Silly Season for Running

I'm way behind in blogging.  I have a bunch of posts started and I need to get caught up!  
I call this time of year silly season!  There's Halloween runs, Turkey Trots, and Christmas themed runs where we dress up, act silly and run! 
My silly season started with one of my yearly favorites, the Headless Horseman 5K in Howell, MI. 
I wore my usual Halloween pumpkin shirt and some light up stuff

running pumpkin

 

I light up when it gets dark!

This was two weeks post Chicago Marathon; I had no goals other than to enjoy the unique course.  The race is a night race and is run in the dark. The course makes a loop through a park and runs along a lake shore then goes down the street and winds through a big cemetery and again along the lake shore.  I've never come close to placing in this race so I left soon after finishing since I had another race early the next morning.  I found out the following afternoon that I had placed in my age group.  Oh well!  I was surprised that I ran an 8:46 pace! 
The next morning I was a pacer for a 5K.  This was the Wicked Halloween Run.  I was a pumpkin again!  I wore the same thing as I did the night before.  I was going to be pacing the 10K as I did in their two previous races this year but at the last minute I was reassigned to the 5K.  I was told that there was a lot of requests to have pacers in the 5K as well as the 10K.  I was the 10 minute per mile pacer.  During the race I kept hearing people around me saying that the pacer is going too fast.  Sometimes they even said it to me.  I had my Garmin set to give me splits every quarter mile and I was always within a few seconds of 2:30.  I hit the first mile at 10:03 and the second at 10:06 so, if anything, I was a bit slow, not too fast.  I don't know if these people thought that they were running faster than 10 minute miles but I was right on pace.  During the last mile I caught up to a dude in a blue hairy suit of some kind.  He saw me behind him with my 10 min sign and sped up to stay ahead of me.  I soon caught up to him again and again he sped up to stay ahead of me.  I knew that he must be getting tired and I could so leave him in my dust but I couldn't do that since I was a pacer.  He started calling me the grim reaper.  Yep, the 10 minute pacer is the same as a grim reaper!  It rained during part of the race so I was wet and cold after finishing, my feet included.  I was glad that I had clothes and even dry shoes to change into.
So, that covers Halloween.  Next up was the Lightfest 8K, one of my favorite fun events each year.  I will finish that post soon.  

Halloween dress up and running

Tonight was one of my favorite fall fun races.  It's called the Headless Horseman 5K.  There is actually a dude in a headless costume riding a horse!  People dress up.  I wore my big orange jack-o-lantern tshirt and orange/black striped knee socks.  The race is at night, after dark, so I also wore light up bracelets.  They were giving out glow sticks so I pinned mine into my pony tail.  (they came on a string but I took the string off and used a safety pin to pin it to my scrunchie.)  I wore my running skirt since it wasn't that cold.  A lady took a picture of me and texted it to me but I never got it so I can't post a pic but I did have one last year and I wore the same this year.

Same race last year, same clothes this year

The race course goes though a park and along a lake and then back out of the park and down the street to a cemetery.  The run winds through the cemetery and along a lake, which was really cool because there was a big ole full moon right up above us!!  There is nearly a mile in the cemetery.  It was chilly but not too cold for running.  I did have to wear gloves and a headband but I wore my skirt.  After the race there was baggies of CANDY!!!  I had a mini Milky Way bar in mine  - my favorite!!!  There were also popcorn balls; I haven't had a popcorn ball in forever!  I thought I was just going to taste it with a few bites but later on after I got home, I got it out of my bag and finished it up!!
As I was walking back to my car (a few blocks) I realized that my foot never hurt at all, not even a twinge, while I was running the race and as I was walking to the car it wasn't hurting!!!!  I was sooooo happy!!  I had the biggest smile on my face, even though it was dark and no one could see it!!
KEY WEST, HERE I COME!!!!!!!

Runner Nerd
making a come back!!