Running of the Elves 5K Holiday Race

On Saturday I ran the Running of the Elves 5k with my mom and my sister.  I have never run this race but my sister ran it last year and really enjoyed it so I was happy to participate!

   Like I had said the other day, I was not feeling well on race morning. I was fighting a sore throat and would have given anything to just stay in bed that morning. But you know FOMO.  Plus I already paid for it and I wanted to run it with my family.

It was pretty chilly that morning only in the 30's.  I know people may be thinking that isn’t too bad, but we haven’t had weather like that lately here so it felt cold. My Sister said that it would warm up fast and that we were probably over dressed (which we were), but we were trying to dress festive! 

Soon it was time to line up for the start. There was an announcement that had told us there were gift bags placed along the course that we were free to pick up.  I remember my Sister telling me about this last year and she said had she known which ones they were, she would have picked them up. Last year they were giving out RunLites. I was hoping that they would be giving them out this year because I don’t own a pair of those and thought it’d be nice to have.

One of the pretty church decorations along the route.

 After the National Anthem played we were off.  I surprised myself by keeping a pretty good pace considering I didn’t feel good.  I didn’t know what these bag would look like and thought there was one up ahead that was a draw string bag on the side of the curb, but then thought it was probably the volunteer’s bag that was directing the runners. The Volunteers who were directing the runners were in the Holiday spirit as well because they were dressed up as Elves and Santas!

 A little ways down the course I did end up seeing the bags. These were not gift bags though they were reusable bags that you would use as a grocery tote. As soon as I grabbed one I thought man this is pretty heavy maybe I should just put it back down, but I decided to keep it. Of course there was a pretty steep hill coming up. Between fighting with this bag and readjusting my Christmas hat and scarf I was having a heck of a time.

After conquering that hill I was glad to be on the other side of it. Just when I was rounding the corner I saw my Dad. I was so happy to see him so I could give him my bag. After I had given him my bag I realized that I had put my hat and scarf in that bag and was regretting not having it for the rest of the race.   The only part that was really cold on me was my face. I picked up some more speed after getting rid of all my baggage and I was soon on the home stretch. I saw the finish like about a half mile away and I thought that can’t be right. Why does the Finish Line always look so much closer than it really is? I tried to push anything I had left and crossed the Finish Line strong.

 I noticed on the clock that I was about 2 minutes slower than my average 5k time, but I was perfectly fine with that since I wasn’t feeling well and I stopped a few times to see what were in the goody bags along the course.  

My sister came in shortly after me and we discussed our race while waiting for our mom to come in. My sister said she was one minute slower this year, but she did get a gift bag which was her only goal for this race...haha.

We then met up with our dad and went to the awards ceremony.  Even with my slower time and my cold, I still pulled out a 1^st place age group award!  My mom even placed 1st in her age group too.  She was pleasantly surprised and I was happy for her.

Afterwards we all met back at my parent's house where we had brunch and then finally looked into our  gift bags from the race. Since my sister and I both gave our bags to our dad when we saw him along the course, we had no idea what was in them.  Oh, and something about these gift bags, they were not in plain view along the course. They were sort of hidden. Some of them were even across the street from the route we were running on, and most were hidden behind volunteers. A bit confusing for first time runners for sure.

In the gift bag I received an aluminum water bottle and a t-shirt from a race that I actually ran a few years ago.  My sister received the same water bottle, a fleece blanket and shirt from the Fall Day 10K (which she did not run) and a really soft shirt from the Monumental Mile from this year that she DID run. She was very pleased with this since she did not order a shirt for that race and was pleasantly surprised to see that particular shirt was a size small!

Hanging my shiny new AG award on the tree!

Even though I was feeling under the weather this morning, it was another great holiday activity to participate in. However, I end up resting up the rest of the evening.  -L

What do you like about your local holiday race?

We will be linking up with the gals from TOTR.