#thegreatpumpkinrun Race Recap

It’s been a long time since I posted a race recap, but I simply had to share about The Great Pumpkin Run!

My training went to pot over the summer. It’s like I did the marathon and lost all momentum, although in my defense the marathon coincided with the arrival of summer which meant extreme heat and humidity and other things competing for my time. I’m happy to say that I’m back in the running groove though and this race was a total blast.

I almost didn’t run it. There are two races in our area put on by Sour Fish Events, The Hard Cider Run and The Great Pumpkin Run. They gave me free race entries in exchange for promotion on my blog. The Hard Cider Run earlier this year was at a local orchard and it rained the entire week leading up to the event. I heard from people that last year the same thing happened, and it was a muddy mess and they hated it. I am sad to say that I bailed and didn’t even go pick up my packet.

This time though I had a better attitude and even though it rained the day before and was forecasted to rain again, I decided to go ahead and run The Great Pumpkin Run. I had every intention of buying a cute Halloween running outfit, but ran out of time and ended up going to a pop up Halloween store. I bought an orange tutu and pumpkin headband (shown in the photo above) and figured that would have to be good enough. I drove out to Klackle Orchard on Friday afternoon to pick up my packet and was so excited to discover that the race hoodie would go perfectly with the tutu! I wondered if it would be too hot to run in, but I figured that it was only a 5K so I would go with fashion over function. It is a SUPER cute hoodie with a great tech material. Best race shirt I’ve ever received.

Since I was at the orchard I decided to go ahead and pick up some honeycrisp apples and a six pack of donuts for carb loading purposes.

On Saturday morning I woke up to rain. I decided I was going to have fun with it! I dug out my old trail shoes, put on my outfit, and headed out to Greenville (about 45 minutes northwest of where I live). The into packet said that we would be parking in fields that might get muddy if it rained, and the thought did cross my mind hmm, I wonder if I need to worry about my car getting stuck, but I pushed the thought aside and made the trek north. I listened to Halloween Party on Pandora to get myself in the mood and arrived about half an hour before the first wave was going to start. I had wanted to sign up for the first wave so I could get in and out and on with my day. We did indeed park in a field and on the way to the start line I realized that this was going to be a muddy run indeed.

I had so many compliments on my “outfit,” it was the best $13 I’ve ever spent! It stopped raining for the start, and we were off through the orchard. I decided to just have fun with it and didn’t even look at my Garmin. Dodging people, kids, mud puddles . . . I felt like a kid again. I ran hard and then walked through the puddles with several inches of mud. Then ran hard again. Twisting and turning through the apple-laden trees. I kept passing and being passed by Little Red Riding Hood, her Grandma and the Wolf. It started to drizzle again but I was so hot that I pushed up my sleeves and put the hood down. It was my first trail run and it was exhilarating!

At the finish line I got a medal, a pumpkin to take home, a glass of cider (not hard cider haha), and a bag of apples. I made my way to the parking lot and was grateful for my trail shoes when I overheard other runners complain about how wet their feet were and how water was squishing out of the top. I wondered how muddy the trail was going to be for subsequent waves because it was already getting pretty muddy in certain areas when we went through. The field where we were parked was also getting muddy, and I noticed a minivan having a hard time getting through one especially muddy spot. I was REALLY grateful that I chose the first wave when I left the parking lot and saw that traffic was backed up for more than 30 minutes.

Overall it was a super fun race. I will definitely do it again next year but will be sure to sign up for the first wave just in case it rains again.

Luckily the rain cleared and we had a beautiful day for another fun fall activity later in the evening: VanderFest!

VanderFest is a huge festival of (hard) cider hosted by VanderMill cider. There are several local breweries and you get to sample beers. It’s a festival atmosphere that the two couples who went with us described as having a “hippie” vibe.

They have great food vendors, too! We got the tacos.

No festival is complete without live music. And VanderFest even has LASERS! Much more impressive after dark but still a lot of fun.

Overall it was an awesome Saturday, and definitely worth sharing at the Weekly Wrap, a blog hop that I haven’t participated in for awhile. I’m glad to be back though!

How was your weekend?