This was the 2nd year for the Wine & Chocolate 1/2 Marathon, 10K, and 5K. The race is held at LakePoint Sports Complex which is a very large sporting event venue in metro Atlanta. Momma K ran the 10K and I ran the 1/2 marathon (as we both did in 2014). It is always nice to have a race with a 8:00 start time that is only 10 minutes from the house - yay for sleeping in! When we arrived at the race we met up with a few of our running friends.
As I came up to mile 11 I noticed a number of runners mysteriously appearing in front of me. They were runners that I have not seen at all on course for 11 miles so where did they come from? The 5K and 10K started 20 minutes after the half marathon, so at first I thought maybe they were 10Kers still on course. Then I did the math, these runners were moving way to quickly to have been out here this long. After I finished the race I found out what happened. There were not any signs or volunteers to indicate turns and turnarounds on the 5K and 10K courses which caused a number of runners to get lost on course. Even Momma K who is a very seasoned runner got lost on course - her 10K turned into a 7.3 mile run. It was chaos to say the least.
I gave the race a 2nd chance, but I don't think I will be back for a 3rd chance. The top priority of any race should be runner safety and the issues with traffic on course and lack of direction are two of the worst ways to protect your runners.