Race the Lakes 10k Food

On Saturday, May 24, I ran in the Race the Lakes 10k in Lakeland, FL. It was fun (although paying to run, even if part of the money goes to a good cause, seems so silly to me). The race started in front of Lake Mirror, proceeded through downtown, around Lake Morton, through some neighborhoods filled with lots of old historic mansions, around Lake Hollingsworth, and then returned to the start at Lake Mirror. After the run, it was time for the post-race food.

They had water bottles printed up specifically for the race. I wonder how much of the $20 registration fee went to printing custom waters? Behind the bottle is a view of Lake Mirror and Downtown Lakeland. The stone arches on the far side of the lake is main entrance to Lakeland's underground tunnels that run under downtown. I'd love to see inside these long closed tunnels...

I normally stick to water, but I picked up a bottle of orange Gatorade. I felt like I needed to brush my teeth after...

They had boxes of bananas, Fuji apples, and Gala apples.

Fuji apples are one of my favorites, and I'm normally fine with bananas. For some reason though, bananas always taste horrible after I run.

Bagels!

Cookies aren't exactly the healthy post-race food that I would expect, but these oatmeal raisin and lemon coconut cookies were pretty good.

Overall, Race the Lakes had better post-race food than some of the other races I've run in...

Food at the Watermelon 5K

Last weekend (July 4), I ran in another 5K race in Winter Park. This one was called the Watermelon 5K. It started in Mead Gardens, then left the park and went through some of the surrounding neighborhoods. The race passed very close to where the route of the last 5K went, and then eventually returned to Mead Gardens and ended.




Since I paid money to run in this race, I made sure I ran the 3.1 miles somewhat faster than normal. Paying money to run is silly in my opinion, but I keep on getting talked into running in these races anyway. I normally can run 3.1 miles in about 25 or 26 minutes, but today I ended up getting about 24:30. There was no official time, so I am interpolating the time from these two pictures I took of the finish line, just before and after I crossed.


And the food came after the race was over! The first thing I grabbed was a bottle of Whole Foods brand water out of this kiddie pool.

Then I drank a cup or two of this mystery colored drink. I'm assuming it was some sort of powdered Gatorade type drink that was mixed in the Crystal Water bottles.


Bananas came after the drinks.

Since this was the Watermelon 5K, watermelon slices were also given out. I normally don't like watermelon all that much, but after running it's normally sweet juice tasted really bitter to me and I ended up only finishing half of my slice.


They put on a watermelon eating contest to compete with Nathan's hot dog eating contest. Grand prize was a watermelon, hat, and a watermelon shaped wine glass.

Making my way around to all of the vendors that set up tents giving out free samples and trying to sell their products to the runners, I ended up with a smoothie sample and an acai berry energy drink from Planet Smoothie, a bag of dog food, a Track Shack towel, and a backpack from a lawyer.

Several years ago I ran in a few of these 5K races, and bagels were given out after each race. This is the second 5K I have run in recently, and there are no bagels. I don't know what the reason behind this is, but I know that after I go running, I always crave some carbs, so I find the lack of bagels disappointing.

There were big crowds of sweaty people in the area surrounding the finish line of the race.

So I decided to take a walk through the emptier areas of Mead Gardens. On a sign, I came across this really big Lubber Grasshopper. I hear they are good eating, especially when chocolate covered!

I have no plans at the moment to run in another 5K race when I can run at home for free, but who knows. I may be talked into doing another one, but looking at the upcoming races in Orlando, I think my choice would be to do a 10K. This 10K in particular. Free Epcot Food & Wine Festival samples after the race!

Run for the Trees

At the end of last month (April 25), I was convinced to run a 5K race called Run for the Trees in Winter Park, FL. I find these races kind of silly since they charge you $20 for the entry fee. I could run five kilometers any time I want for free, and I won't ever wear the t-shirt that is included in that fee, so I find the whole race thing kind of pointless. Regardless of my feelings about the entry fee, I still ran the race.

I finished the 3.1 miles in 25.58, and was shuttled back to the starting point where food was given out. I've run these races in the past, and I remember getting bagels. This race gave out oranges, bananas, and Strawberry Kiwi Gatorade (it was disgusting).