The Santa Hustle 5k in Chicago was a last minute addition to my recent trip to the Windy City. The race consists of about 8,000 Santa-clad runners, a cookie station, candy station, blasted Christmas tunes to get you dancing and plenty of awesome folks in the cheer section. The race was lined with giant holiday inflatables and the race ended with real reindeers at the finish line!
Also, to explain the above photo, that’s my handsome boyfriend and he runs much faster than I do- after we snapped this, I moved back to the 9:30 minute mile pace and did my best from there…but ended up slowing down to an average 11 minute mile pace with the cookie and candy stops!
It’s all good though- I had some cute kicks that got me some compliments wherever I wore them… I think every girl needs a pair of powerful red shoes that kick butt and are comfy! Thanks Therafit for being a part of my first holiday race ever, it completed my festive look and I love these shoes for events like this! I’ll have a review & giveaway of a pair of Therafit shoes live TOMORROW so check it out!
You know, as appealing as it is to do a fun run with cookie and candy stops- when you get down to brass tacks, attempting to eat a small cup of M&Ms and down a sugar cookie without water during a run, well, it gets interesting. During the candy station, there were M&M’s literally everywhere and I felt bad for whomever had to clean it up. I had a great time though and finished in about 30 minutes.
I’m going to take a second to air a major runner’s pet peeve: Now, I’m a slow runner, and at times I do have to pull over to the walk a bit. When I do so though, I actually GET OVER and try to be mindful of anyone going faster than myself. Why other people who need to walk decide to get in a big group in the middle of the path, I will never know.
Additionally, my biggest pet peeve (which happened at this race with 8,000 runners) is when people line up at the 9:30 or faster marker and have to WALK in the first mile. There is no way you can walk a mile in 9 minutes, and if you plan on walking the majority of the race, please do not get in that corral. I am not a fast runner, but I try to line up appropriately with the intention of finishing at that expected pace. I couldn’t believe how many people STARTED in my corral already walking! It was nuts! Anyhoo….
Despite my rantings, I had a great time at the Santa Hustle 5k- in the swag bag, you got a santa hat, beard, dry fit long sleeved tee, and some other goodies, so festive!
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
I loved seeing all the race photos you shared on Instagram this weekend – looked like so much fun! I love the idea of themed 5k’s but agree that it can be a bit to chaotic for a ‘real’ run. I only did one but I think I’ll sign up for others with the understanding that I won’t really be there to ‘race’, just to enjoy!
Ugh, yes! I am on the slow end of running (although getting faster – it’s kind of strange and exciting), and I hate, hate, hate being in a corral of people who run half a mile and then stop to walk in the middle of the road. I was in a 10k this summer and knew it was going to be a rough first few miles when I heard the people around me saying, “I’m going to try to make it to mile 1 and then walk from there.” I’m all for them being out there and having a great race experience, no matter how much they run or walk, but I wish the race organizers would separate corrals based on if someone intends to try to run the whole thing or not. Although now that I’m getting faster, I don’t think I’ll have those corral problems anymore.
I think you’re a swag bag addict! 🙂 It’s inspiring to follow you on Instagram because I’m typically in my pajamas when I see your running pics.
In addition, the blog loads extremely fast for me on Firefox https://tajrgkan.webs.com/apps/blog/show/20834881-aliexpress-malaysian-hair-reviews
Thank you for the description of the “candy” and “cookie” stops. My group is running the SH in Indianapolis this weekend (31 5K & 10 Half runners w/ 16 volunteers) and I had no idea what to tell my volunteers when they were assigned to the 2 “candy stops”?!?
“What’s that?”
“No idea – let’s Google it?”
“Oh, hey that’s cool. Sweet!!”
Thanks again,
Bill Vernon
Founder, Team Ninja
I love doing 5Ks when I travel. It’s a great way to spend time in the city I’m in.