Biggest Loser 5K Race Recap

If you talk to me for more than a minute about exercise I'll bring up something that Jillian Michaels has said. So when I saw there was a Biggest Loser race coming to DC I was interested in checking it out. Then my coworker decided to organize a work team and I signed right up.

The Biggest Loser race series is hosted by Dan and Jackie Evans from season 5, but they had a few other former contestants participate as well.   

The race website was well designed and easy to get around, which can not be said about the actual race. I was not the target audience for this race. It was clear that it was for people running or walking their first 5K. The race started at RFK stadium but otherwise they were tight lipped about the race course until the week before the race when we found out that it would be circles around the parking lot. To all those planning races out there... the course does matter! And running around a huge parking lot on a hot day, wasn't the best choice. 

There were no signs at the start indicating where the runners and walkers should start. When we moved over to the starting area, there was no way to work up to the front even though there were obvious walkers in front of us. 

The course was poorly marked off by traffic cones and the first mile involved a lot of dodging around others. We ended up having around 30 people run in our group and we all wore orange so I spent the middle part of the race looking for friends and cheering them on. The race signage was also confusing. Around mile one of the race there was a sign that said mile 2 then at two and a half miles in there was a sign for mile 1. I still haven't figured out what was going on.

I had stayed out late the night before with this fun. So my expectations for the race had been lowered. And I felt like this for most of the race:

But a 5K is only 3.1 miles and I was able to pull it together and run like this for most of the race:

And finish strong with a funny finish line step. I finished with a time of 23:57 good enough for 6th place in my age group and 43rd overall (and only 15 seconds off of my PR).

After the race we were treated to a concert by Dan Evans and our team earned a finish line tent to hang out in.

They are hosting these BL races around the US. I recommend only signing up if you love the show and /or Dan Evans. Although we did get a shirt, backpack, finisher's medal, and free race pictures for a very reasonable registration fee of $25.