The Ugly Sweater Run – 5k
December 20, 2014
Citi Field, Queens
Benefits Save the Children
I love this time of year. People are cheery, the city is decorated in festive blinking lights, and snow seems magical instead of wet, cold blobs from my personal hell. I also love cliché holiday activities like seeing the Rockefeller Center tree, hanging up holly to sneak in extra kisses, and building gingerbread houses. This year I wanted to step up my game, and what better way than a giant ugly sweater party that mixes fitness and fun!?! My boyfriend, Jeremy, is not a fan of running. Ever since I tricked him into running the Queens 10k, he is weary of any race I suggest so I had to really sell the Ugly Sweater 5k. I decided we were going to be super corny and pick out each others ugly sweater. I scoured the internet for the perfect ugly sweater and decided on a more clever than ugly Santa’s Candy Cane Throne sweater, a play on the iron throne from Game of Thrones. Jeremy took the ugly sweater search seriously and found a sweater that rendered several people speechless from it’s awesomeness: teddy bears carrying Santa through the snow complete with a Santa printed turtleneck. It was something from the moth-bally depths of your grandma’s holiday sweater collection*. I was proud of his commitment to finding the ugliest sweater on the internet.
Ugly Sweater love!
View of Santa from the 7 train
Candy Cane Corral. Check out that guy’s onesie!
Mrs. Met giving hi-fives to runners at the start line
Nice reindeer
Along the course, hot chocolate was served and Sirrah was almost eaten by a reindeer. A normal winter race hazard, for sure.
Hungry Reindeer trying to eat Sirrah
Cheery tree near the finish line! We stopped Jeremy as he was sprinting towards the end for this photo op
Mr. & Mrs. Met!!!
Race Stats:
Race Price: 4, $50, $40 with a Living Social deal
Race Organization: 3, No bag check, it would have been nice to check a coat since it was freezing out
Level of Communication: 5, clear emails telling you where to be and when. Not excessive like some races that I am still receiving emails for
Race Course: 2 This was the weirdest course I have ever run. In order to get 3.1 miles, the course zig-zagged all over the parking lot.
Swag: 3 drawstring bag, knit Hat, mustache tattoo
T-shirt: 4 No T-shirt but we got a warm knit hat! Because of how cold it was, we preferred the hat over a t-shirt
Yay warm hat & cold beer. Beer can became too cold to hold and was promptly passed off after this picture was taken.
Medal: N/A No medal, but do you really need one for a 5k as fun at this?
Post Race Swag: 4 Does beer count?
Spectator Support: 5 we gave a lot of credit to those who stood out in the cold all the way out at Citi Field to cheer. Thanks for the hi-fives!
Overall Score: 4, we may make this a yearly tradition!
Happy Holidays!!
* Just Keep Racing means no offense to your grandma or her sweaters. We love grandmas. And sweaters.
