In the past, I have signed up for two races in December in both registrations ended in a DNS (Did Not Start) due to a stomach bug one year and a chest cold the next year. Last year, I didn't even sign up for a race in December and this year, I wasn't planning on it, but since so many of my friends ended up running it and the whole idea sounded kinda fun, I did sign up for the Santa (Fun) Run yesterday.
Costumes were encouraged and so I ran my very first race in costume. Well, it was just the socks and the hat and the greenish running skirt could be seen as a little elfish - I tried! ;-)
The run started at 5.30pm and while I do quite a bunch of my runs in the evening, I am not a fan of actually racing in the evening. I basically spend all day sitting around waiting for it to get here.
Package pick-up was at the Kroc Center and the race was benefiting that organization. I run by this building all the time, but never knew what it was. I think with having the package pick-up there and also the post race activities, they did a great job of showing off this new facility to the active community. It's a really pretty gym/ rec center and of course it's very shiny and new.
The course was mostly in Falls Park and Cleveland Park and the Track Club did a great job with decorating the course with Christmas lights and little lanterns. It was really pretty. I only every now and then wished I had taken my head lamp with me, because there were a couple of dark spots on the trails and I actually saw a couple of people trip and fall because the trail does have some serious bumps every now and then.
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| Tri buddy and me before the race. |
While this run was mostly social and fun, I am still happy with my splits. I started out running with a friend for the first 2.5 miles and then went ahead and just tried to really push it for the rest of the way. I felt good and pretty strong up to 0.5 miles from the finish when I started to fade a little, but it was also mostly uphill at that point. Overall, I am very happy with the run and just in general happy to be able to spent the some of the evening with friends and be silly running in costumes while enjoying Christmas lights and music.
Oh and even though it was a fun run, coach said to negative split it... Mission completed! ;-)
i was wondering if you were gonna do this race. i didn't hear much about it until just last week! not that i was in shape to do it anyway... glad it was a good time! i was wondering what that building was too.
ReplyDeleteWhew - those are some impressive negative splits! Way to go!
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