Nite Lites aka "The Bloody Tutu"

Confession time: I LOVE running at night. If it weren't so inconvenient I'd probably do most of my training runs at night. It's just soooo fun! So it's no surprise that I jump at the chance to run any & all night time races I can find. The inaugural Nite Lites run was the first race of it's kind in town here. It's one of those where you choose your start time based on your pace, because the goal was to finish at midnight. The catch (which set it apart from other races) was that you weren't allowed to have a watch or timing device of any kind on the course and there were no mile markers. Plus, this was a race where dressing up in costumes was encouraged. And you were required to make your own bib number. After conferring with both Shiloh & Cami I decided to make a tutu & wear a wig and deck myself out in lots of glow sticks. For the number I used fabric and outlined it with glow-in-the dark puff paint. (Something I didn't realize they still made!)

Well, that was the idea anyway. The result was more "Tinkerbell on acid" than I planned, partly because I made the tutu a little too big. The colors weren't coming out the way I wanted them too, so I kept adding more tulle. Unfortunately I underestimated the magnitude of the poof and it was much, much poofier than I'd anticipated.

What you can't see is that we cut open some glow sticks and sprinkled the "juice" all over the tutu, so the tutu had a faint glow for a while.

My husband was a little embarrassed to be seen with me. At least until we got there and he realized I was not the only one dressed up or even the only one in a tutu.

I chose to start the race at 10:55 since I've been running really solid & consistent 11 minute miles lately. It was really odd running without a watch. It was just kind of disorienting not to have any idea how far out I was, or how long I'd been running. On the flip side it was great to not stress so much over time and pace. It allowed me to really enjoy the run. And it was a gorgeous run. We started up in the foothills south of town and it made for spectacular views at the start of the race.

Of course there was one minor incident where I was caught up in looking at the big, bright moon and enjoying the stars and all of a sudden "BOOM!" I ate asphalt hard. I have no idea where I was, or how far I had left to go and as I had nothing to clean it up with I just kept going. It looks pretty hard core to have a bloody knee under a tutu doesn't it?

By the time I got to the finish line the party was in full swing. I actually finished a few minutes after midnight, so I was much slower than I expected to be. I was a little frustrated at first because the pace felt so comfortable to me so I couldn't figure out why I was so slow. Then I remembered I'd donated blood on Thursday so maybe that's what slowed me down a little.

Anyway, it wasn't all bad. They had LOTS of door prizes including a couple of new pairs of shoes from Saucony, who had a rep out there giving away free swag & doing fittings. I actually tried some on since I'm in the market for a new pair of running shoes so I was really hoping I'd win that prize. Instead I walked away with a gift card to Blue Hashi for sushi. And I got one of the costume prizes. The race director (who's a friend through running) pointed out my battle wounds to everyone and commented that if she had a prize for the bloodiest knees I'd have won that too.