Earlier this month, March 1st, myself and fellow On The Go’er Betsy participated in the Best Damn Race Orlando 2014. I was interested in doing another 5K race and was looking for my next challenge, when a coworker mentioned this race to me. I had not heard of it before, but when she informed me that it featured free food, beer and massages at the end….well, it would have been rude for me not to attend really!
The way you sign up for this race is different to ones I had done or heard of in the past, it worked on more of a first come first serve basis, with the prices being tiered. The first 10 people to sign up only paid $1, the first 20 $5, the first 30 $10, and so on. I signed up with the first 500 people so ended up paying $25, a great deal for what you were promised at the end! You could sign up for the 5K, the 10K or the half marathon, all taking place on the same day but at different start times.
The race for the 5K was to start at 9am. Parking was pretty easy to find downtown, as the race started at Lake Eola and went through Downtown Orlando.
Once we arrived we signed in and picked up our shirts, unfortunately ours had already ran out, and as we had paid for them in our ticket we thought that was very odd. I have since contacted them and been told that they should be able to mail me the shirts, which would be nice as we were quite disappointed we didn’t have them as a memory.
Once we had our bibs we headed over to the start. Since we were walking most of it we decided to start half way back so we didn’t get in the way of any of the runners. After singing the national anthem we were all set to go. The course was very beautiful, as it was downtown they were a lot of bricked roads we walked over, my favorite part was going by the historic homes along the route, so pretty!
Every now and then our paths crossed with the people finishing the 10K and the Half marathon, I was looking on at them going by hoping that will be me one day!
At each mile they handed out water and gatorade which featured members of the Autism Society Of Greater Orlando, so we were encouraged to be as animated as possible and show our gratitude to these volunteers as we went by and accepted the refreshments.
It was great to see members of the public out supporting the runners along the route too, encouraging us on and letting us know that it wasn’t far now!
The last part of the route brought you back to Lake Eola for a photo finish!
The medal we received was very cool as it featured a bottle opener in the middle!
Once we had our medals we headed over to the buffet, there wasn’t much left so we decided to instead head to the beer tent! They ID’d you on the way in, and gave you a bracelet, then you could go get your beer. It looked like it was Michelob Ultra, either way it was very tasty and very refreshing, even if it was only 10 in the morning, it was 5 o’clock somewhere I’m sure!
After our beer we headed over to check out some of the sponsors stalls, my husband testing out a Therapuetix machine that massaged your muscles and promises to even heal sciatic pain!
We wanted to go take advantage of the free massages but there was only a few tables, and when we enquired about it, the wait was at 45 minutes, which I’m sure others didn’t mind waiting, but we didn’t want to hang around that long.
For the price the Best Damn Race Orlando was a great deal, especially with the free beer at the end, plus it was a lovely route through some really scenic neighborhoods. I will be looking out for when they come back next year for sure!
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