A July 4th Race

july 4th
Me, Pat and Deb at the Westerville July 4th 5K race.

There were several July 4th races in central Ohio this year.

Three Buckeye Striders and I entered the Westerville Rotary July 4th 5K.

The race is reasonably priced at $25. This year we received a technical shirt in men’s sizes and a Headsweats visor. Let me just say for the record that unisex sizing is just a nice way of saying, “We are only offering men’s sizes, but we are trying to be less obvious about it.” Unisex is a man’s size — the end.

That said, the shirts are HUGE! A small is VERY large and they are fluorescent yellow with a red, white and blue design. Eww. Headsweats is a great brand, but the visors just look weird on nearly everyone I saw wear them. My hair makes it pop off my head.

Shirt from this year's race.
The shirt from this year’s race is very large and very yellow.

This is a community event, and the people are all very nice. It has a small town feel to it that I really like.

The course runs down one large street, then when the crowds thin, it moves to bike trails. It’s nice, but also the exact same course as the Easter race.

There were two water stops that were woefully understaffed. Each had two people and they could not keep up. I skipped the first one as people were waiting in line. At the second one, I still had to wait for water, but it was not more than about 10 seconds.

In previous years, there would be maybe 10 Buckeye Striders in this race. This year we had only four. Another local race not only had gender-specific shirts, but also had a walking division! In the past, several of my friends in higher age groups have won their division as walkers in Westerville. This year the highest age group was only 50+. That is a very young and huge age group!

After the race, there was plenty of water, Cheryl’s cookies, Panera bagels and bananas and oranges.

Because of the new age divisions, we did not stick around for awards.

Nancy and I tied with a finish time of 43:58 (I won because my name is first alphabetically), Pat finished in 44:02 and Deb in 44:13. We placed 59th, 60th, 61st and 62nd in our age division.

Overall, it was not a bad race. However, if other races are willing to offer better shirts and a walking division, why would I come back here next year? In fact, we did agree that this is probably our last year doing this event. For just $5 more we could do a similar race, receive a shirt we can actually wear and possibly receive an award for walking.

 

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Comments

Catherine Perkins
July 7, 2014 at 9:54 pm

Hi I am the walker that followed your group most of the way at the Westerville 5k and finished 63rd in the 50+ category. I agree with your review of the race, especially the water stops. I am interested in more races thst have walking categories. Can you tell me which ones you know about or are coming up this year? Thanks!
Cathy Perkins



    July 9, 2014 at 7:33 pm

    Hi Cathy!
    I’m not very good at checking which races have walking divisions, and which do not. Here are a couple I know about:
    Cat Caper 5K – Sept. 21st
    Parkersburg Half Marathon – August
    Columbus Half Marathon – Aug. 10 (I think)
    Nationwide Children’s Hospital Marathon and Half – October
    New Albany Walking Classic – August

    I’ll ask for more on my Facebook page (The WALK! Newsletter) and on the Buckeye Strider Facebook page and website (buckeyestriders.com).

    If you are looking for people to walk with, the Buckeye Striders meet every Saturday morning at 8.



      Catherine Perkins
      July 9, 2014 at 11:09 pm

      Thanks so much for the recommendations on walking races. I’m already signed up for the 10k new albany. I found a race on Labor Day with a competitive walking division here in Westerville. It’s called Run 4 the health of it. It’s a 4 miler with a really great post-race raffle and lots of vendors. Here’s the link: http://www.copcpf.com

      I hope to find time on a Saturday morning to join your group for a walk.



        July 10, 2014 at 8:51 pm

        I forgot about the Race for the Health of It.I did it last year. I need to remember to register.

        I hope we see you on a Saturday!



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