Jackson Laughs 25K Race

 

The race started at Kent State Dix Stadium, even thou Kent is just around the corner I have never been there so didn’t know what to expect and was hoping I don’t get lost.

I didn’t really expect much from this race, since this was a charity run and there wasn’t that much publicity for it, so I expected a small race, no crowd support and minimal volunteers.

The race was a fundraiser for Fragile X and this is Jackson Laughs. 

The route was great, hilly and lots of back roads  but since we have to face traffic while running, it meant we ran on the left side of the road and since most of the back roads were narrow it meant running at the edge of the road to avoid being road kill, which means my butt cheek muscle wasn’t going to be happy. The route was long 25k is 15.5 miles and my garmin record 16.24miles.

I was using the race as a training run and also to support a great cause, the goal was really to run around a 9:30 pace but I wasn’t expecting rolling hills so based on the hills and fine with the pace.

What needs improvement, didn’t get my t-shirt when I got my number, had to go to another location about 15mins away for the after party and my t-shirt, I wasn’t planning on going to the after party since I had other plans but I drove down to get my shirt anyway.

Not much to eat at the end of the race, banana and oranges, rest of the food was at the after party location, which meant most runners left after they came in to get food at the other location so not much people around to cheer people in.

First water stop was around mile 3.3 and the next one wasn’t till mile 8, not sure why but after that they were closer together.

The Kent Police were great, especially 2 cops around mile 13.3 when they saw me coming turned on their siren and lights and got in the intersection, to stop traffic so I could cross a 4 lane road, people were sticking their head out wondering who I was, that made my made, but they were at every major crossing helping control traffic and most of the drivers were nice enough to slow down.

The course was well marked although it could be brighter, not sure the timing was great since there was a 5k in Kent last week, a 25k/50k tomorrow, I expected more turnout even though I knew tt was going to be small but I only saw 2 runners I know.