The West Florida Y Runners Club (WFYRC) puts on a wonderful summer series at Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach, FL. The series is beachfront, out and back, very well managed, and complete fun for anyone at any pace. The sponsoring group is very friendly and does an outstanding job at making everyone welcome!
I would recommend the group or the series to anyone. Bear in mind though, it is on sand, it is manually timed and sponsor participation on race day is limited (usually only Red Bull shows up) but then that's the beauty of community races. It's all about friends, family and fun. Not to mention the glorious view on a Friday evening.
This was Race #3 in the series and one I was determined to be on time for, having been late to the previous two races. My nieces and I hit the 60W at 6pm. We arrived at Pier 60 at 7:15pm very, very disappointed as this should have been a maximum 30 min drive. I asked if I could start that late and was told to go ahead. A family of four actually started after I did. Seems I was not the only runner sitting on the 60 in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Several runners got there just before I did and turned away, not wanting an off time (manual timing does not allow or adjust for late starts) and uncertain if the route markers would still be in place for the whole course. This I was told by one of the registration workers.
I ran with the family of four (a father and three sons) and they finished a few minutes ahead of me. The turn around point had been moved early (most races allow an hour before take-down and this would have been approximately 45 min from the original start time) and one of the young sons ran an additional mile past the turn around point without realizing it. Poor kid. The five of us were the last to finish and we had to ask for timing cards (manual method of entering finish times) in order to get credit for participation. The family finished at around 8:03pm, I was 8:08pm and the entire course had been removed. It took 5 minutes to locate the blank timing cards so that my run time would be registered on the website result listings.
While I do not blame WFYRC for the traffic, nor do I expect them to halt a start time every Friday night when it's known that traffic hindered several runners, nor is it reasonable to ask volunteers to stay longer than they initially expected, nonetheless, it would have been nice to have some form of alternative or back up plan for situations like this. I know it can't be unusual, Clearwater is quite busy every summer. I almost wonder if it wouldn't be better to bump the start time to 7:30 solely for this purpose. But again, for the locals, it would not be in their best interest and I'm sure WFYRC has heard this suggestion before. Outside of two dedicated club members - one standing at the turn around and one at the finish line for an hour and a half - there's not much else that could be done.
The short version of the point I'm making is that while I dearly enjoy this series, it isn't realistic for anyone that lives or vacations outside of the Clearwater area, North or East, to attend. Traffic has consistently precluded a decent drive or arrival time and the race does not accommodate late arrivals.
I filled out the timing card with the actual start and finish times and was still given the unadjusted numbers. I'm not complaining, for an $8 race on a Friday night, this is probably as good as it gets. Kudos to WFYRC for persevering against the odds to keep this series in motion.
OFFICIAL TIME: 1:05:00 (manual and unadjusted)
ACTUAL TIME: 49:00 (using Start Clock and watch)