This weekend marked the annual Dog Day 5k, now in conjunction with the Lola’s Half Marathon & 5k.  Last year, I ran it. This year, I knew I’d be walking. But that was okay. We had an extra dog to walk this year! 🙂

Although I’m not running 5ks at the moment, I’ll try to stay true to my normal race recap format just for future comparison {aka, my own benefit!}

The Night Before…

Rob and I were supposed to go to a painting class, but his golf tournament ran late. So we ate a late dinner instead. We dined at Cafe Ena (more to come!) where I had some of the best juicy herbed chicken of my life. Then we stopped over at King’s Wine Bar (more to come, as well!) across the street for a nightcap. Because it was a late night, I pretty much just went to bed when we got home.

Race Day…

When the alarm went off at 6am, we both had trouble crawling out of bed. We stumbled out of the house around 7am and stopped for a couple of Americanos-to-go at Caribou Coffee on the way. P.S. I actually forgot to eat breakfast. No, I’m not kidding.

Note to Self: Leave earlier next year.

When we arrived, the road was blocked and we had to park in a newer neighborhood. I’m not quite sure how far we had to walk to the packet pick-up area and starting line, but it was at least a half mile, probably more. Shamrock was whining the whole way and then started barking at nearly every passerby.

“Oh. No. This was a bad idea,” Rob said.

We came to a point where a tight crowd of people lined the street. The Half-Marathon had started already and the regular 5kers were already lined up in a huge clump at the intersection. Rob stopped in his tracks. He thought that there was no way that we were going to get around these people with these two dogs, one of which was whining non-stop. So we traded, I gave my coffee to Rob, grabbed the dogs and started leading them through the crowd.

Note to Self: An Americano is not easy to carry around with dogs, even with two people. They were almost impossible to drink and carry amidst the chaos.

Our friends Terri and Steve were running late, too. So once we got to where all the action was taking place, we picked up their packets as well. Now that was a cluster. Last year, we were smart enough to pick up our packets before race day. Here, it was just chaotic. And by the time we got there, they were out of many sizes of shirts. This makes no sense since everyone puts in their sizes when signing up. Although, the shirts are not set aside for you. You are just asked what size you want when you get there.

Note to Self: If you don’t want to feel rushed or want the right sized shirt, pick up your packet before race day. Or get there early.

My time and results were not important to me during this race. It was more about getting a good walk in to continue to strengthen my back and to get the dogs out for a walk, too. Because we were doing this event casualty, we had no problem waiting for our friends to arrive, even though they made it through the crowds to the start line just a few minutes after the start time.

While this event is heavily focused on the Half-Marathoners, I felt like there were less Dog Day 5kers in attendance this year. There also were less dog-related vendors. I fear they might be phasing this one out. I really did prefer the event in Minneapolis a few years ago, on its own. I think it’s difficult to combine dogs in an event when people are trying to PR a half-marathon, even if the dogs start a half hour after the serious runners. I tried to keep to the right at the finish with my pooches, but it was a difficult.

In the end, my “official” recorded time with Sophie and Shamrock was 1:00:36. I did try to keep track on my RunKeeper app, so that I could time the event when we actually started. However, I did forget to stop it until about a minute after we had finished.

Do you notice that my RunKeeper says that we walked 5.88 kilometers? I think there are a couple of reasons for this. The route is the width of an entire road and there were many times I noticed that we weren’t following the tangents. Combine that with a few poo and water stops and extra interest in particular dogs, and things get a little disjointed…

But it was so much fun! It was great to be in a race environment again, even if I wasn’t racing. I love seeing all the pooches as well. And since Shamrock doesn’t get the whole going-for-a-walk concept yet, it was a great experience for him.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was great to be outside and walk down to the Lakehouse later to listen to music, have a burger or sliced pork sammy and a couple of beers. Sophie was tired and just laid in the grass.

One complaint about this event? They said they had a water stop for the dogs at about the halfway mark this year. NOT SO! At about mile 2.5, there was a Gatorade and water stop. However there weren’t dishes from which the dogs could drink.You had to take one of the paper cups with water and attempt to give it to your dog. NOT cool. NOT dog friendly. At least there were some water dishes for dogs at the end of the race.

Shamrock finished his first 5k! We took him to a graduation party later in the afternoon, but he was so dead tired that on the way to the party he curled up into a ball on the floor in the car…

Then he quickly went to sleep…

Upon arrival and opening up the door, I tried to get him to climb out the car, but he was so groggy and confused that I had to pick him up like a little baby. Needless to say, he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly.

One thing we did learn at this event is that there will be a Walk FUR Love 5k Run/Walk for the Carver-Scott County Humane Society on September 14th in Shakopee. That is where we found Shamrock, so we will definitely be attending that one!

• The Event: Dog Day 5k 2013
• The Location:  Waconia, MN
• The Date: June 8, 2013
• Night Before Dinner: Pollo at Cafe Ena, sharing a bottle of Tempranillo with Rob.
• Pre-race Breakfast: Nothing. Whoops. Except for an Americano.
• Attire: Costco Reversible Yoga Capris and the same t-shirt as last year.
• My Time: Official: 1hour, 36 seconds / RunKeeper: 56:20 (walking) 
• The Weather: Low 60s, partly sunny. It was perfect!
• General Feeling: “Move, doggies, move! Keep going!”
• Uniqueness: Pupper dawgs of all breeds and sizes!
• The Goods: Brown Lola’s Marathon polyester/microfiber T-shirt {There were pink ones for the ladies, but the time we arrived, there were only smalls left.}, Doggie 5k Finisher Collar Charm
• The Grub: apples, bananas, Pearson’s Nut Rolls, lunch (hamburger or sliced pork), two free beers (choice of Miller Lite, Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss or Summer Shandy)

While I know a lot of work goes into putting a race together, what are your race-day pet peeves?

Cheers~
Carrie