The Reindeer Romp is one of the featured events of a yearly winter festival hosted by the City of Rock Hill called Christmasville. It is also the winter goal race for the area Girls on the Run. It's been a few years since I have run the race as I typically volunteer as a Course Marshall for the Girls on the Run races, but this year I was approached by a coach that needed a Run Buddy for one of her runners. I was happy to help!

This race is open to the public, but like I said, primarily Girls on the Run girls and is therefore untimed. Packet pick up takes place both in advance at the local Academy Sports 2 days prior and race day. The Start/Finish is in downtown Rock Hill which has plenty of free parking both in decks and on the street. The race director sends out lots of messages prior to race with great instructions and the meeting site is as organized as a place with 500+ pre-teen girls can be. There are colored flags indicating where each team is to meet and lots of music and fun events like hair coloring and costume contests pre-race). The event is really more focused on fun and it is not unusual to see participants wearing cute outfits and antlers (I always wear mine to it).

The course is a fairly easy one with a few minor hills and just one I'd consider a rough one which is right at the halfway point and features the water station at the top of it. Lots of on course support by local police and race volunteers and small crowds scattered throughout to cheer on the girls and a HUGE crowd cheering at the finish line. Every runner is given a medal and there is plenty of water and fruit immediately past the finish line. The girls are given goodie bags and there are several tents set up by local sponsors where you can load up on your typical race SWAG - pens, chapstick, key chains and so on.

Directly following the race, the Saturday Christmasville events start up which take place in the immediate area. I love Christmasville, so after saying good bye and awesome job to my run buddy, I popped back to the car, changed my sweaty shirt (left the antlers of course) and waited for a friend to finish up so we could hit the festival's pancake breakfast.