Fitness Friday: Miles of Music 5K

Fitness, Running, ,

As I always do whenever I’m on vacation in another city or country, I found myself a race to run in Los Angeles! The only race that was available during the weekend I was there was the Miles of Music 5K in Studio City.

The course itself was pretty interesting as it took place on CBS Studios’ Backlot. We were running in amongst set pieces that were houses and stores ranging from a sprawling large house, to downtown New York City locales. It was a smaller race too, which was nice since it meant the packs of people weren’t too difficult to get around.

But honestly… all of the interesting points end there as this was a truly terrible race that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

Miles of Music 5K Race
Miles of Music 5K Race

 

It started off poorly by them postponing the start time because people were still registering for the race at 8 am (??????). It wasn’t a long postponement, but you can see by my start time below it was 15 minutes after the expected 8 am start.

There were a few uphills which pissed me off, but that’s neither here nor there because the worst part?

This race wasn’t a 5K. It was barely even a 4K.

?????

Miles of Music 5K - Course Map
Miles of Music 5K – Course Map

My Garmin and my phone disagreed on the distance. My Garmin said 3.92 kilometers and my phone said 4.2 kilometers. I asked some other people once I’d finished what they’d recorded for distance and they told me 2.5 miles (which is 4.02k). I originally thought I’d run around the loop wrong (it was a double loop around the course above), but we were told to do it twice and the fact that my distance lined up with other participants indicates to me that it was just measured completely improperly.

Like what the hell happened you guys? It’s a 5K race – that is part of the title of your race – and you came up so short? Did no one measure this a few times? It’s not like you were shy 200 meters… you were missing an ENTIRE KILOMETER. People don’t like signing up for a race only to discover it’s not what they paid for. I’ve tweeted at them and e-mailed them asking what happened, but so far… no response.

I had originally thought I’d be putting out a personal best, but looking at my pace and knowing the course, I know now that there’s no chance I would’ve done so, so I guess I can’t be sad about that. But like… they e-mailed me my time results and it says I finished the race in 21:54. If that were actually accurate I’d be over the damn moon because it would mean I’ve shaved over 4 minutes off my personal best (which is an insane feat). But it’s not a real time because the distance wasn’t right.

What a raging disappointment. Would not recommend this race at all. I’d go so far to say that it’s a waste of time too because I run further in my training runs than I did for this race.

I’ll post my race stats below since I always do, but keep in mind this is all based on a 4K distance.

Race Results

  • Finish Time: 21:54
  • Pace: 5:35 per kilometer
  • Overall placement: 76/471
  • Age group placement (Female 31-40 years): 12/69
  • Gender placement (F): 29/277

It’s Not “Free” and I’m Definitely Not “Lucky”

Miscellaneous

I can’t tell you the number of times I have started to write out a Twitter rant on this topic and just killed it because there was never enough space to put all of my thoughts. So I figured a full fledged blog post would be worth it, since I feel like it needs to be said.

“Wow, look at all of this makeup you get for FREE!”

“You’re sooooo lucky!”

“People just send you all this makeup stuff because you have a blog?? You didn’t have to pay for it??”

“I wish I could get all of this stuff for free! You’re so lucky!”

I can’t tell you the number of times I hear this in a given week. Perhaps a bit less so now because I’m quite aggressive when I correct people on their wording choice, but man is it ever grating. People don’t necessarily mean it maliciously of course, because to them it IS free product and therefore I am lucky to receive it.

But let’s be clear – PR sample are only free in the sense that I did not have to shell out money for them. Instead, I have to use a different type of currency to prove my worth. I have to show brands that I take clear pictures. That I have enough followers/readers. That my face is done up enough (as is my hair!) to be considered attractive. That I write and edit concisely and have a voice that people want to read (or, for YouTube, that I speak well and have basic editing skills).

I have to be on the top of my game (or as close as I can get while maintaining a full time job outside of the beauty industry), which means compensating for the fact that I am not someone who has a million subscribers. I have to put out more work, more regularly than those who can rely on their sub numbers as an indication of their level of influence. (Which isn’t to say that those who have a high level of reach don’t work for it… but it CAN be said that those that reach that level can coast for a little bit without any real ramifications.)

So no, I’m not lucky. I *made* my own luck. I found the PR person and I e-mailed them. I’ve often had to reach out upwards of 10+ times just to get their attention. My record so far to date, was e-mailing a brand I love 23 times before they finally paid attention to me and man does that EVER chip away at your sense of self-respect! I had to show these brands that I was worth paying attention to: I draw attention to how often I post, the quality of my work, how much impact I have and how I can be of value to THEM. And then they send me “free” products. But make no mistake, it took a lot of effort in order to get there and I wasn’t receiving anything until I was a year into blogging.

And then, once you get the “free” product, you have to post about it within a reasonable timeframe. No brand wants to send you product and then have you post about it six months later (sure, it happens, but it should never ever be the norm). They want it up, and they want it up yesterday. So the cycle of proving my worth begins again. I have to photograph the pristine products on a pretty backdrop, then begin testing the product for a reasonable amount of time (which, depending on the product, can range anywhere from a few days to weeks). Then comes the editing of the photos – cutting them down to fit in a browser with a reasonable load time, reducing the file size, fixing the colour to make sure it’s accurate, etc. And finally, when all of that is said and done, I have to sit down and write a bare minimum of 300 words on why you should (or should not!) buy the product. At this point, for a typical blog post… including all of the time spent contacting the person, receiving and photographing the product,  testing and editing and writing? You’re probably looking at a minimum spend of 2 hours (3-4 is far more realistic, even moreso if we’re discussing videos).  And on top of that we have to tweet out our content (some people schedule it, although I don’t) via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and whatever else we have access to so that we can try to snag a viewer’s attention.

Air dryed hair (while twisting occasionally) using the Sea Spray

Plus of course, alongside our time investment, we also have to have a decent amount on equipment. Although many bloggers can (and do!) get away with gorgeous pictures from their phones, most of us invest in DSLRs which will run you anywhere from $600 (which was the cost of my starting camera) to a LOT higher ($1700 is what I shelled out for my current one). Then there’s lighting needed for videos because no one wants to watch you sit in the dark (my 18″ ring light was around $400, but you can get them for far cheaper). Then there’s the microphone for audio recording ($300) and the light stands (~$35 each), tripods (~$50 each) and backdrops (~$20 each) you need as well for video filming. On TOP of all of that? You have to stay relatively current with your makeup purchases because people are always searching for the latest thing online and old product reviews don’t always cut it for incoming traffic. So on top of the time spend, the money invested into your setup and products also adds up!

This may sound like I’m complaining – I can’t stress to you enough that I most *definitely* am not. I wouldn’t be doing this for 4+ years if I didn’t love it! I love the art of it all and I couldn’t be happier honestly – I love the friends it has made me. I love the brand connections I have now (after years of trying, mind you). I love that I get to meet new people and try out new products all the time as it continually fuels my passion for this industry.

But… I’m not lucky and it’s not free. It’s an exchange of value and I just happen to be using a different type of currency – my time.

I spend my time as money and I MAKE my own luck. None of this comes for free and I’m no different than anyone else out there. You too can do what I do and have all of the “free” stuff as well. You have to commit to it, and put in the long hours and yes, spend a ton of your own money as well, but if you love it like I do, it is so, so worth it in the long run.

Let me know your thoughts! I hang out with a lot of bloggers and YouTubers and we all have the same general feeling as what I’ve said above, but I want to get your feedback on it too! Did you realize how much time it takes to test and review products? Or how much equipment is required? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

If you’re curious about how to go about acquiring PR samples please check out this post I created last year.