The
Mustache Dache in Denver, CO was held in late November at Central Park in the Stapleton neighborhood. The Dache supports the
Movember, the men's health organization, and encourages you to grow a mustache for race day.
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| Us in all our mustachioed glory. |
The crowd was substantial, considering the weather was in the teens that morning. I arrived late but was able to get through registration fairly easy. For some reason, after you got your bib, you had to find another person to scan in your RFID chip so you could get timed. It was a bit of a cluster, and seemed overly complicated, but it worked out. The official T-shirt was handed out here as well.
The race, like many 5k jaunts, was a single heat and had a large number of participants. The first part of the race was on a slight down ward slope, and even though were were relatively in the front of the pack, it bottle necked rather quickly. My racing partner Dave (who was gunning for me at this race) was able to make some quick moves to the front and got a good lead on me, while I got stuck behind some people who couldn't seem to get over and let me pass.
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| No one messes with The Jesus. |
The course wound down a slight decline then back up. Overall, a pretty flat course with only about 15 ft. of elevation change. Just about the 1 mile mark I was able to catch Dave and ran with him for 100 years or so before I was able to pull away. The sun came out and although the temps were still low, the rays were enough to make me ditch my headwear to avoid overheating by the 2nd mile.
The course was laid out well, so that there was only a little overlap. I prefer a loop or some change of scenery, rather than laps or out and back running, so this was pretty good. There was a final turn in towards the finish that was straight as an arrow, perfectly flat and you could see the finish gate about .1 mile off in the distance, allowing for a really nice kick to the end.
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| Route via my Polar Trainer. |
The after race content was small, but solid. A lot of protein packed goodies and a mustache medal were handed out at the finish. They also had awards for top 3 in several age and sex categories. Many of the trophies were pint glasses, which was ironic because due to some sort of Denver Parks regulation, they couldn't have their beer vendor on site. The highlight of the festival grounds had to be the mechanical bull, but with no beer and single digit temps, it fell short of its epic potential.
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| The bull. |
Not a bad race, but not really anything special unless you are really into mustaches. Organization was decent, but could have been better, course was well laid out, but a bit boring and lack of free beer made for a quick post-race departure. There were a lot of cool customs and the crowd was friendly. I even got invited to a snowshoe race while using the urinal post race. Price was fair and anything that gets me out in the cold Colorado weather for some outdoor exercise is always welcome.
I placed 72nd with a time of 24:11 and Dave came in 81st at 24:57. Both respectable times for us.
