This weekend Mary, Adam and I ran the The Vinings Downhill 5k, supporting the Calvary Children’s Home, The Good Samaritan Health Center, and The Vinings Rotary Charity Fund.

While we’ve been to far more poorly-organized races before, I was a little disappointed both with the faulty PA system (it was like being trapped in Peanuts) and with the unstructured approach to having people line up in a roadway, but also somehow keeping the roadway clear. Like I said, I’ve seen worse. At least I didn’t have to stand around for an hour before the start.

I will also say the run was not strictly downhill. I suppose logistically, it really couldn’t be, but somehow the small hills were more annoying in this race because of the expectation that there would be none.

The course was fine enough otherwise, though. I liked the area toward the end, crossing over the Chattahoochee and finishing on the campus of The Lovett School.

After the race, we could take busses to the “party” (I am skeptical of parties that begin before 10 in the morning), or we could walk about a mile. It seems silly to be health-conscious enough to run 3.2 miles but not enough to walk one, so we went with the walk which took us back over the ‘Hooch and through some nice neighborhoods.

The party wasn’t much to stick around for, we just got our shirts and swag bags and left. I haven’t been running regularly and got my worst 5k time ever, so I didn’t feel like celebrating, haha. But of course that’s entirely my fault.

I love the idea of a downhill race, but there were just a bit too many people to really take advantage of it during the parts that were downhill – the beginning of the race was pretty steep, but there were way too many people to just let it rip. Maybe corralled starts would have helped, but I am not sure how you could organize that while still keeping the road clear.

In the end, this was a nice race at a decent price ($35), but I’m not 100% sure if I’ll run it next year. Luckily, I have 12 months to think about it.