Fall Color 5K

We ran this on Sunday and had a great time. Super well organized. Beautiful! One more week of leaves changing would’ve been ideal, but the weather, maybe not.
Free admission with the price of your run ticket, so we enjoyed our time there and lunch after. There were handwarmers, free bagels, water stations and bananas at the end.
We will be running again next year with our kids, just as we did this year (2.5 & 8mo).

Great walk this morning! It was very well organized and the path was amazing.
I did the Hot Chocolate 5K last year and was very disappointed with the size of the crowd and the disorganization. I know it’s city vs. burb, but I will never do another ‘race’ in the city after experiencing the sheer joy of the Color Walk.
I’m making this an annual affair, for sure! It was AWESOME!

This is what a 5k is all about. And to do it at Morton Arboretum in the fall? You couldn’t ask for anything more perfect. The course is gorgeous. What a fantastic distraction because, and let’s face it, while you run it gets a litle monotonous. But with that scenery it went by too fast. Additionally, the voulunteers were helpful and wonderfully friendly. Packet pick up that morning was a breeze (all you had to do was look up to see which line to stand in — not too hard). Good course support considering it was only a 5k and the recovery food was adequate. Then you get to kick around the arboretum as long as you want. It was an absolutely AWESOME way to spend a Sunday! They have a 10k in the spring which is equally as wonderful. Sign up! You’ll love it!

2011 was another great year. The trail is just as gorgeous as ever and parking was a breeze. I showed up 40 minutes early, parked, picked up my packet and got to racing.
TMI, but I made the mistake of eating really spicy Indian food the night before and got sick. I was so thankful for the Porta Potty at the ½ mile mark. Wish there had been more along the trail or at least one near the finish line. They had ample toilets at the end of the event area, but when I went to use them I felt little desire to walk all the way back to the festivities. Their toilets were still in better condition than most race events’.
So why the star downgrade? A couple reasons — Packet pick up was organized alphabetically, but from right to left instead of left to right. I got in line where I thought A might be, but it turned out I was over by Z and had to get back in line on the other side. This annoyance was offset by the chuckle I got from the handwritten MEDIAM on one of the shirt boxes. But the real reason I’m a little pouty today? I ordered (and paid for) a Medium shirt. Medium was written in my registration and on my bib. The woman checking me off even told the guy grabbing the shirts that I needed a «Mediam.» So you can imagine my disappointment as I pull out my much anticipated Zorrel running shirt and discover it’s an XL.