So what do you do for a nighttime holiday race to make it really fun, especially if the race has a costume contest? Of course the answer is to create an Awesome costume! Jenny decided she wanted to go as an elf, but I wasn't sure I wanted to dress up. I finally decided a couple of weeks before the race that I wanted to go as a Christmas tree. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to make a costume. e were going on a cruise, we had my mother in town and we were going to spend a day with friends at Disney World, so I wasn't sure we could get it made. Jenny was confident that she could make the costume the night before the race, so we bought the supplies and on Friday night Jenny started putting the costume together. We made the basic shape and confirmed it fit.
On Saturday we ran the Say No to Drugs race (this will be detailed in another post) and then we went ot the packet pickup for the Santa race. Once the bib was on the costume we put lights, garland and ornaments on it and made the star topper and it looked awesome. Jenny did an awesome job. Now it was time to go to the race.
We got to the race on Honeymoon Island about 45 minutes before it started and it was already pitch black. We got our costumes on and lit up just so we could see enough to walk to the starting area. While waiting at the start we were watching for other costumed people, but we didn't see too many. I had people coming up to me to take photos of me and photos of me with them. We then had the costume contest judges come up to us looking for my bib number. Always a good sign!
We knew the course was going to be dark because it was only lit by luminaries so people were joking that they were just going to follow me! Jenny and I had already decided before the race that we were going to run for fun and not time so I would run with her the entire time. When the starting gun went off it was definitely anticlimactic but we started down the dark path. Thankfully runners were given glow necklaces because otherwise you could not see them and it would be really easy to run into someone and get hurt. Of course I was quite visible!
The run was fun and there were many volunteers helping to keep people on course. We finished in 42:33 so we ran somewhat slowly, but we had fun. After the race there was cookies, water and hot chocolate so we filled up on those while we waited. There apparently was some kind of mix up with the finisher medals and they were on there way. They finally announced the winners of the costume contest and I won! I won a designer beach bag, which was nice. I think Jenny should have won fer her costume too, but since she made mine she is the real winner anyway!
They finally showed up with the finisher medals at about 8:45 so we got our medals. They are actually hand decorated sand dollars. We have to decide if these are Christmas ornaments or if they are going on our medal rack. All in all it was a fun race. The organizers will need to make the course a little more lit because it was scary running where you can't see. I'm not quite sure how they can do this in the State Park though. We'll almost certainly run this again next year if it is available and I'll have an even better costume!
| mi | Pace (min/mi) | Elevation (ft) |
| 1 | 13:50 | -1 |
| 2 | 13:59 | 2 |
| 3 | 13:43 | -1 |
| 4 | 10:41 | -3 |
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