In preparation for my 40 races in my 40th year, I decided to do a prologue, and the Glow-in-the-Dark 5K Dance Party seemed like the perfect event! My dear friend and long time training buddy decided she would run it with me however she was limping prior to the race from a recent fall. We have both had three surgeries in the last two years and haven't run much since so we are quite the duo.
Dressed in black, we arrived at the race with plenty of time to get our numbers and our glow on. My friend was in no shape to run but she remained loyal, got a bag of ice and waited at the finish. Based on the crowd, I don't think middle aged mommas were the target demographic but I was excited to be there, a night on the town of sorts. When it was time for the race to start, we all lined up in a corral and waited. I was decked out in glow-in-the-dark necklaces and ready to run. The start time came and went and we were still waiting in the corral, a lot of dancing, loud boom boom music and wave action but no sign of a start. Little did I know, despite the posted start time we were waiting for the sun to go down. Seriously...this was two days after the summer solstice and one of the longest days of the year! Between the loud music and late night start, I was trying to remain cool and blend in with the crowd but soon realized that at the end of the day, I would prefer to be winding down for the night than gearing up. The race finally started in waves and I was off. Since it was dark, I wasn't sure the exact course but soon discovered that we were snaking our way through the parking lot, through more corrals, much like a line at Disney World. We went around the surrounding streets of the Braves stadium and through more corrals in another parking lot to the finish line where there was a big glow-in-the-dark dance party.
This event was clearly more social than sport but was a fun and unique prologue for my year of races. One thing I learned for sure is that this mom prefers to run in the morning on fresh legs that haven't been chasing children all day. Night or day, trail or road, I can't wait to start my first of 40 in August.
