Fun race full of Christmas spirit! The 5K starts in White River State Park and runs along the White River Trail, a paved trail that's pretty much completely flat. It's one of my favorite places in the city to run. This race brings out a lot of walkers & first time racers, so there are a lot of people to pass if you don't start up front. But I can't really complain about that too much - anything that gets people out & active is a good thing.

Everyone got a super cute hoodie this year, plus a Santa hat & beard. If you preregistered early enough, the hoodies were dri-fit & men's/women's specific sizes. Otherwise, they were cotton & unisex, as the dri-fit sold out in November.

There were 3 aid stations along the course. The first had mini M&M's, the second had water & Gatorade, and the third had cookies. Each aid station was playing Christmas music, also. At the finish, there was water, more cookies, granola bars, bananas, and potato chips.

Since the race is on Sunday, street parking in downtown Indianapolis is free. The race website, however, directed people to park in a couple of nearby parking garages where they would have to pay, and did not mention at all that street parking at meters would be free. People who live in the burbs & don't come downtown often might not know that already.

The expo/packet pickup only had a couple of vendors, which was a little disappointing. I was hoping to check out the flip belts.

I would definitely do this race again. It's always a lot of fun!

This Thanksgiving Day race is a nice alternative to the larger, more well-known Thanksgiving race in the Indianapolis area. 2014 is the 3rd year for this race, and it has between 400-500 participants. The course is completely flat. Part of it is on the paved running trail on the YMCA grounds, and part of it on the streets in a adjoining neighborhood. There are no finisher's medals, but the shirts are Brooks long-sleeved tech shirts, and the logo makes them really cute. Parking is right on-site at the Y, free and plentiful. The pre-race announcements are held in the YMCA gym, so you don't have to wait outside in the cold. Afterwards, back in the gym, they award prizes and also draw for door prizes. There are lots of door prizes offered, so even slow runners or walkers have a chance to take home something really nice. See also my review on my blog at http://www.uglypaxtonsisters.blogspot.com/2014/12/gobble-gallop-2014-recap.html.

This race was really fun! The run goes through an apple orchard, pumpkin patch, and a corn maze. It was really muddy, but that was expected and added to the challenge/fun. All runners got a super cute long-sleeved Halloween shirt, plus a small pumpkin and a cup of cider. They also had free hot coffee at packet pick-up prior to the race - very welcome since it was such a cold morning. This race is definitely going on my list to do every year - it's now one of my favorites. Check out my full review at http://www.uglypaxtonsisters.blogspot.com/2014/10/teresas-weekend-great-pumpkin-run-and.html

My only complaint would be that walking from the parking lot to packet pick-up/start line and then back to the car afterwards put us right in the line of traffic. There needs to be a separate walkway/path roped off from the road cars are driving on, both for the safety of walkers and ease of drivers.

I picked this race because it fell on my birthday this year, and I really wanted to run a race to celebrate my birthday, and I thought a women-only event might be fun. Even though I had some IT-band issues and had to walk for part of the race, I still really enjoyed the whole experience. Really the only complaint I have about the race itself is that there weren't enough port-o-lets near the start. That's probably tough to do in downtown Indy, though.

The race starts in the center of downtown, on Monument Circle, and loops around through downtown before heading northwest towards Riverside Golf Course and Marian University, and then turning back to downtown, finishing along New York St. It's a good mix of urban and park and really shows off the city. I know they are changing the race to September instead of June next year, but I hope they keep the same course. There is one challenging hill just around mile 8 going around Major Taylor Velodrome. It's not super-steep, but it's a very long hill. Indiana is not as flat as you think it is.

The race shirt & medal are really nice, and the race management company was super-responsive to the participants - putting potential medal designs on Facebook for voting, etc. The race shirt is a tech-shirt in women's sizes, so I have worn it many times for running. We were handed our medals at the finish line by soldiers, which was pretty cool. We also received roses, and there was a finishers stage for photos, which were Free! Free photos are always one of my favorite race mementos. Course photos were not free, however.

I also participated in the training program prior to this race, where I made some great running friends! You can read more about that & my IT-band issues in my blog post at http://uglypaxtonsisters.blogspot.com/2014/06/older-wiser-lessons-learned-from-my.html.