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.
Along the course, hot chocolate was served and Sirrah was almost eaten by a reindeer. A normal winter race hazard, for sure.

Cheery tree near the finish line! We stopped Jeremy as he was sprinting towards the end for this photo op
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!
* Just Keep Racing means no offense to your grandma or her sweaters. We love grandmas. And sweaters.