Firefly

I have another race to document. This isn't the last, so if you think these are boring, come back another time.

On June 4th, my mom, Matt, and I ran in a night race. It was a 5K or 10K at 9pm, so you were supposed to wear glow sticks or anything that would be good in the dark. On the website, it said that for the 10K, you had to finish the first 5K (the first of two loops) in 30 minutes. I emailed them and asked if that was strictly enforced because I run closer to an 11 minute mile. The person wrote back and said that it was strictly enforced until last week because they were approved for a new route and that we would have two full hours to finish. I signed us up. The website continued to say that you needed to finish the first half in 30 minutes, so I asked them again on their facebook page. Again, they said the time limit had been lifted. 

After all day of working on costumes (mainly Matt's), we got to the race. We should've gotten there earlier, but it was an hour away and we had to carbo load (ha) at Ihop and pick up Beck's babysitter, etc. We looked for the end of the line to get our bibs, but we couldn't find the end. We kept walking, walking, walking, and walking! It was crazy long. We became friends with the people in front of us, and we weren't sure we'd be able to run. We definitely wouldn't start on time, but that's ok. Around six or seven people asked Matt if they could take a picture with him. About 45 minutes later, we finally got our bibs and some velcro things that had blinky lights on them that we could put on our legs. 

We finally started the race, and we left my mom pretty much at the beginning. It was so packed with people that we had to weave in and out for a long time. We saw a water station that was filled with people, so we didn't bother to stop. That ended up being the only water station during the whole 5K, so we had to wait until the 2nd half to stop there. People made comments the whole time about Matt's costume. A cop that was stopping traffic said, "That is a secure man." Everyone loved it. 

The 5K runners split off and went through their finish line, and we kept going. After about a mile, we should have seen the runners behind us, so we wondered if they closed the 2nd loop to the people behind us. Sure enough they did, and they didn't let my mom complete the 2nd half. That was very annoying since they assured me twice that there was no time limit. I know Matt and I didn't finish the first half in 30 minutes, so I don't know what was up with that.

When we finished, there was a costume contest. The prize was an iPad2, and I thought Matt had a good chance of winning. The judge looked at a few people and then gave the iPad to some kid and his dad, and they didn't even run with their costumes on. I was really annoyed that she didn't even look at everyone when it was such a nice prize.

The idea of the race was cool, but obviously some aspects were not too great. I'd recommend doing a night run if you have the chance! I'll do it again next year if I'm around since I'm sure they'll learn from their mistakes.

(Oh, then I was dying in the car on the way home and ran as fast as I could into the house and went to the bathroom. Running is FUN!)