Reviewed By: talonraid
Date Reviewed: 02/19/2011
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 3 Average
Location:
SeaWorld San Antonio
10500 SeaWorld Drive
San Antonio, TX
See map: Google Maps
Picture:
This was a 5k race held at SeaWorld in San Antonio, TX. 19 FEB 2011. It was a rainy day and all the surfaces were wet.
The race started inside the park and then went out through one of the back gates, onto a perimeter road, into the employee parking lot for a loop around and then back into the park for the finish line. Overall the race was better organized than some. They held the walkers to the rear of the crowd at the start, the registration process was fairly paineless and the people were nice. It was NOT chipped or timed which was sort of a bummer, but overall it was well done. There was only one water station at about the halfway point, so if you're accustomed to hydrating more than that on a 5k, bring water.
There were primarily four different surfaces that I encountered along the way. There was some pebble tech (concrete with small stones and rock chips that I like to call the Devil's Barefoot Torture Material), chip and seal asphalt, smooth black asphalt and a little bit of stamped concrete. I tried to upload more pictures, but the format for this review would only let me upload one picture.
I think it would have been a fairly easy race for me from a tenderfoot barefooter's point of view except for the rain made many of the surfaces extremely slippery, especially the stamped concrete and the smooth asphalt. The smooth black asphalt which I normally love to run on was so treacherous I had to slow waaaay down. A few shod folks busted their humps or slipped when they transitioned from the pebble tech to the asphalt. The chip and seal asphalt was not too bad, but this is what I do most of my training on. If you're a completely concrete or smooth asphalt barefoot runner, you may want to carry some minimal shoes just in case. The worst part for me was a section of about 100 yards of particularly nasty pebble tech. Luckily it was a relatively short section of the run.
Date Reviewed: 02/19/2011
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 3 Average
Location:
SeaWorld San Antonio
10500 SeaWorld Drive
San Antonio, TX
See map: Google Maps
Picture:
This was a 5k race held at SeaWorld in San Antonio, TX. 19 FEB 2011. It was a rainy day and all the surfaces were wet.
The race started inside the park and then went out through one of the back gates, onto a perimeter road, into the employee parking lot for a loop around and then back into the park for the finish line. Overall the race was better organized than some. They held the walkers to the rear of the crowd at the start, the registration process was fairly paineless and the people were nice. It was NOT chipped or timed which was sort of a bummer, but overall it was well done. There was only one water station at about the halfway point, so if you're accustomed to hydrating more than that on a 5k, bring water.
There were primarily four different surfaces that I encountered along the way. There was some pebble tech (concrete with small stones and rock chips that I like to call the Devil's Barefoot Torture Material), chip and seal asphalt, smooth black asphalt and a little bit of stamped concrete. I tried to upload more pictures, but the format for this review would only let me upload one picture.
I think it would have been a fairly easy race for me from a tenderfoot barefooter's point of view except for the rain made many of the surfaces extremely slippery, especially the stamped concrete and the smooth asphalt. The smooth black asphalt which I normally love to run on was so treacherous I had to slow waaaay down. A few shod folks busted their humps or slipped when they transitioned from the pebble tech to the asphalt. The chip and seal asphalt was not too bad, but this is what I do most of my training on. If you're a completely concrete or smooth asphalt barefoot runner, you may want to carry some minimal shoes just in case. The worst part for me was a section of about 100 yards of particularly nasty pebble tech. Luckily it was a relatively short section of the run.
