S-NO-W Fun Run
January 6, 2018
2:30 pm
5 mile run
This is the second year, Matt and I have completed this race. Of course, the real draw is the after-party and we completed that too! Our friends, Ben and Kyleen convinced to sign up again this year. My biggest goal this year was to not party as hard as last year and spoiler, I managed to accomplish that.
The race and party all takes place at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. So when you party too hard at the after-party, you only need to stumble back to your room. Our group of four headed up to Lake Geneva on Friday night after work . We made sure to purchase beer before dinner as you cannot purchase alcohol from a store after 9pm in Wisconsin. Dinner was the fish fry at Popeye's. It was very chilly Friday night so I needed a warm coffee to warm me up! We enjoyed the pool and a drink before calling it a night. No need to set the alarms for Saturday as the race starts well into the day at 2:30 pm.
We had a leisurely morning grabbing breakfast at Simple Cafe, a staple in Lake Geneva for us now - we've been there three times now and it doesn't disappoint. After breezily making our way through packet pickup, we relaxed in our hotel room before the race. Around 2pm, I got dressed in my layers - for my own reference: insulated tights and insulated running top with a long sleeve shirt underneath. The temperature was around 12 degrees and sunny with very little wind! Our group went out a did a short warm up jog to get the blood flowing in the legs.
The course changed slightly this year so instead of waiting to start outside, runners are able to wait inside the Forum banquet room till right before the start. Yay, warmth! Matt, Kyleen and I all started together with a loose plan to stay together for at least the early part of the race. The place leading out from the start was crowded so the start was fairly slow. As we made our way around the hotel buildings, the crowd stayed pretty much the same but as soon as we left the path for the open road, spacing improved quickly. After a nice, easy downhill section, I settled into a nice "comfortably hard" pace. There isn't too much to note from miles 2-4.5. The wind wasn't a factor at all this year which was great and I never felt too cold. Before this race, I'd maybe ran 10 miles in the whole month of December, so even running at an "easy pace" felt tough. Turns out not training, doesn't make you faster. Go figure.
Near the end of the race, you have to run back up the long hill which blerg. I walked some of that hill! After the big hill, the finish is a gradual downhill back around the hotel! It felt great to stop running!
Then the real fun begins! Once you cross the finish line, you go back inside to the schnapps buffet! Imagine every flavor of schnapps and then some and that's what it looks like. It's also very difficult to do a bunch of shots after you just ran hard -- not to mention I don't love shots in the first place.
Even though I was the slowest out of our group, I still managed to grab second place in my age division - 29 - one-year age groups with a 47:43. We celebrated with the free beer and free food. Last year, we made the mistake of going back to our room right after the race to shower and missed out on most of the food - not this time! The run also has raffle prizes but you have to be present to win, we had planned to stay till that but they announced it would be another 45 minutes till they started so we opted to go back and shower then. When we made it back 45 minutes later, raffle prizes were all ready finished, rats!! Next year we will learn our lesson for that too!
The rest of the night was mostly shenanigans. The sausage dance and hunk dance were incredibly raunchy and the costumes--oh boy. The theme this year was pajama party and Matt and I sported our very family-friendly pajamas as shown below - Holly was not included.
We also got to join in on a giant game of flippy cup and ended the night at the pool! Oh and we got pizza! Plus I wasn't hungover in the morning so I win!
Cost: $39.22Pros: great, debaucherous after-party with free food and drinks, gets the year started off with a fun raceCons: weather can be a crap-shoot since it is January, I am usually incredibly out-of-shape at this time of the year Would I do it again? Yup!
