Hi everyone! I’d like to thank you all for signing up for my Health and Fitness Hop Giveaway! Your responses to my Christmas list were awesome and I can’t wait for one of you to win that Brooks headband! If you didn’t sign up for the giveaway yet, go here and click on the rafflecopter link! Good luck!
Anyways, I had a fabulous Christmasy weekend here in Philly! On Saturday my husband and I ran the Ugly Sweater Run! If you’ve never heard of it, it’s basically a big ugly sweater party with 3.1 miles in the middle of it. I’m obsessed with both Christmas and running, so this race was a dream come true for me! Last weekend we went out to look for ugly sweaters at Goodwill, but couldn’t find any. Luckily I always have a plan B: Walmart. I bought an $8 moisture wicking green shirt, some red sweater print tights, sparkly felt, and $0.97 worth of tinsel garland. On Friday night I busted out my hot glue gun and the Christmas music and created 2 of the ugliest running outfits ever.
This is what Christmas craftiness looks like
On Saturday we woke up early and make the short drive over to Fairmount Park. This is probably the closest race I’ve ever ran and I was excited about getting to sleep in a bit! Although the race started at 8:00 which seemed a bit extreme. Packet pickup was a bit confusing since it seemed like there were random lines everywhere, but the lines moved really fast and the whole registration process was electronic! They scanned the registration email from my phone using their iPad and we were all set! And I was excited about our adorable Ugly Sweater Run knit hats! Totally wearing this again.
The area in front of the Please Touch Museum was covered in blow up Christmas decorations, food trucks, and a post-race beer area. The speakers were playing loud techno Christmas music which was hilarious, and everyone was dressed up in amazingly ugly costumes! But I thought ours were the best!
Just hanging out with my BFF, Santa
Andrew has only done one 5k before, and he wasn’t able to run the whole thing. So this time, he trained hard to make sure that he could run without stopping. We were both excited to run this race together and not have to worry about timing (the race was untimed). Andrew’s sister and her boyfriend ran as well, so it ended up being an ugly sweater party on the course!
Waiting for the race to start!
The race course was awesome – super flat, with random blow up Christmas decorations at each mile. At the first mile there was even a snow machine! At the halfway point there was water and hot chocolate, but we had a goal to run without stopping so we skipped the drinks. At the end, both Andrew and I were feeling really good! We were going at a much slower pace than I would usually race at, and it felt so good to just jog along talking to some of my favorite people and looking for the ugliest ugly sweater. I wanted to keep going for miles and miles, but the finish line eventually popped up. I was so proud of Andrew for finishing the whole thing, although I know it wasn’t a full 3.1 (many said it was 2.6). But who cares? We ran for a half hour while wearing amazingly ugly Christmas outfits with thousands of other Christmas enthusiasts, so it was a good day! I would definitely run this race again and would recommend it to anyone looking for a super Christmasy running event!
The Good:
- Fun race perks (hot chocolate, 2 post-race beers, and a knit hat)
- Perfect race to do with your non-runner friends and family – or as a first attempt at a 5k!
- Super family friendly (I saw kids running it in their Christmas PJs, and older women walking it in some really ugly sweaters! There were even dogs in ugly sweaters!)
- It was the most festive race I’d ever seen. In fact, I’ve never seen that much Christmas love in one place before!
- Tons of fun picture opportunities
- Low pressure “race” with no timing!
The Not So Good:
- Kind of difficult to figure out packet pickup at first
- No water at the finish line, but there was a really long hot chocolate line and an even bigger beer line
- Early start (but worth getting up early for, so I can’t really complain!)
- If you’re looking for a serious race to bust out your 6 minute miles at, this is not the one for you. It’s hard to enjoy all the ugly sweaters around you when you’re going that fast.
Back at home, hanging out with my twin AKA my Christmas tree
Have you ever run an Ugly Sweater or Christmas themed race?
Mom in the Mtns 
Love it! Next time? Next time we are going to exchange phone numbers and actually MEET UP.
Yes we are!!! I seriously want to travel around the east coast doing this race every weekend, that’s how much I loved it. I’m kind of obsessed with Christmas in case you couldn’t tell 🙂
I was at that race! You’re right it was a ton of fun, but definitely not a serious run at all. The packet pickup was crazy, I agree. There was no way I was driving all the way to King of Prussia to pick it up though. I thought that was crazy! I wore my hat on a run Sunday! 🙂
No way! I can’t believe everyone was there and I didn’t get to meet you all! I loved the race and seriously plan on doing it next year too!
I love your costume! Seriously, so adorable and funny.
No ugly sweater runs here. No sweaters here, period. Just sweating. 😉
Thanks! I was pretty upset at first when I couldn’t find a sweater, but I’m really happy with how our outfits turned out! And boo to sweating. I hate hot weather, I don’t know how you do it!