ACC Fairway Cross Country 5K and 1K

The ACC Fairway Cross Country 5K and 1K is the second leg of a new Austin 5K spring series that started with the Paramount Break-​A-​Leg 5K downtown (in conjunction with the Austin Marathon on February 15^th) and ends with the St. James Missions 5K in east Austin on March 28^th. Money raised in each race benefits the Paramount Theater, Austin Community College student scholarships, and the Alzheimer’s Association of Austin, respectively. All good causes, imo.
The 2015 edition of the ACC Fairway Cross Country 5K and 1K was held on a very cold and wet first day of March. If you’re used to road races, this is a somewhat unique event in that it is held entirely on the Riverside Golf Course (owned by ACC). The course zig-​zagged around the hilly holes. Though there are paved cart paths throughout, 90-​odd% of the time we were tromping through the higher grass of «the rough». That meant, on a rain-​soaked weekend, that even if you didn’t hit a puddle, the higher grass would get your feet plenty wet. And the 37 degree temps at the 7:30 start time would get those wet feet plenty cold.
But I’m not going to ding them for the weather. This is Texas. A March 1^st race could easily be 75 degrees as it could be 35.
But the organization in this fledgling race could have been better. First, the course, by the way it crossed itself a couple times, was difficult to follow (see
). When the continued rain literally washed away the original plan to have chalk outlines to follow, a last second set of colored flags (like those that mark underground utilities before you dig) were employed. That led to a bit of confusion, and several runners went the wrong direction, adding half a mile or more to their total distance. Second, though it makes less difference with fewer runners, the «gun time» (the time from the race starting gun to when you cross the finish line) and «chip time» (the time from when you cross the actual start line to when you cross the finish line) was the exact same for all runners. This only happens if all the runners cross the start line at the exact same second as the command to «go». So, I assume my chip time was too high because it started before I officially crossed the start line. This caused a lot of confusion about who had the fastest time. Twenty minutes after the race (longer than the winner was on the course), they were still huddled around a laptop trying to figure out who the Women’s Division winner was.
So, I’d normally go with a middle of the road 3-​star rating. But even if I felt like the «second banana» to Unilocal Royalty/​running goddess/​occasional workout partner Shannon B.‘s award-​winning performance, I was able to get my daily mileage out of the way before my wife was even out of bed, so I’ll give this a bump.
3.75 stars (rounded to 4)

I. Won. This. Race. With a 26:20 time*. What?!
Ever hear that advice about, «Ninety-​five percent of winning at life is just showing up»? Well, I’ll add that 95% of winning obscure 5Ks is just showing up. When it’s cold and rainy and all the people who could run faster than you choose to stay at home in their nice, warm, beds, guess what! You can get a medal!
Okay, you’ll also have to run reasonably fast and follow the bewildering course set out by the race organizers, but then you, too, can have a moment where your name is announced and a medal is placed around your neck. I’ve never been involved in athletics of any kind before I turned 42 last year, so it was kind of awkward when I had no idea what to do when I won the race. Apparently, people who win races usually know that they won and care about getting an award. People want to take several pictures with winners, so you’re supposed to stick around and let them. And no one cares if you help yourself to a second banana. I could get used to this!
Joe C.‘s review gives you all the information you really need to know about the ACC Fairway 5K, so go read that for all the useful stuff.
Add this one to your calendar for next year. I’ll be there, so come see if you can take me down, lol.
*Official race times posted here:
Men’s winner time: 15:45 (a full 10 minutes faster than my time, lol)