Reviewed By: talonraid
Date Reviewed: 05/14/2011
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 1 Excellent
Location:
The Shops at La Canera
15900 La Cantera Parkway
San Antonio, TX
See map: Google Maps
This inaugural race took place on the roads and pathways in and around The Shops at La Cantera. The smooth and fast 3.1 mile loop course took runners by all the major shops. Most of the run was on the smooth chip and seal on the perimeter road and parking lot roads, but it was well sealed so the "chip" part was almost negligible. I don't think a barefoot runner regardless of plantar skin thickness would have had a problem with the texture. There were some very brief areas of cobblestone, but they were not bad at all.
First things first, it was their first event and had a few snafus, but I think they will correct much of it and it should be even better next year.
The Bad: Race packet pick up on the Friday prior to the race was at Dick's Sporting Goods. Evidently there were special prizes given to the first 20 people to pick up packets...so needless to say, everyone showed up at the same time and packet pickup took about 30-45 minutes. They ran out of XL t-shirts in the first 30 minutes. Come on people, this is San Antonio...90% of the population is XL. Also, I have seen this trend a lot lately, you don't get your race chip with the packet...wtf? So, you still have to show up early on race day to pick up your chip. The chip line on race day was a couple hundred people long at any given time, but it moved fairly quickly. The delay in getting chips handed out meant they had to delay the race start by about 15 minutes or so. Finally, they ran out of water at the finish line. I managed to get a bottle of water, but some of the people who came in a bit later were out of luck.
The Good: The course was flat and smooth! This was one of the best barefoot courses I've ever been on. Anyone looking to post a new PR would have a great opportunity on this race. Post race there were bagels, fruit, wine, some kind of crummy beer, snack crap, sports drinks, etc. They also gave the first 1200 or so entrants a wine glass. There was a DJ there prior to the race that was playing some decent tunes and there were public restrooms in the food court, so no porta potties. I did get some strange looks walking through the food court barefoot, but no biggie.
My personal rant: I'm not sure why, but I heard more than the usual amount of derogatory barefoot comments at this race. I almost always overhear one, maybe two. But for some reason there were at least ten or so people who made some kind of negative comment about barefoot running. I tend to just ignore them and not let it bother me, but I was a little bit amazed at how many people said something and it was obviously meant for me to overhear due to the excellet eye contact I made with the speakers. I even heard Lady#1 tell Lady#2 that she was a "personal trainer and knows better than to be stupid enough to run barefoot" righ after I passed them...Suck it Lady#1. The most obvious thing that happened was coming into the finishing chute. There were people lining the finish line alley as usual, cheering and clapping, then as I got within about 50 yards...it was just dead silent until I passed the finish line. I'm not kidding I could hear the birds chirping but nobody moved or said a word. Then the clapping started up again as soon as I was past. It was sureal. Anyway, maybe it was the snootie "wine crowd", I don't know. It definitely won't prevent me from running it again.
Here's my Garmin readout for anyone interested in the elevation, course, or just want to point and laugh at the slowpoke.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85532150
Date Reviewed: 05/14/2011
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 1 Excellent
Location:
The Shops at La Canera
15900 La Cantera Parkway
San Antonio, TX
See map: Google Maps
This inaugural race took place on the roads and pathways in and around The Shops at La Cantera. The smooth and fast 3.1 mile loop course took runners by all the major shops. Most of the run was on the smooth chip and seal on the perimeter road and parking lot roads, but it was well sealed so the "chip" part was almost negligible. I don't think a barefoot runner regardless of plantar skin thickness would have had a problem with the texture. There were some very brief areas of cobblestone, but they were not bad at all.
First things first, it was their first event and had a few snafus, but I think they will correct much of it and it should be even better next year.
The Bad: Race packet pick up on the Friday prior to the race was at Dick's Sporting Goods. Evidently there were special prizes given to the first 20 people to pick up packets...so needless to say, everyone showed up at the same time and packet pickup took about 30-45 minutes. They ran out of XL t-shirts in the first 30 minutes. Come on people, this is San Antonio...90% of the population is XL. Also, I have seen this trend a lot lately, you don't get your race chip with the packet...wtf? So, you still have to show up early on race day to pick up your chip. The chip line on race day was a couple hundred people long at any given time, but it moved fairly quickly. The delay in getting chips handed out meant they had to delay the race start by about 15 minutes or so. Finally, they ran out of water at the finish line. I managed to get a bottle of water, but some of the people who came in a bit later were out of luck.
The Good: The course was flat and smooth! This was one of the best barefoot courses I've ever been on. Anyone looking to post a new PR would have a great opportunity on this race. Post race there were bagels, fruit, wine, some kind of crummy beer, snack crap, sports drinks, etc. They also gave the first 1200 or so entrants a wine glass. There was a DJ there prior to the race that was playing some decent tunes and there were public restrooms in the food court, so no porta potties. I did get some strange looks walking through the food court barefoot, but no biggie.
My personal rant: I'm not sure why, but I heard more than the usual amount of derogatory barefoot comments at this race. I almost always overhear one, maybe two. But for some reason there were at least ten or so people who made some kind of negative comment about barefoot running. I tend to just ignore them and not let it bother me, but I was a little bit amazed at how many people said something and it was obviously meant for me to overhear due to the excellet eye contact I made with the speakers. I even heard Lady#1 tell Lady#2 that she was a "personal trainer and knows better than to be stupid enough to run barefoot" righ after I passed them...Suck it Lady#1. The most obvious thing that happened was coming into the finishing chute. There were people lining the finish line alley as usual, cheering and clapping, then as I got within about 50 yards...it was just dead silent until I passed the finish line. I'm not kidding I could hear the birds chirping but nobody moved or said a word. Then the clapping started up again as soon as I was past. It was sureal. Anyway, maybe it was the snootie "wine crowd", I don't know. It definitely won't prevent me from running it again.
Here's my Garmin readout for anyone interested in the elevation, course, or just want to point and laugh at the slowpoke.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85532150
