A Frosty decision

Every February our community hosts an Ice Festival. During this weekend the downtown is filled with ice sculptures and artists, there is a chocolate tour, there are games at the park, and there is a polar plunge, and frosty 5K.

                                                                           Source

I have seen the ice sculptures before and they are pretty cool (literally) and some of them even light up. I wanted to buy tickets for the chocolate tour last year, but then honestly just got too lazy to go. I did go to the polar plunge a few years back (not to participate but to take photos for the newspaper) and quite frankly I don't understand why anyone would want to do that. I'm sure it probably benefits some cause, but I'd rather just donate a check than take the plunge!  This year I thought I would take part in the Frosty 5K.


I've never done this race before because quite honestly, the name never appealed to me. I mean come on, who wants to run a FROSTY 5K?  But as I looked through my training logs from the past few February's I noticed that the weather has not been that bad. I did many of runs in just a short sleeve shirt.  So why not sign up? 

Now here is what is irritating me.  I first decided I would consider running this back in December. I saw all the details (so I thought) on the Official race web page.   Donuts and hot chocolate at the start, a nice course, turkey subs at the finish, and discounts to all the runners for the other festival activities that day. Sounded like a great race!

However, I noticed that all the race info was still from 2017 and there was no place to register for the 2018 race. I did a little investigating on my own and still could not find an update page to register for the race. Seeing that it is a local race, I thought perhaps registration for 2018 has not yet opened. Maybe they would open it after the new year? Yes, I know that is unlikely that race registration would only be open for one month, but that was the only logical explanation I could come up with as to why I could not find it.

I went back to the website on January 1st and 2nd and it still had not been updated.  I found a contact email for someone in the Rotary club who was sponsoring the race and asked where I could find an updated registration form.  He promptly sent me a link the next day.  The 2017 registration form was linked through RunSignUp.com  (which most of our local races are) and this new one for 2018 was linked through a different site I had never heard of and quite frankly would have never been able to find had he not sent me the link.  When I opened the link to register I noticed that I not only missed the first price increase, but the second price increase as well.  This frustrates me because I hate paying more than I have to for a local 5K.  What angers me is not the fact that I forgot to sign or or that I missed it, its that the information/registration was not on the proper page.  If they were going to change the registration page, then they should have put that new registration link on the old race web page so people would know where to find it.  Even if you just do a random google search for this race, the 2017 page still comes up.

I guess no use in complaining about this now. I still haven't decided if I want to pay that much for a local 5K or not but I guess I don't have to be in an hurry to decide since the price is the highest it is going to be now (besides on race day).  I'll see how many runs I get to do between now and February!

Any cool runs or festivals near you in Febraury? -M




We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.

36 comments:

  1. I've been contemplating a 10k the first weekend of February, but like you, the potential for cold and/or bad weather is steering me away. I really just need to get over my fear of the weather and pull the trigger.

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    1. The weather wouldn't really bother me for a 5k, but for anything longer it would!

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  2. Thats kinda messed up. You should call %& tell them that. Their fault. They have to see registration is down.... youd think

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    1. I should have contacted someone when I first realized I could not find the current registration page. After not seeing it for weeks I just assumed they were waiting for the first of the year. Silly me!

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  3. I wonder if they will have a much smaller turnout this year if no one can figure out how to sign up for the race! Thats pretty annoying that they wouldn't have better links available. I remember last Feb. was warm but I don't know what to expect this year!

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    1. Good point! I wonder if I'm the only one who couldn't figure out where to find the updated page????

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  4. That's a bummer. I'll bet they're going to lose lots of runners that way. There's only one race here in Feb that I can think of. I ran it once or twice and DNS'd it once because it was -6 and the course was pure ice. Now I don't bother.

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    1. oh -6 I would have DNS too. Actually I would have DNS at just 6!

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  5. Wow that's a shame and in my opinion, really poor race management. The first thing that should have been updated was the website!

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    1. Yea, you would think you would make sure the new website would be the first thing that came up when people Googles the race.

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  6. For a second I really thought this was going to end with the race having been cancelled!

    I am with you, I do not understand why people do penguin plunges! they are insane! There was one here the weekend of new years, and the windchill that day was 2!

    I am looking forward to what decision you make on the 5k.

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  7. We have a frosty 5k and 10k down in Littleton, and they're playing up the snowman theme, except we have no snow. This winter has been weird, and I'm expecting a correcting storm at some point to get all the snow we should have.

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  8. Lake George (an hour north) has a festival every weekend in Feb. They also have a polar plunge on New Years day (and I only watch!!!)

    The first weekend of Feb, there is a 4 mile race and I always run it!!

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    1. Thats nice that the festival is held every weekend. What kind of activities do they have?

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  9. I have one February race I do every year, the Red Flannel Run. It has a 5K or 5-mile, and benefits one of the Y's in Des Moines. It's usually cold (hello, Iowa LOL), but it's always a lot of fun. Probably 90% of the participants are dressed in red flannel in some capacity ;-) With all the buffalo plaid on the fashion scene this year, it oughta be really festive!

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  10. It is way too frozen up here in Feb for cool races! Feb is the worst month of winter, usually.

    That sounds like a really cool race, though. You had me at chocolate tour . . .

    I have a race I'm stalking at the moment. Kind of the same thing, only the race isn't until August -- I'm just hoping that they don't decide not to do it this year for some reason!

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  11. That's frustrating. And really poor race/Web management. I wonder if someone left and the others just don't know what they're doing? And I'm with you - I don't often do 5ks anyway (not my favorite) but there is no way that I'm going to pay a whole lot of money to run a short distance. Nope. I'd go for the Chocolate, though. :D

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    1. Yea, I try to do cheap 5K's unless its associated with a bigger race like Disney or Rock n Roll or something like that.

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  12. That really stinks and would be super frustrating for me as well. I would probably skip it because I don't like to reward incompetency. LOL

    But it does seem like a cool (see what I did there?) race!

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    1. Actually, that is my point exactly! I kind of want to run the race, but I don't want to give in!

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  13. Ugh, how frustrating! I hate paying for 5Ks anyway, and having to pay more because of poor promotion on their part would make me totally not want to do it.

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  14. That is frustrating... I wonder how many other people are lost in the registration process. I don't have anything on the calendar yet, but I am looking at doing the Galveston half marathon again this year... it was a lot of fun last year and I can't pass up running along the gulf.

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  15. AW bummer! That does sound frustrating. I know sometimes local races don't have a lot of people to organize them, so it can get confusing sometime.
    Other than this, I hope you've been well!

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    1. Thank you Julie! You bring up a good point. I have to remember that it is a smaller race and the people organizing are doing the best they can.

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  16. What a cute series! I may do the chocolate tour this year, we'll see!

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  17. That is so frustrating! I have planned on doing certain races before and even though they haven't had their registration up, I have been reassured it will happen, and then it doesn't and no one makes any sort of announcement. The problem with smaller races for sure!

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