Fast and Furious 5k

It was the second annual Fast and Furious 5k this year and we decided to participate. It takes place in downtown Pleasanton and also includes a festival, mile race ("Mile of Truth") and criterium. A portion of the proceeds go to fight ALS. We heard good things about it last year so wanted to check it out for ourselves this year. We ended up registering for it months in advance when a discount was offered. We got a technical shirt included with our race entry so it was a great deal. Early bib pick up was at Fleet Feet Pleasanton the two days prior to the race so we took advantage of that. Aside from the technical shirts we also got a reusable shopping bag. There was plenty of parking in the downtown area-street parking and public lots. There were road closures for the days events, mainly the cycling events but we didn't experience any delays getting to the race. There were the usual booths for race day bib pick up and race day registration. Plenty of porta potties scattered throughout which made for shorter lines than usual. A good portion of Main Street was closed off so there was plenty of room for us to warm-up. The race start and finish were on Main Street and about ten minutes before the race we were directed up the street to the start. There was plenty of room on the street for the just over 600 participants. Although there was a timing chip attached to our bib there was no timing mat at the start so everyone got the same start time. This was a bit disappointing but nothing we could do about it. It did cause some chaos for the start though because there were people lined up near the front that probably should have been further back but they probably wanted to lose as little time as possible. The gun went off and we were off. The race course was a loop through and around downtown. There was at least one water station, possibly 2. The race course was easy to follow and the last segment had us running south on Main Street before making a turn to run on a street parallel to Main Street. Then it was a couple of more turns before we were back on Main Street and headed north to the finish. Across the finish there were water, fruit and nuts. There were booths set up for sports related products and some freebies like Clif Bar. There was also a local CrossFit club hosting a competition. We made our way through downtown and had breakfast before watching the kids races and then part of the first Criterium bike race. There were activities going on all day including bike races through the evening. It was a great event and we will definitely be back.

Race Website