I was torn between giving the Coaster Run at Knott's Berry Farm 2 or 3 stars. I signed up for this race because I figured I needed something to keep me somewhat active around the daylight savings switch because I'm always messed up when we spring forward. It was $40 and I saw that you get a medal with Snoopy on it, which is always the carrot for me. The medal, not Snoopy, although Snoopy was the bonus.
This packet pickup was at Buena Park Downtown mall on La Palma. It was inside and it was well-organized and painless. The volunteers were really nice and helpful, too. They give you a goody bag with hardly anything inside except flyers, and the cotton shirts were cute with the Coaster Run logo with Snoopy on it. Mine was white with the logo. They had red ones, but I think those were for the Speech Learning and Development Center, for which this race was the charity. It was from about 11 am - 4 pm, I believe.
The race on Sunday started at 7:30 am. Although in the directions they emailed out the day before, they said to enter the parking lot off La Palma, I missed that turn since there was a HUGE line off Beach, so I just went in straight to Knott's and they pointed me to the left where you go under the street and come up into their parking lot. It was a little chaotic there with two lanes merging and a woman directing traffic by screaming at the sleepy drivers. Oh well, not her fault people don't know how to drive.
This was not a huge race and they organized the waves by telling people that people who were planning to run 6-minute miles should be at the front of the pack and then so on and so forth. They had a sign for 9 minute mile and 10-12 min miles. I didn't see anything beyond that. So I moseyed up to the 9 minute mile section as I didn't want to get run over by the people who were running fast, and I didn't want to be blocked by people who were planning on just cruising through it.
The 5k and 10k runners all started together in one huge pack. I was hoping Snoopy would be there to send us off or at least be there for photo ops, but no such luck. The route itself is a little painful in that you double-back a couple of times for the 10k'ers. That is torture because you're running on the boring streets of Buena Park in front of Knott's then back down to the mall area. Then when I thought there was a long way to go, the finish was right around the last turn.
The volunteers were great, and the kids who volunteered along the route cheered a lot for the runners. Thank you for keeping us going! There were plenty of water stations, I thought, for a 10k. They need to open up the area right after the finish line though because it was a little jammed there with runners coming in. The water was off to the left along with bananas and sliced oranges, then you went to get your pie. Took me a minute to see where the water was, so it could've been more visible. They had plenty of pie slices and forks there, and you just grab and go. They had some tables under tents a little further away and some booths for you to look at. Nothing interested me, so I just sat, stared at my pie, took pictures of it and my cute Snoopy medal and left.
Unfortunately, it took me about 30 minutes to get out of the parking lot. For like 15 minutes, I just sat there not even moving. I think they finally got someone to direct traffic though, because then it got going, but 30 minutes to get out? Ridiculous. You don't want that to be the last impression of a race. Hopefully they improve for next year, but since this was their 7th year, I don't know why they didn't think of it this year. I took the pie home and heated it up for an afternoon snack and it was delicious. read more