Of all the holiday festivities, one of the events that I was most looking forward to this year was the Ladies Night Out Run on December 15th. The run itself wasn’t anything special, just a 5k, but I made plans to do the event with two of my favorite running ladies – Jammer and Danbo. I’ve actually only ever done once run with Jammer, but she’s been my inspiration to continually push myself in running. We were roommates when she trained for and completed her first half, and she’s gone on to get a full (or two?) under her belt as well. On the other hand, Danbo and I have a few events together – Warrior Dash (which Jammer was actually at but we were in different heats), Hoppin Mad Mud Run and the Jingle Bell run. So I was excited to spend the day with these ladies, do an all-female run and top it off with wine and chocolate at the finish line.
We made plans to meet up for an early lunch in Newburyport – the quaint, sea-side town that the race was in. This was my first time in Newburyport, but I’ll definitely be going back. A charming, New England town that was full of character. I can only imagine how amazing this place would be in the summertime.
After our yummy lunch, we went to packet pick-up. I’ve raced with the production team that was putting on this event before (Devil’s Chase in 2011), but this was the first time for this exact race, so I had no expectations. The check-in process was simple enough, but was a bit bummed to find out that it was not a timed race. However, I was cheered up by the fact that I had registered earlier enough to get one of the promotional windbreakers (all three of us had – yay!).
Once we got our numbers & jackets, we walked backed to where we were parked to get changed into our running gear. Smart idea since we didn’t want to be at lunch and walking around all day in spandex. But bad idea since I forgot my new insulated compression tights. The good news was that I had grabbed my capris just in case the tights were too compression-y, so capris for me (which turned out ok). But the second bummer – my inhaler was with my compression tights. Looks like it was going to be a mid-effort jog for me instead.
We headed back to the race start, and were lucky enough to get into the bathrooms before the lines got too insane. Then it was just about 15 minutes to kill before heading out to the starting line. The race started with a limo leading all the ladies down the first 1/2 block, and then we were off! Overall, it was a nice course. The only real downside was a long stretch on a busy road. By pure volume, the race took up one lane, but they definitely had not gotten road closures for us. But once we turned off that main road, the rest of the course was fantastic. (The the guys in suits and tuxs as course support was a nice bonus.)
At the finish line, every runner got a red carnation, wine glass and some chocolate before heading inside to the post-race celebration. We booked it to the booze, and were lucky enough to get in one line before it was too crazy. We ended up with some sparkling moscato, which is ok by me! We wandered the hall, sampling a few different treats they had (hellllllllllo chocolate fountain) and seeing if there was anything worth grabbing.
As more and more ladies were finishing, the hall was just getting insane. And the smell of sweat mixed with pizza and melting chocolate is really not great. After we finished our drinks & realized it would be impossible to try and get seconds, we decided to call it a day & head home. Overall, a really great event and I was excited to hear that B&S plan on doing more ladies-only runs in the same vibe. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for those!
[...] up – Ladies Night Out 5k in 5 [...]
[...] and I decided to fit in one hike before the holidays. Just about a week ago, while I was doing the Ladies Night Out run, he had hiked the Skyline Trail at Blue Hills and loved it. He was itchy to get back, and I was [...]