Last Saturday, I did a 5K Run/Race in Pasadena called the “Awesome 80’s Run”.  I did the race with my friend, Monique, whom I’ve done a ton of races with.  I got up bright and early and carpooled with Mo to Pasadena. We live about an hour away.

Because I love a good theme, I had to get myself a little costume for the Awesome 80’s Run.  The first rule of costumes for races is that you have to be able to actually run in them. I’ve seen some great costumes, but about a half mile down the road, you start to notice discarded items like hats and butterfly wings that were not worn properly.

I wore my slime green Saucony Kinvara 3’s, knee highs with neon stripes, black Lululemon shorts, a pink Team Sparkle skirt, a tank top with an 80’s theme from Target, and a pink sparkle Bic Band in my hair.

I had Monique take a picture of me with this 80’s sign before the race. After the race, there was a huge line to pose in front of it.

After taking pictures with the sign, Monique find this umm guy in an interesting costume. He was so big, and goofy that we had to take a picture of him.  He kept saying that there were going to be 100’s of Facebook photos with him in them. Well dude, if you are going to dress like that, you better expect to be in pictures.

While having a pre-race dance party and waiting to start, I ran into Jen.  I knew Jen would love this theme. She had an 80’s themed Christmas card a few years back. It was awesome. Jen was totally rockin’ it!  We waited for what seemed like, FOREVER for the race to start. It was past 9am and getting warm, at almost 100 degrees outside. Not fun at all.

The race course was not closed down and it went around The Rose Bowl.  Obviously, on  a Saturday morning in Southern California on a Holiday Weekend, everyone is out and about enjoying the last rays of summer sunshine.  This was not good for the race course. I had to dodge walkers, joggers, people with dogs, and everything else that you could think of while running. Plus, just add in the heat and lack of water, which was a total fail. They had water cups at mile 1.5 but it was like a tiny shot glass of water, not enough for someone whom was running in this type of heat.

Because I was extremely thirsty and just wanted to be done, I started running faster at the last mile. I finished at 33:05 which was decent, but I knew that I could do better.  After I hit the finish line, I headed straight for the water table, where there was NO WATER.  Apparantly they had run out of water and more was coming. Once again, to run out of water at a race where it was sold out with FOUR THOUSAND (4,000) runners was not a good idea, just saying.

For once, I was smart and stashed some cash in the pocket of my shorts. I spotted a food truck nearby and bought myself a water. It was like the best water that I’ve ever had.  It was really sad because it looked like everyone was dying of thirst after the race, and there was no water. Serious FAIL!

I was able to find my friends via text message after they had finished running. They were totally pissed off about the water situation also. Monique and I took some more photos, and then we left. Luckily, we left in time because I heard that the traffic exiting the race was horrible and it took some people over an hour to get out. We headed for a fancy Denny’s breakfast, and some Dr. Pepper for me.

I would not recommend this race, just because of the company that organized it, Superhero Events.  They were totally disorganized.  I wish that they were more organized because it was a great theme. But seriously, no bananas, oranges or fruit at the end of the race plus no water, was a huge disappointment. There were some pretty nasty comments on the race Facebook page after the event, but of course, they were deleted.

The medal was a super cool one though shaped like a cassette tape with a pretty ribbon.  I took a picture of the medal on top of my Totally Awesome Team Sparkle skirt that I wore for the race.