run over a tiny little marathoner or throw us into the river. As a result, we got stuck behind a huge crowd of runners and couldn't break through. It was extremely nerve wracking and irritating. I tried to be courteous and careful in my passing the runners but I still got dirty looks and I still didn't break free until a third of the way through the race. My time was actually worse for this very easy course than for the challenging Portage race, because I couldn't skate fast for a third of it! What it the point of a race when you can't go FAST?! I am bitter.
Also, we didn't receive the free stuff that the runners received and we weren't offered our pledge prizes. We had to go seek them out when the runners were given their prizes when they signed up. AUGGGH
And it RAINED a miserable drizzle ALL MORNING.
On the other hand, we raised a ton of money and we got a picture with a Pittsburgh Steeler. AWESOME!!! Next year, we will raise even more and we will CRUSH those Butterflies of Hope!
