Race Review: Halloween Run for Justice 5 Miler

Year #14 for this race and I somehow either haven’t been around or running somewhere else in past years for it. It’s put on by Hermes Road Racing in Cleveland and benefits Lawyers Giving Back community outreach programs including the 3Rs, helping students in the Cleveland and East Cleveland City Schools. Option for 5 Mile Run, 5K Run/walk or untimed 1 Miler

Registration: $20 before 10/16, $25 after. There’s also an option for family entry: $50 for 4 people of same family, but has to be mailed in in the same envelope. Also Team category, $90 for 4 people and you have to run the same event. Categories are Firm/Company, law school, college, and high school (male, female, mixed). I’m guessing some sort of prize is involved

Packet Pick Up: Downtown Cleveland at the Galleria of Erieview. You could do packet pickup the yesterday. Who does packet pick up in downtown Cleveland from 4-6 pm with the Cav’s home opener at 7 pm vs the Heat??? Packet pick up race day starting at 730 AM

Parking: Paid, either street or garages. I found a garage for $5

The Course: If you’ve done Hermes Races before, the course similar to other races that they put on. It goes out around First Energy Stadium [ie Browns Territory], along Lake Erie past the Rock n Roll HOF and further down parallel to Lake Erie. The 1 mile turn around is 1/2 mile in and the 5K turn around was 1.55 miles in at the water stop. Seems like there were a good amount of 5Kers and not 5 Milers this year. You hit the water stop twice if you were a 5 Miler. Fairly flat course, though you did have some inclines, especially when running after mile 4 when running over I 90. No traffic issues for the most part [cops were out directing people as needed], but with less than 1/2 mile left, we had bus drivers not paying attention to police officers about where to turn. As history would put it, there’s not a whole lot of people out in general on Saturday mornings in Cleveland. Start/Finish was in front of the Galleria.

Post race: held inside the Galleria Erieside. Cars cheerleaders were there. Food was available [bagels, cookies, donuts], as was water. DJs were there with music and they were also judging halloween costumes

Race management is good, but I wish they’d come up with different course routes, because I feel like I’ve done the same route multiple times at multiple races. It reminds me of being back in Philadelphia where races would always bank on using Kelly Drive for a good chunk of mileage over the summer since it was shut down to vehicles over the weekends