Welcome back to another week! This weekend was pretty fun and very festive.
A few friends had asked if we wanted to do the Ugly Sweater Run in Philadelphia. We had planned on being down there this weekend anyway so we decided to sign up. It was only about $38 for the race and you got a hat plus a free beer (if over 21) after.
I used to have some ugly sweater gems back in the day, but alas those were tossed years ago. Now ugly sweaters are making a comeback aka getting expensive! People are selling old sweaters for a pretty penny or making new ugly sweaters and selling them for a crazy amount. I refused to pay $50 for a sweater to wear once during a run. Cheryl and I decided to check the stores to see what they had. We came across some great sweaters in the men’s section of Kohl’s. They were $10 each and we could not beat the price!
Since the sweaters were so cheap we knew that a lot of other people would probably be wearing the same ones. I wanted to make sure ours were still unique and ugly. I pride myself on being pretty crafty, so I decided to spruce them up a little.
I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and found an awesome bag of cotton puff balls in all Christmas colors! I bought those on Thursday and set to work…with wine of course.
It took me about an hour and a half per shirt. It took a little bit of trial and error at first to see how to organize all the puffs into a pattern, but soon I was flying through.
My original plan was to make the glasses and scarves defined with the puffs, but the glasses were too small. I decided to add a red nose to the reindeer and enhance the scarf. For the snowman I enhanced the scarf and the ribbon on the hat. I had a few “glittery” white and silver ones in the bag, so I used those to make some snowflakes pop. All in all I think they came out pretty great!
The race was in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia by the Please Touch Museum. Packet pickup was only until 7:00pm on Friday and since we were going down after work at 5:00pm we knew we weren’t going to make it. Instead we woke up early and got to the race to get them before.
The parking was a little better than the Lemon Run we had done there a few weeks ago. Also the packet pickup was pretty painless. The race wasn’t certified or being timed…it was a “fun run.” The bib numbers were annoying because I didn’t want to cover up my sweater! Most people put it on the side or on their back. The bibs were also pretty flimsy. My beer ticket fell off right away so I put it in my running belt so I wouldn’t loose it. We met up with a few friends before the race and then headed to the start.
The start was a mess. We didn’t even get toward the front until almost 8:20. They were sending people off in waves very far apart. Finally we were off, but most people were jogging or walking so I did a lot of bobbing and weaving. I ran ahead because I have been working on faster paces in slower races. I realized the course was a little different than the Lemon Run (it started on a side street) and after about 10 minutes I realized there was no way this was going to be a 5K because it ended in the same place.
I finished in 24 minutes. The course was only 2.56 miles which was a bummer, but whatever. I felt bad for all these people being all excited that they had finished their first 5K.
After I met up with our friend Matt and we got our ID’s checked and headed to get our free beer. I had finished pretty fast so the crowd in the beer tent was small when we got there and there was no line. Once Cheryl and Cindy finished the line was a lot longer, but still moved pretty fast. I got the Sam Adams Winter Lager. It’s nice to drink early, but not feel like a degenerate because other people are too!
People kept handing us their beer tickets over the fence, so we decided to get one more each. I mean free beer! We also met up with Jill and her college friends.
It eventually started to get really cold so we headed home. The race idea was fun. I love the hats we got and it was so cool to see all the other sweaters people had. We did see a bunch of the ones Cheryl and I had on, but none as unique!
Are you doing a holiday themed run this year?
The Simple Things 