FLAT course. The volunteers were great! I agree with JohnKirk29 about sharing the course with runner (im a walker) I was worried I was going to hold them up and had to look back to make sure I was outta their way. I TOTALLY didn't like the sharp turn and end walk on the grass.  AND IT WAS REALLY HOT! Well organized event~ great volunteers! I appreciated the young lady picking up the dropped cups long the way too!!

PROS: Great course; very flat and good for PRs.  Ice cream and pizza a bonus.  Lots of water stops!

CONS: Bad record keeping!  Some--though not all--volunteers were not helpful when trying to straighten out SERIOUS discrepancies in posted results.  (In fact, one was rude and outright dismissive.)  Imagine that!  We had the nerve to ask that the 15 or so female 5k runners be removed from the 10k results, but there was denial of an issue.  (As of this morning, at least 5 or 6 WERE finally removed.)  Lots of people complained as the results were posted, then removed and corrected twice on-site, then again a third time this morning the results have been changed.    Not happy.  This is the third "iRun Fit" race that I know of that has posted inaccurate results in which out-of-town people left thinking they didn't place only to find out when they got home that they did.  (What a shame for those people as who is going to drive all the way back to ABQ just to pick up the medal?)

BOTTOM LINE: If you walk or run for fun, and don't care about accurate results, this is good, clean fun.  Enjoy!  <smiles>  If you are a serious runner and DO care about the results, not so much.  This will be the last iRun Fit event for us.  Three strikes, you're out.  In addition to habitually committing the above offenses, crucial race information is commonly left out of their website, and staff is unresponsive to inquiries in advance of the race.  (Twice we called and e-mailed for days before of a race, never with a reply or return call.  In the last race that this happened, the voice mail was actually removed from the contact phone number and no one ever answered.)  I realize these people are volunteers doing hard work, but accurate timing and record keeping is the most important element of a good race.  For those of us who live many hours away, it's especially galling to be given skewed results, treated badly, then sent home empty handed when a position was truly earned.  iRun Fit can do better than this.

Kohr,

Yes, the water was luke-warm and stations were not enough for many runners--especially considering the heat.  That said, I found it to have more water stations than most races and I consider that to be a good thing.  But where I really agree with you is the safety issue.  One runner trying to dodge slow walkers and not get hit by a car had to put his arm out like a turn signal so as to notify the traffic behind him that he was going to pass.  Not sure why they couldn't do what most races do; either have the street shut down for the duration of the race or have it clearly marked with pylons and people to divert the traffic away.  <shrugs shoulders>  We're not going back but I *do* worry for the safety of other runners...

Thanks for asking.  I signed up for the race and came in from Florida to do it and a ton of other things in Santa Fe, as I did last year.  Problem was, some "Stephen" sends out a blast e mail two days  before, changing the rules so that a runner "Must" pick up the number etc from a runners store in the far reaches of Albuquerque on Saturday by 5:00, or not run....maybe a great way to force feed visitors to the store, but impossible for me to do, and  I could not bear to toss that one on a " Friend" for a Saturday afternoon. Fleet Feet is not hardly an easy place to reach unless you happen to live in that area, especially on Saturday. I think throwing in an obligation like that after signing up was  cheap, and I could not run, and will never sign up again.  My rating is "Do Not Waste Your Time " with these people, as they change the rules after you sign up,  as  I am well aware of Active.com's policy of NO REFUNDS, so the organizers made an easy $30.  The water problem others noted is what I would have expected from this group.

This is nice flat course, but very unorganized. The mile markers are always screwed up, seems to be an irunfit issue.  Apparently they did not expect people to be thirsty after the race as there was not enough water. Seriously debating the Chunky Monkey.

Lmarjon,

See!  This is the misinformation that I'm talking about!  It is absolutely not true that you had to go to Fleet Feet to pick it up...this happened to us once too.  I'm guessing it's just a ploy to funnel you to the store.  I am so sorry you didn't get to race because of the misinformation in Stephen Pino's e-mail blast.  Yes, they made a quick $30 out of you and I'm sure more people as a result of this tactic.  Very unprofessional.  I pointed this out to him in an e-mail last year (never got a reply) when we were desperately trying to figure out how (or why?) we should have to drive a 4 hour round trip the day before the race to pick up the race packet!?!?!  Can't remember how we eventually found out that it's not true (you can pick it up right before the event), but our efforts to find out were frustrated by ignored e-mails and phone calls.  And they repeated it this year.  This is so unfair. As of yesterday evening, under pressure from a runner who got ripped off from her first place age group medal due to the inaccurate results, they finally investigated the faux pas of 5k runners credited with running the 10k and admitted there were many errors.  Most, but not all mistakes, were corrected.  (There are still 2 runners up there incorrectly credited with running the race.)  They (Stephen Pino and the race director) both apologized to the runner and agreed to correct the mistakes, which made her feel much better.  But she still does not have her medal and she had to fight hard to get them to correct THEIR mistakes.  (She feels better about it...me, not so much!)  I initially was relieved that they were FINALLY listening (we were stonewalled the night before), but upon reflection--and after seeing your post and realizing that they are still miscommunicating with the entrants--I realize that nothing has changed.  They were forced to change the results due to research and hard work on her part that PROVED them wrong, but short of that, no one was listening.  Lesson learned. 

I really feel bad that you got ripped off, and that's exactly what happened.  What a shame.

Sincerely,

Celia

Thank you all for coming out to the Cherry Garcia. We raised a ton of money to fund after school fitness programs to combat childhood obesity, and we couldn't have done it without you! We appreciate all the feedback about the course and we are going to make changes to ensure a more successful run for the Chunky Monkey and successive Cherry Garcia's.  If you find an issue with the race results please send me a private message and we will try and get it fixed for you.  Once again thank you all!