Chapman University

I LOVE CHAPMAN
I might be a little bit bias, but I think it is one of the greatest places. It is clean, beautiful, and it is oh so classy. Everywhere you go it is top notch.
The plaza is beautiful. There is an incredible fountain, places to sit, and beautiful trees and plants throughout. A piece of the Berlin Wall is located on campus.
There are multiple restaurants on campus. Jamaba, Einstein’s, Qudoba, Starbucks, and a sub place.
The worst part is finding parking. During weekdays that is an absolute nightmare. Can take 30 minutes of circling around a structure.
But once you are on the campus, there is a peaceful feeling and I absolutely love it.

Best 2 years of college life were spent here, because I was a transfer student. Now moving on to law school. The campus is kept clean and the landscaping is care for meticulously. It takes about 5 minutes to get from one side of campus to the other, but the film and dance schools are about a 10 minute walk or less. Lots to do on campus with free food all over, if you look carefully. Plenty to do, eat, and shop for at the nearby «Orange Circle».

I can not speak for the education. I attended the campus for a conference and it was a beautiful campus on the exterior. The chairs and tables looked aged and in some cases, needed repair but I was in a meeting hall and not a class room. It looks beautiful on the outside and the layout is interesting.

They market this event as the «fastest, flattest and funnest 5k in the world». Well, that’s kind of a BS statement.
I signed up for it just because it was cheap (with promo code) and timed and I thought it would be a good gauge to see where I’m at while I start training for my first half marathon. Since Chapman isn’t that close to me, I decided to wait until the day of to pick up my registration packet. It wasn’t that well organized and it was so cramped in the lobby. They didn’t separate the last name ranges far enough so there was a huge line for «K-​M», and no line for the others. They also make you sign waivers which a lot of people didn’t do so that also held up the line. They also didn’t check ID. Weird. By the time I went to pick up my t-​shirt they ran out of everything except XS and XL. We indicated our t-​shirt size when we registered so I’m unsure why they didn’t prepare the correct number of t-​shirts per size. They were really crappy and see-​through too.
The day of the 5k was super windy. About 20mph winds and it sucked real bad. I came here expecting to set a PR, but I didn’t. It’s not like it’s the organizers fault though. The course is actually mostly in the residential area surrounding the campus. You begin and end on campus though. They have some cheerleaders to cheer you on and the marching band at the end. Everything in the middle is kind of dead and boring. There were a few residents that came out to watch us, but the crowd was pretty non-​existent. Not that I need one, I’d rather not have people watch me sweat. But the energy level wasn’t really there.
I liked how they tried to sort the runners by speed. This is something that I wish most 5k/​10k events should do. It’s very annoying trying to weave through walkers in the beginning when it’s very crowded. They had signs for the fastest people to go first and the slower people towards the back. This is just based on expected mile time, and of course a lot of people didn’t stay in the group they were suppose to, but I appreciate the effort. And it probably minimized the initial traffic greatly. They also serve free breakfast at the end.