We chose this as an easy, fun run in the midst of some long distance training. We were joined by a friend who'd never run a timed event before. We all had a great time, enjoying the "Elf" themed banners and aid stations.

There was plenty of parking in Kirkland relatively close to the start/finish. We paid the extra $5/person to pick up bibs the day of the event. Pickup was quick and easy. Instead of a race shirt, they had festive, warm toboggans, which was a fun twist on swag.

The race kicked off on time, in a few waves. For the segment along main roads, they only blocked off one lane of traffic, but between the lane and the sidewalk, the crowd could disperse reasonably well. Just take care with moving on/off the sidewalks. There's a long shallow hill that then turns onto a shorter but steeper hill. On the latter, we were restricted to the sidewalk only, so it got a bit more crowded and took more maneuvering around those walking up the hill. This segment was short though, and at the top of the hill, we moved to a rails-to-trails path for the next couple of miles. The trail was wide, flat, and very well-packed gravel (i.e., more like a road than a trail), which gave runners a chance to makes some moves as desired. There were a few nice views of Lake Washington from the trail. After a little time on the trail, we were then into a residential neighborhood with traffic blocked and well-controlled by volunteers and police officers before returning to a main road, again shared with traffic but only for a short segment. The finish line was positioned in the park and offered the chance for some good finish line photos of friends.

Adding to the festive flair, the course was marked in km instead of miles, with each km marked by an image for the associated verse in "The 12 Days of Christmas." One of the aid stations offered up candy canes, candy corn, packets of syrup, and candy (in the spirit of the movie Elf). One negative—no water at that station! Water was available at another stop along the way. The finisher medal was right in keeping with the rest of the them.