Black Squirrel 5K Review

I had a great time at the Kent State Black Squirrel 5K.  I have competed in this race several times in the past. This course is a loop around the Kent State University campus that features a lot of rolling hills.  The weather is usually unpredictable for this race.  This year the weather was a little on the cool side with some mild to gusting winds.  No rain so that was a bonus this year.  The pre race check in is done inside the university wellness center which is nice.  Being able to warm up on the indoor track is a huge benefit at this race.

Still dealing with a tight back I wasn’t sure how my run would go. I was about a minute off my normal pace for this race but I still managed to place 2nd in my division with a time of 23:34. My last mile was my fastest which is progress in getting my speed back. My goals for this race were to take home an age division medal and average around a 7:30 mile pace or better which I achieved both. I have a lot of work to do but I’m getting their one mile at a time.

Kent State University puts on a really awesome post race celebration complete with a buffet of bagels, fruit, granola bars Capri Suns, and chili.  The gym is converted into a post race area with lots of tables complete with table clothes and center pieces.  Race participants received a t-shirt  and bib.  I love the mini bibs they use for this race as they are very easy to wear.  I would really like to see the t-shirts improve.  The last three years the race event information promoted performance t-shirts.  To runners this means tech shirts.  Apparently to them that means a basic full cotton t-shirt.  They used to offer really nice tech shirts with great designs at this race but the last three years the shirts have been disappointing.  There were lots of age division categories.  Only division and overall winners received medals.  I would prefer that all finishers receive a medal.   The race also promotes a team competition for male, female, and coed teams.   For the third year in a row we were diligent to get all of our runners registered for a coed team only to find out that they once again cancelled the team competition with no explanation.  There has never been a true understanding of how the team award winners were to be decided but I guess it doesn’t really matter when they never actually present them.  It is a little frustrating when participants make the effort to recruit runners and register their teams and then the awards are not presented.  This year we had 9 team members registered with all 4 females winning their divisions and 1 male placing 2nd in his division so I am pretty confident we would have had a pretty good chance to win the team coed division had it been awarded.