i5K

i5K is a race sponsored on by the Charleston Digital Corridor. The streets are closed and you run from the Aquarium down East Bay Street to the water and back, passing the fountains and the historical homes. It’s a beautiful route.
Most of the runners and walkers were people who worked at tech companies in the Charleston/​Daniel Island/​North Charleston/​Mt Pleasant area. They had big teams, shirts from their company, etc. A few runners were also wearing costumes, which was pretty interesting.
There were also lots of contests between the tech companies. It’s great if you work at one of these companies, but those of us who didn’t felt a bit left out of the festivities. Maybe next year they will have something to make us feel more included.
One thing I noticed was that not everyone completed the race. People stopped at the East Bay bars and hung out, then just walked back to the start. It’s not really fair for those who put in the effort to run or walk the entire 3.1 miles. I also heard (did not see this personally), that some of them were hanging out smoking outside the bars. Not a good way to represent your company, folks.
It has an after party as well with pizza (from Andolini’s) and lots of beer. However, the pizza was slightly cold. The shirts are nice, except they didn’t have my husband’s size. Didn’t make sense, with no race day registration and packet pick up. You’d think the shirt would just be in the packet, but it wasn’t. He wears a size XXL so nothing too obscure, but they never gave him a shirt. This race has been around a few years so you think those kinks would be worked out by now.
The race course itself is flat and fast and it was chip timed. Results were available after the race and awards were given out at the after party, except most of us could not hear the announcements of awards and they did not have all the awards with them, so they were mailed.
The course is worth 5 stars alone. However, the organizational issues with the shirts, the awards, and those of us non-​tech company runners feeling left out make me hesitant to give this more than an A-​Ok review. There are a lot of races in Charleston, I don’t know that I’d do this one again.