Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Do you Rock 'n' Roll?

The Rock 'n' Roll race series has taken on a life of its own. I remember when they were just starting out and now it seems they are in every part of the country, easily accessible to anyone who wants to participate. Have you participated in one? How did it compare to other race events you've done?

A friend and I were talking about the series a few weeks ago during one of our weekday runs. I was on the fence about my next marathon and getting her thoughts on which one I should do. Even though the Rock 'n' Roll San Diego marathon fits well into my schedule, we both describe this race series the same way: a circus.

Whatever happened to simply running a race for the sake of running a race? Do we really need concerts from C-list artists at the finish line? Or another race shirt that we'll never wear?? The Rock 'n' Roll San Diego race is $160 for the marathon. No thanks. You can count me out of those. I'm personally not interested in the circus atmosphere of these races. I may rock, but I don't roll that way.

5 comments:

Run with Jess said...

Oh-no! I plan to run my first marathon at the St. Louis Rock 'n Roll... I've never run a R'nR, but I heard they were awesome fun!? Now you have me worried about it...

Latter-day Runner said...

I ran the inaugural Rock'n'Roll Seattle Marathon in 2009, and I thought it was exceptionally organized. I was especially impressed with the receiving area for the finishers. There were fewer bands than I was expecting. I didn't think there was a circus-like atmosphere, but this was in the Northwest which is generally more casual and low-key about life. My only complaint about the actual race was the course; it had a couple of out-and-back hairpin turns that made the run seem tedious after the half marathoners split off. The half marathon course was much nicer. I would register for more R'n'R marathons, but most of them are on Sundays, and I won't run in organized events on Sundays. I wish more of them were held on Saturdays.

Jenn (junkmiles.org) said...

Rock and Roll New Orleans is always a ZOO...and last Feb was no different. I'll always do it b/c it's my hometown event, but the volume of people make it a much slower race than it should be b/c of having to navagate around the droves of people. New Orleans doesn't have the widest streets so it may be more difficult here than in other areas of the country. It WAS fun, well run and overall very enjoyable...just be prepared for the enormous volume of people.

BabyWeightMyFatAss said...

I did Chicago's RNR Half last year and it was a lot of fun. But I only did it because my friend couldn't do it so I ran in her place. This year I am signed up but got in before it got to pricey. Last year was fun, warm, I was nursing an injury, and I rolled in right after Al Roker so I had that going for me. lol. It is well organized though. I did a half the weekend before that was horrible so this was a huge relief for me!

laurel said...

I am interested to hear everyone's thought on this race series. I was really looking forward to the first Rock 'n Roll marathon in Savannah, Ga, which is near where I live, this November. Now that I'm giving birth to twins in September, I won't be able to run it this year anyway, but am hoping to in the future.