Every year I do some sort of Halloween theme race. This year, I registered my mom and I for a new race called the Spooky Bluff 5K that is a few towns north of where I live.
I registered us back in July and was looking forward to creating costumes for this race but for almost 4 months I didn't bother to come up with anything.
I am ashamed to say that the night before the race, I put this together I really only needed a tank top, but the long sleeve shirt was the only orange top I had. Yes, I was way too hot.
When I originally signed up for the race back in July, it said the start time was at 7:00 pm. I got back on the race website on Friday night ( the night before the race) to look up the directions to the park and thank goodness I did because I noticed they posted a NEW start time. The new start time was now 6:30 pm! I thought that would work out just fine because I had a party to go to afterwards anyway.
The race took place at a really pretty recreational park. It was well manicured. It had some pavilions, a playground, several walking paths, and a disc golf course. It sort of reminded me of the park on the island I usually run on. Side Note: There was only one arch, (as seen behind us), it said "Finish" and it was where we started and finished. I figured that would be the case, however there was a couple there that were searching for the "start" line!
There were a lot of people at this race. It was a family fun run so there were a lot of parents and children too. Most were dressed up.
There were so many runners still waiting to pick up their packet at 6:30, that the race did not start on time. The announcer did come on the speaker and say we would start in just a few minutes. We all lined up at the start and after a few minutes (without any notice) runners just started running. There was no gun, no buzzer, no bell, noone even said GO. For this reason I didn't have my Garmin ready, so I just ran without it. This may be the first race that I didn't record with my Garmin.
I didn't really care about my time anyway as this race was going to be just for fun. My mom had been sick for the last 2 weeks so she had told me ahead of time that she was probably going to run/walk and I was totally okay with that.
We ran the first mile in the park. As we exited the park onto the road, it got dark. As we exited the park there were some inflatables set up to greet runners (we actually saw these as we were driving into the park complex and it was a nice touch to get runners excited.
I was actually surprised that there was a water stop during this 5K. I did not have to stop but I thought it was a nice touch. Besides a Disney race, I can't think of the last time I saw a water stop at a 5K and believe me, I've run some summer races where I wished they had a water stop!
The rest of the race was on the road. It was completely dark, no street lights, no porch lights from the near by homes. The only light came from my RunLite Gloves, and whatever lighting devices the runners had. There were also flares that were in the middle of the road every couple yards. They had plenty of volunteers there but I thought they should have had someone near the flares because I don't think runners were fully aware they were there when they wanted to pass people. I know I wanted to pass someone at one point but I could not get around them because there was a flare on one side and I would have stepped right into it. I heard some people say that the odor from the flares was really bother them. It didn't really bother me though.
I thought this race was closed to traffic but once we ran up the hill, there was an SUV that was heading towards us on the road. It was going slow, but still ! There wasn't even anyone there directing traffic. When we got to the turn around point, I wasn't even sure if it was where we turned around or not. It was just a cone. Again, no volunteer there.
The rest of the race was back down the road and to the park complex (we did not have to loop the park again), and to the finish line.
After crossing the finish line runners headed to the pavilion where there was lots of food and seasonal treats like pumpkin donuts, cider, and of course candy.
Overall, I thought it was a good little race. There were a few things that they could improve on for next year ( like the traffic pattern). As we were leaving the race, we had to drive on the road leading out of the park and runners were still running there. I suppose this really could not be helped because there seemed to be only one way in and one way out. We of course drove slow but they should probably have a volunteer there to monitor the traffic.
This was the first year for the Spooky Bluff 5K and I think the organization that put the race on really gave the runners a race worth the money. In addition to the cute Halloween themed medal, we got
nice long sleeve shirts, Halloween theme bibs, and a goody bag filled with treats, and that little black bag is filled with candy. We registered back in July and I believe it was only $20.
The weather was pretty darn perfect for running and it was a great way to spend a Saturday night! -M
Did you have any Halloween theme races planned for October? Any Halloween Parties?
We are linking up with the gals from
TOTR.