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This past Saturday, Melissa and I, along with her husband and father-in-law, signed up for the Caribbean Christmas 5k in Carmel, Indiana to celebrate Melissa’s 25th birthday! The morning was chilly- it was 35 degrees, but with the 13 mph winds, the “feels like” temperature was 25 (it was still warmer than my “feels like 6″ jingle bell jog last year), and the wind felt biting!
We got to Carmel and ended up parking in a free lot by the Carmel Police Department, which was also close to the race start. There were just over 200 people running, so it wasn’t a big race by any means. We ran over to get our race packets, and didn’t have to wait in line. Race registration came with a hoodie which is definitely comfortable! To go with the theme, it has a snowman running across the front. They had some light up palm trees around registration, but it didn’t do much in helping it feel any bit “Caribbean”. We went back and sat in the car until about 20 minutes before the race start.
Before the race, they gave out a few little prizes for things, although I’m not sure how they decided who got something. We then headed over to the race start, and they ended up starting the race a few minutes early because it was cold. While that was certainly nice for all of us standing out there, I would’ve been annoyed if I got there right at the race start time and people were already gone. Philip and Melissa’s father in law lined up before us, and they were off! Melissa and I were running for fun, and decided to line up behind them.
It was fun to run through Carmel, especially along some of the spots that we ran passed during the Carmel Half when we met in April. Again, it was good to see us powering up hills that we had to walk up in April- progress!
About a mile and a half in I started to warm up a bit (I had worn the race sweatshirt during the race, which kept me nice and warm. I’ve never really worn a race shirt for the actual race, as it’s a big pet peeve of mine, but fun runs are different than races to me!), and the sun came out. We had a great time running, as it was totally a no pressure race for both of us. Neither of us had phones or garmins on us, so we had no idea how long we’d been running or what our pace was throughout the run.
They had a Santa in a cart drive by us twice in the first mile, but that was the only Christmas-y thing about this race. When we crossed the finish line, they had a race photographer there (we get the pictures for free, which is nice!), and a santa giving out race medals. They also had these really cheap looking lei things (sort of the dollar store variety), but we didn’t even bother grabbing them. We got a water bottle and chapstick, and headed off to our brunch, and then on to a full day of birthday plans (lasting until about 3 am)! They had a table full of fruit, donuts, granola bars, and other snacks over to the side, but people weren’t directing you there, and we missed it (I didn’t realize it was there until looking at the race pictures).
Finish Line- striking a kitten pose for Meg
The race itself felt pretty “meh”. It wasn’t organized well- they didn’t have runners start first and walkers follow behind, and there were no instructions for walkers to stay to the right side of the road. This felt frustrating. There was one water stop a little over part way through, with dixie cups filled with water. At least it was cold and refreshing! I’m not sure I would do another race with the organization, as I didn’t feel I remotely got my money’s worth from the experience. It was fun, however, to kick off Melissa’s birthday was a run, and get to have Meg there with us too!
The hoodie instead of white t-shirt is a nice touch, but doesn’t seem very Caribbean, or very Christmas themed.
Yeah. I love the hoodie situation (same as Hot Chocolate), but I am disappointed at the lack of Caribbean-ness about the race in general. I’m glad that they didn’t do hawaiian shirts though 🙂