Trail of Lights 5k 2012 unexpected race report
I was so very pleased that Run Like the Wind would be the last race report I'd have to write for 2012! Then Jamie sent me mail asking how I'd feel about doing the Trail of Lights 5k. I said, "... Surprised?"
But he said it would just be a fun way to switch up a tempo run, so I signed up. Last time I did this race was in 2004, evidently.
This race report is just a thinly-veiled excuse to post all the pictures I took that night.
One of the tunnels in the Trail of Lights, before it's actually lit up
Matt and I lined up, surprised that it was starting at 6pm instead of the 6:30 we'd thought. Then we noticed everyone was very young. And that's how we very narrowly avoided kicking ass on the Kid's Fun Run. Oops.
About to kick a bunch of kids' asses
So then actually at 6:30, the race started. I had no idea what the course was, but it went over into Zilker on the road I've run 9 billion times in Texas Iron workouts (Jazzercise road). Which was good, because they alternated completely blinding construction-style spotlights and absolutely no light, meaning you were either blind from the light, or blind because you had no night vision in the pitch black due to the lights killing your night vision. And it was downhill. And most people were wearing the race shirt, which is black, so you couldn't see people until you almost ran them over. It was a bit of a mess.
(Also the race shirt is long-sleeved, and some people were wearing it OVER another shirt. And it was in the 70s. And I was dying just from my painfully festive socks, in a sleeveless shirt.)
Up that painful hill I've run 99 trillion times in Texas Iron workouts, and then finally into the Trail of Lights. Bulletpoint-style:
- I LOVE the tunnels in the ToL; they are absolutely the best part, and are worth the price of admission alone
- The wrapped trees are a close second
- The characters are pretty much wasted on me. I realize, though, that the kids love them, and this is mostly for kids
- The ToL is 99% characters
- There exist a huge number of really festive, upbeat, energetic Christmas songs; they played none of these. As I ran through, they played the saddest, slowest, most depressing, countryist version of Away in a Manger I've ever heard, and then Little Drummer Boy as performed by the Narcoleptic Thorazine Ensemble
That same tunnel from the first picture, lit up this time; so beautiful
Then out of the lights and back into the dark streets. I briefly really believed they were going to make us run up that huge hill on Stratford, which seemed really cruel on an untimed fun run with strollers and small children, but we turned left in time to avoid it. A little jaunt by that dark woody area where I peed during our warmup, and then onward and upward to the finish line!
With the warm and the socks and the effort, I was starting to get a little woozy out there, so I was glad to be almost done. Then I ran by Matt, which was weird, because he started behind me and intended to just run easy and I'd never seen him, but it turns out he felt great and snuck by me and kicked ass.
The most excellent picture Matt got of me heading to the finish line; I'm wearing a glownecklace in my hair
And then done!
It wasn't timed, and my Garmin says it was 2.99 miles, so who knows, but my main goal was to run as many sub-8s as possible, and every mile was sub-8, so I'm going to count it as a win. I won!
And then we took pictures of the tree and drank our first egg nog of the year over at Hill Country Running Company.
All festived up!
Overall, a fun time, if a little large and chaotic. And that's the only way I'll ever see the Trail of Lights, because crowds and traffic and parking do not bring out the Christmas spirit in most humans.
But he said it would just be a fun way to switch up a tempo run, so I signed up. Last time I did this race was in 2004, evidently.
This race report is just a thinly-veiled excuse to post all the pictures I took that night.
One of the tunnels in the Trail of Lights, before it's actually lit up
Matt and I lined up, surprised that it was starting at 6pm instead of the 6:30 we'd thought. Then we noticed everyone was very young. And that's how we very narrowly avoided kicking ass on the Kid's Fun Run. Oops.
About to kick a bunch of kids' asses
So then actually at 6:30, the race started. I had no idea what the course was, but it went over into Zilker on the road I've run 9 billion times in Texas Iron workouts (Jazzercise road). Which was good, because they alternated completely blinding construction-style spotlights and absolutely no light, meaning you were either blind from the light, or blind because you had no night vision in the pitch black due to the lights killing your night vision. And it was downhill. And most people were wearing the race shirt, which is black, so you couldn't see people until you almost ran them over. It was a bit of a mess.
(Also the race shirt is long-sleeved, and some people were wearing it OVER another shirt. And it was in the 70s. And I was dying just from my painfully festive socks, in a sleeveless shirt.)
Up that painful hill I've run 99 trillion times in Texas Iron workouts, and then finally into the Trail of Lights. Bulletpoint-style:
- I LOVE the tunnels in the ToL; they are absolutely the best part, and are worth the price of admission alone
- The wrapped trees are a close second
- The characters are pretty much wasted on me. I realize, though, that the kids love them, and this is mostly for kids
- The ToL is 99% characters
- There exist a huge number of really festive, upbeat, energetic Christmas songs; they played none of these. As I ran through, they played the saddest, slowest, most depressing, countryist version of Away in a Manger I've ever heard, and then Little Drummer Boy as performed by the Narcoleptic Thorazine Ensemble
That same tunnel from the first picture, lit up this time; so beautiful
Then out of the lights and back into the dark streets. I briefly really believed they were going to make us run up that huge hill on Stratford, which seemed really cruel on an untimed fun run with strollers and small children, but we turned left in time to avoid it. A little jaunt by that dark woody area where I peed during our warmup, and then onward and upward to the finish line!
With the warm and the socks and the effort, I was starting to get a little woozy out there, so I was glad to be almost done. Then I ran by Matt, which was weird, because he started behind me and intended to just run easy and I'd never seen him, but it turns out he felt great and snuck by me and kicked ass.
The most excellent picture Matt got of me heading to the finish line; I'm wearing a glownecklace in my hair
And then done!
It wasn't timed, and my Garmin says it was 2.99 miles, so who knows, but my main goal was to run as many sub-8s as possible, and every mile was sub-8, so I'm going to count it as a win. I won!
And then we took pictures of the tree and drank our first egg nog of the year over at Hill Country Running Company.
All festived up!
Overall, a fun time, if a little large and chaotic. And that's the only way I'll ever see the Trail of Lights, because crowds and traffic and parking do not bring out the Christmas spirit in most humans.