Superhero 5K Race Recap

Last weekend I participated in a Superhero 5K race to benefit one of the local Emergency squads. Linda had mentioned the race to me a while back, and I told her I would love to run!

Since this was a themed race, there were going to be awards for the best costumes in four categories: Superheroes, Sidekicks, Villains, and Evil Minions. I decided this would be a great time to think about what I would want to run as for the Avenger's Half in November, and maybe use a costume twice.

Ultimately, I decided to dress as Wonder Woman, and I made a costume out of things I had laying around (except the tulle for my tutu).

(My costume: this picture came out weird for some reason)

I took a red tank that I had and cut yellow tape I had (left over from my Donald Duck costume from the Enchanted 10K) to make the W. Then I made the tutu with royal blue tulle I bought at Joann's. I used a scrapbook punch to punch out stars and I hot glued them to the tutu. It was pretty simple to put together, although I will say, the most time consuming part of the costume was hot gluing all the stars to the tutu.

Saturday morning rolled around, and Nita met me at my place and we drove to the race together. The race was scheduled for nine, the sun was out and it was heating up fast! Nita and I ran down to grab our race bibs and shirts. Unfortunately, they misspelled my name on my bib (not my mistake, since I used my Active account), so I had to get that fixed. The race volunteer handed me my bib, race shirt and "swag bag." Surprisingly, for an inaugural event, the "swag bag" was really nice!

(Race Swag Bag: T-shirt, pens, hand sanitizer, koozie and Advil)

Nita and I ran our stuff back to my car, and we ran into Linda on the way and told her we'd be right back. Once we got back to the track it was almost time to start. So Nita, Linda and I quickly took a few "before" pictures, since we knew we'd be a sweaty mess after the race.

 (Violet Incredible and Wonder Woman)

(Linda and me)

By the time the race started I swear it had to be close to 80 degrees. The race started at the local high school, and made a loop down to the middle school and back. I had my watch set for 1:1 intervals, and figured I'd just do the best I could against the heat.

About half a mile into the race we ran down a gradual hill, and I couldn't help but think about how awful that was going to feel on the way back to the finish. About a mile into the race, I was DYING. It was getting even warmer out, and there was no breeze. I finally hit the halfway point of the race and made it to the water stop (Thank goodness!) I had lost Nita earlier in the race when her sneaker came untied, so once I hit the water stop I decided to walk 3 intervals and start back up running again after 3 minutes to see if she could catch up.

I pushed on, and made it back to the gradual incline (oh, great). From what I remember I walked a majority of the hill because of how hot I was. I was sweating, but I swear, none of it was evaporating. I made it to the top of the hill and continued on with my 1:1 intervals. I finally made it back to the track where the race started, so all I had left was less than 300 meters. I ran that last little bit, and surprisingly finished in 35:53!

I met up with Linda, and we grabbed some water and fruit as we waited for Nita to finish. She wasn't too far behind me. We rested and attempted to cool down a bit. Once everyone had finished the race, they did the kids race which was a 450 meter dash. It was so cute to see the kids run around the track, especially in their costumes. All the kids received Frisbee's and coloring pages for finishing their race.

Next they did the costume contest. No one dressed up as an Evil minion. There was only one Sidekick (a cute little Robin), There were 2 Villains, and then a large amount of Superheroes. So we voted with cheers for the rest of the contest. Finally, after the costume contest, they presented the awards for the race. The top overall male and female finishers, and then top male and female finishers for age groups. Both Linda and her daughter were top finishers for their respective age groups! Each of them received a medal and a small gift bag. Nita and I hung around for just a short while after that and then decided to head out and refuel after the race.

Overall I really enjoyed this race, it was a nice loop, even will the hill. The race organizers mentioned as we were all getting ready to head out that they were going to hold the race again next year, during the same weekend in June, except they thought they would move the race to 8 am instead of 9. I think an earlier time will help, but there really is no telling what the weather will do here in upstate NY. My Wonder Woman costume worked out well, however, I think I'll still do something different for Avengers in November. Now I just need to think of something...

QOTD: What superhero would you dress up as for this race (or Avengers if you're running the half)?