Some Palace Saloon 5K Numbers

Being co-director with Reid Vannoy of the recently completed 35th annual Palace Saloon 5K, I have been getting more than a few comments and questions about the size of the field this year. People seem interested in how the size of this year's race compares with earlier runnings of the Palace. The records of the race are somewhat spotty, so I can't say that it's the largest Palace Saloon 5K ever, but I can say that it's larger than any other I've been able to find a record for.

I also get asked about how the number of participants compares with other races in the area. This is a little bit easier to answer if you can agree on what the question is. I decided to compare the number of registered finishers in the Palace Saloon 5K with the number of registered finishers in other Gulf Winds Track Club races during the previous year (i.e., 12 April 2008 through 11 April 2009). I didn't want to use the calendar year, because then I would have to wait till the end of 2009 to make my comparison.

	DATE	RACE	FINISHERS
	11/27/2008	Turkey Trot 5K	1,714
	4/11/2009	Palace Saloon 5K	1,022
	3/28/2009	Springtime 10K	658
	11/27/2008	Turkey Trot 1 Mile	597
	2/1/2009	Tallahassee Half-Marathon	416
	3/28/2009	Springtime 5K	409
	11/27/2008	Turkey Trot 10K	389
	11/27/2008	Turkey Trot 15K	341
	2/1/2009	Tallahassee Marathon	203
	8/16/2008	Breakfast on the Track One-Mile Run*	190
	12/6/2008	Ten-Mile Challenge (10-Mile Run)	177
	9/20/2008	Women's Distance Festival 5K	167
	6/7/2008	Potluck Bash Four Mile Run	144
	10/11/2008	Pine Run at Tall Timbers 20K	142
	9/27/2008	Prefontaine 5K	133
	1/10/2009	Bowlegs 5K	117
	8/30/2008	Miller Landing Madness 5K	110
	2/21/2009	Flash 12K	105
	1/17/2009	Gulf Winds Track Club 15K	96
	1/17/2009	Gulf Winds Track Club 30K	87
	12/6/2008	Ten-Mile Challenge (5-Mile Run)	80
	8/30/2008	Miller Landing Madness 8K	76
	3/28/2009	Springtime 1 Mile	74
	8/30/2008	Miller Landing Madness 3K	73
	12/13/2008	Tallahassee Ultra-Distance Classic 50K	33
	2/21/2009	Flash 6K	30
	12/13/2008	Tallahassee Ultra-Distance Classic 50 Mile	17
	9/20/2008	Women's Distance Festival 1 Mile	12

*Single race run in multiple sections.

I took the figures from results published at the Gulf Winds Track Club's web site, http://www.gulfwinds.org/. Because the Palace Saloon 5K is a single race, I've chosen to compare individual races rather than entire events. Thus, for example, the Women's Distance Festival 5K and the Women's Distance Festival one-mile fun run are listed separately rather than combined as one event. This seemed fair, and it also made the Palace's numbers look more impressive, so I went with it.

The only valid conclusion that you can take from this exercise is that I like numbers a lot.

Credit for the number of finishers at the Palace this year has to go to the runners who love this race enough to run it each year, and to the heroic volunteers who served the crowds at registration before the race and at the finish line after the race. These are the people who directly responsible not only for the size of this event, but for the smooth execution that kept a large race from becoming a large disaster. Hats off to ya, and I hope you'll be around for the 36th annual Palace Saloon 5K on 10 April 2010.

Links:

• Robida outruns a thousand to win the Palace Saloon 5K
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2009/04/robida-outruns-thousand-to-win-palace.html
  
• Palace Breaks the Thousand mark (David Yon's take on the race)
  http://www.gulfwinds.org/Club%20Races/Palace%20Saloon/2009-04-15%20Palace.htm