Review: Trick or Treat Run

It’s that time of the year my friends – Halloween. And the Trick or Treat Run was a great way to celebrate all things scary and a little creepy. And the charity of choice for this run – Breast Cancer Care – great stuff.

I didn’t know what to expect turning up to this. Human Race Events had given me a place – a big THANK YOU! I registered for the evening run starting at 5.30 pm. And it was in in Southwark Park so not too far for me to travel.

My idea going in to this was to see this as a 5k run rather than a race, and to enjoy. And enjoy I did!

 

The route

On the way…

Arriving at Surrey Quays, I ran into some folks with medals around their necks. Kids and grown-ups all dressed up.  This earlier option for the run was for 2.5 or 5k. So I asked them how it went. The kids told me they’d had a great time and one proudly showed me his medal.

I wandered along part of the route to see what was in store – through the haunted tent, past the zombies (though they were in hiding at that point) and past the witches coven, I arrived at the Event Village. Slowly the ghosts and fiends and pumpkin heads and ghoulies arrived. I felt somewhat underdressed.

 

Here I was with a little spare time so asked some lovely creatures for photos for this blog and they obliged (thanks folks!).

I managed to meet and say hello to Vicky and her mice (and a huge happy birthday to the twins)  – go check them out on Instagram. Vicky is an amazing runner and it’s fantastic to see her kids catching the running bug.

Becca, an ASICS FrontRunner, then messaged me to look out for her – she’d be covered in (fake) blood. This did not really help me find her – thankfully she spotted me! And a story about her journey on the tube – her makeup had made two children cry…oh dear!

We headed off to the warm-up to the tune of Thriller!

 

 

 

 

And some of the others joining in…

 

 

The Trick or Treat Run

We were all lined up and ready to go by 5.30. It was a staggered start. I was towards the back, surrounded by kids and parents. We went off.

This run was two laps. I’d run earlier in the day so wasn’t expecting much in the way of speed. In hindsight, this was very sensible on my part. Even running pretty slowly and starting on the last of the starts, I didn’t get lapped which did surprise me a little. I think people were taking their time and embracing the silliness.

Around the pumpkin patch, past the cemetery, through the skeleton zone then escaping the zombies, via the witches’ water station and through the haunted forest – it was dark by the time we finished. At the end there was an option for a trick or treat. And I went the trick option which consisted on sticking your hand into a bucket of green goo to find a token and then getting your medal. For us grown-ups, there was a shot of some green liquor on hand.

I caught up again with Vicky and her kids, and Becca. Everyone had had a great time.

There’s something lovely about doing a run with no time pressure. OK, so there was no chip timing and the course was a little short – my Garmin measured 2.9 miles; but we did get chased by zombies, had a choice of trick or treat, and got a fabulous glow in the dark medal for our efforts!

If you like dressing up and a bit of a scare, this one’s for you!

Happy running all!