The Rowe Family Blog

On March 15th I ran Johnny’s Runnin’ o’ the Green with John and Corey. It was a five mile race and themed for St. Patricks Day. It was much like Buffalo’s Shamrock run but slightly longer (the Buffalo race was an 8k instead of 5 miles) and with a a lot fewer participants.

It was an out-and-back course mostly along the Genesee River. John and I started together but quickly separated with our traditional “see you in another life brotha/strength and honor” salutes. After running for 37 minutes and 17 seconds (coincidentally the same time that I finished the Buffalo Shamrock Run). Because this course was longer I actually performed better by a few seconds per mile. Unfortunately the official race times do not reflect this because accurate timing was not done. Race director, please time from the start of the race to the end no matter how small your race. This race was not large but it still took 30 seconds to reach the starting line. Runners were giving timing equipment. Is it really that much more difficult to have a sensor record the start of the race? I find it inexcusable that this was not done on an out-and-back course. The timing equipment is already there! Timing was done by pcrtiming. This is the same group that timed the 2006 Rochester Half Marathon. Even at the half marathon they didn’t time the start of the race. Shame on them (that was my first half marathon and I was very disappointed that they didn’t bother to accurately time the race).

Regardless of my annoyances with the timing of the race I had a blast. I had fun running and had even more fun hanging out with John, Corey, Marie before and after the race. I met a whole bunch of new people that John knew.