Nocturnal Lands 5K

This race report is a little late, but now I have 2 to write back to back, so I am now FORCED to catch up!  Summer was a little slow, it feels like I haven't raced much at all.  In looking at my list, I've only really run 3 races since May and they were all just straight road races, 2 of which were 5Ks.  No wonder I was starting to get a little bored!

Race #12 was the Nocturnal Lands 5K, which I found out about and purchased through a  Groupon deal that hit my Facebook feed.  I don't usually do night races, but this one was cheap, looked like it would be fun AND I really needed to keep at least one race a month on my calendar so I wouldn't slack off.  My plan was to test out my new speedy legs, but after some setbacks in August and feeling a little off that night, I gave that up and decided to just have a good time.  I coerced my friend Nana into running it with me and we had absolutely NO expectations!  The gimmick for this race was DJs!  Party music! Neon lights! Club wear!  Nana and I put on our best day glo shirts, I bought some cheap light up stuff at WalMart and then we got out there and got silly.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the night:

  Contrary to some of the outfits we saw, most of the people there were just regular runners like us that were looking to have some fun.  The music was a lot of fun and there were crazy frenzies every time they threw out glow in the dark stuff into the crowd.  It was really well organized and they did a great job with the "hype" and using social media for the race.  It started after it got dark and we took off on a quick out and back from the ballpark - it started on the outfield and finished in the same spot.  I ran a half marathon from this same location in April and it's a nice little race location.  They were selling concessions this time, which was nice since we got there around dinner time and I was starving!  The french fries were delicious, FYI.  

  They had "DJ stations" on the course, about every .25 miles, where there was a DJ and a huge light station set up and you could stop and shake your booty for a while if you wanted.  That was fun, not just because of the music, but also because it's PITCH BLACK out there and the lights helped keep it so that I could see my feet a little bit.  

  My only complaint is that the race course was short.  It was supposed to be a 5K, but at the end of the run, I really only got like 2.5 miles in.  So if I HAD been going for a PR, that would have really pissed me off.  So I guess it was meant to be that I just took it easy and had fun.  

Coming up next: Savage Race review!