Reviewed By: rachtenb
Date Reviewed: 09/19/2010
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 2 Above Average
Location:
Turner Stadium
755 Hank Aaron Drive 30315
Atlanta, GA
See map: Google Maps
This is an annual event that occurs in Atlanta outside of Turner Stadium where the Braves play. The attendance for this event is around 15,000 runners/walkers in which half are walkers. The event started @ 7:00pm. I live 6 miles from the stadium and decided to bike to the event, also saved $10 for parking, I arrived around 4:30pm. There were hundreds of corporate tents, sponsors and vendors all gathered in the parking lots, this is touted as the Company Picnic popularly known as the "World's Largest Office Party.". My company had a tent as well, so this was more of a social event than an athletic event. I was not sure if I could walk barefoot in the parking lot since this is heavily used by tailgaters and if they cleaned the parking lots on a regular basis, so I brought by $6 Wally water shoes just in case. Upon inspection of the lot, it had lots of glass, so the water shoes went on. Around 6:30pm they rounded everyone up to the starting line, so off with the water shoes and I was very careful traversing the parking lot avoiding glass. Once I got on to the main road it is was smooth and free of debris. As I followed my team up the street I was getting lot of typical questions about BF running in which I stopped to answer their questions. Then I realized I lost my team when socializing with all the other groups. I had all positive comments and questions about barefoot running while waiting for the start. Once the race started I did not get up to the starting line until 2:46 into the run, the problem was we were still walking up to the line and could not figure out why we were walking. Then until after a ¼ mile after the starting line there was a group of walkers in front of us that were blocking all the runners. The walkers were to line up in another area and let the runners pass first. I guess they were not paying attention or were trying to make a statement. It took about ½ mile from the starting line to actually start running. Once running at a steady pace, I had no negative comments about running Barefoot e.g. “Where are my running shoes”. I had quiet few runners who came up to me and were very interested in barefoot running or inspired by what I was doing. By mile 2, I was just getting warmed up and getting into a nice zone. Then near the finish line I had one last comment “Look we are getting beat by a barefoot runner”.
After the race I went back to my corporate tent and drank 3 Mikes Hard Lemonades and 3 Yuengling beers all in about 1.5 hours, watched some fireworks and then biked back home.
Overall this was a fun and was not very serious race, maybe that’s why no one gave me the typical comments that everyone else gets when running barefoot.
Date Reviewed: 09/19/2010
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 2 Above Average
Location:
Turner Stadium
755 Hank Aaron Drive 30315
Atlanta, GA
See map: Google Maps
This is an annual event that occurs in Atlanta outside of Turner Stadium where the Braves play. The attendance for this event is around 15,000 runners/walkers in which half are walkers. The event started @ 7:00pm. I live 6 miles from the stadium and decided to bike to the event, also saved $10 for parking, I arrived around 4:30pm. There were hundreds of corporate tents, sponsors and vendors all gathered in the parking lots, this is touted as the Company Picnic popularly known as the "World's Largest Office Party.". My company had a tent as well, so this was more of a social event than an athletic event. I was not sure if I could walk barefoot in the parking lot since this is heavily used by tailgaters and if they cleaned the parking lots on a regular basis, so I brought by $6 Wally water shoes just in case. Upon inspection of the lot, it had lots of glass, so the water shoes went on. Around 6:30pm they rounded everyone up to the starting line, so off with the water shoes and I was very careful traversing the parking lot avoiding glass. Once I got on to the main road it is was smooth and free of debris. As I followed my team up the street I was getting lot of typical questions about BF running in which I stopped to answer their questions. Then I realized I lost my team when socializing with all the other groups. I had all positive comments and questions about barefoot running while waiting for the start. Once the race started I did not get up to the starting line until 2:46 into the run, the problem was we were still walking up to the line and could not figure out why we were walking. Then until after a ¼ mile after the starting line there was a group of walkers in front of us that were blocking all the runners. The walkers were to line up in another area and let the runners pass first. I guess they were not paying attention or were trying to make a statement. It took about ½ mile from the starting line to actually start running. Once running at a steady pace, I had no negative comments about running Barefoot e.g. “Where are my running shoes”. I had quiet few runners who came up to me and were very interested in barefoot running or inspired by what I was doing. By mile 2, I was just getting warmed up and getting into a nice zone. Then near the finish line I had one last comment “Look we are getting beat by a barefoot runner”.
After the race I went back to my corporate tent and drank 3 Mikes Hard Lemonades and 3 Yuengling beers all in about 1.5 hours, watched some fireworks and then biked back home.
Overall this was a fun and was not very serious race, maybe that’s why no one gave me the typical comments that everyone else gets when running barefoot.
