Here Comes Santa... uh... what are you? Creepy Crawl 5k Race Recap

I signed up for this on a whim, because no other October race looked good. This one encouraged costumes and came with bling. What the heck!

It was in an area north of Jacksonville called Nocatee. Not being familiar with this area, I googled it. Wow, fancy.

I guess the race are was Davis Park

Aerial View of the water park

It took a little longer than usual to get there, since it's further away from most races I do, but I got there with time enough to get a really close spot. I was even able to pop into the Publix around the corner and use a real potty.

Davis Park past those trees

I found a nice spot in the back corner of the shopping center, across from the field where the race stuff was. There was another group of racers there in full-on pirate garb, putting me to shame! After I took a photo for them, they took one of me. I decided to reuse my ladybug costume from the Evergreen Cemetery race. I also reused my red pom-poms, and threw on some black knee socks (since it wasn't deathly hot). A month or so ago, I found a cute headband that had boppers, which I deconstructed and sewed onto a red visor. It didn't work very well.

My boppers look really stupid

I walked around the pre-race area for a bit, until we were instructed to go to the start line, which was like 1/2 mile away!

Lots of little kids and families - this is a tight community

When I got there, I took my typical Footsie and saw that I'd lost one of my pompoms! I was sad. I'd definitely gotten my $3 worth out of these things, but losing on is different than actively deciding to throw them away.

RIP, Pom Pom! You served me well

So, we all stood around, waiting for the stragglers to get there, and then listened to the race director give directions (they were bad directions, and seeing that there was never a course map put out, I had no idea where I was going!)

"So yer gonna go this way for a bit, then run past some trees, then go by the water..."

At one point, an older gentleman in front of me put something on top of the electrical transformer on the side of the road - it was my pompom!!!  I went and grabbed it, and he told me his granddaughter found it on the walk between the field and the start line. I thanked both of them and put it back on, then took a proper Footsie.

Welcome back, pom pom! I missed you!

We were set off with no fanfare other than an air horn, and because there were so few runners, I was pretty much alone in the back pretty quickly.

We ran towards Nocatee's water park. Yes, this community has it's own water park. They also have a beautiful trail system, which was what the majority of the race was on.

Entrance to the water park

Mile 1 on a lovely multi-use trail

When we exited the trail system close to Mile 2, we were on their wide expanse of sidewalks. At one point a huge group of bikers (as in 10-speed, not Harleys) came by, looking like a Del Webb commercial.

Mile 2 up there, behind 3 kids faster than me!

The final bit of the race was up this two-lane road, that had parking up each side. The road was open to traffic, but luckily, it wasn't busy.

Mile 3

Finally, the finish line!

Oh look, there's hardly anyone there!

When I crossed the finish line, there was an announcer, well, announcing who was coming through, and since I was in a costume, he announced that I was... Santa?  LOL. He said, "Here comes Lazy, dressed like Santa! Santa? Uh... <mutter mutter> I don't know what she is but here she comes!" I shouted over to him that I was a ladybug and he felt pretty stupid!

My official time was 53:47 (17:21 pace). I beat 11 total people, coming in 59th out of 70 total runners (it was a very small race). I was 7th out of 8 runners in F40-49 age group.

I looked around and couldn't see where to get my medal, so I continued down to the pre/post race area; maybe they're down there?

I saw a bunch of medals, over on a table. I didn't know if I was supposed to grab one or not, so I left them alone and grabbed goodies from the vendor tables.

There was a fun costume parade where anyone who was dressed up could walk around and show off their costumes, and then there was a costume contest. I only have a photo of Prospector Pete, but the entire family was dressed as Toy Story characters. They were also the "face" of the charity this race was for, so it was kind of a given that they would win. He was cute as hell though!

Shout out to the little brat in the Cat Head - he thought he was the coolest guy there

All the kids were given medals, and when no one else got medals, I asked if I could have one, since I felt like a kid. She gave me one, but kind of gave me this look like, "Yeah, okay, I'll do it... but you shouldn't really get one..." which was really frustrating - the website of the race promised a Custom Event Finisher Medal. No qualifications that they were only for kids, or for the first however many finishers, or whatever. Registration included a medal. I wanted my medal. She made me feel crappy for asking for a medal. Uncool.

5k Registration includes MEDALS - give me my medal!

I went back to the Publix and changed clothes, then headed to check out St. John's Town Center, since I was on that side of Jacksonville. SJTC was built by the construction company I used to work for (Scherer Construction), at least 10 years ago, but I'd never been there. It started out as an open-concept mall, where it was tighter than a shopping center, but not enclosed like a mall. Over the years, it's grown exponentially!My first stop was, as usual, Chick-fil-A. It was outrageously busy! Next, I kind of just drove around to check out what was there. A lot of high-end stores.

Unfortunately, my body said I needed to potty, so I parked in front of Nordstrom and headed in (looking like the sloppy post-5k-runner that I always do). I got looks from probably 10 different employees as I wandered around. I checked out a directory which told me two things: 1) Bathrooms were on the second floor and 2) There was no Fat Lady section. Who's surprised? The bathrooms (again, who's surprised) were really nice, with actual water closets with doors instead of stalls with janky doors.

Once I wandered around a bit, looking at clothes and giggling internally about the styles and the prices, I went out a side door to an outdoor section of the mall. I scored a large size Scar stuffed animal from the Disney Store for the kiddo. I don't think I went in to any other stores. I returned back to my car, and made my way to another section of SJTC. I checked out Dress Barn (which used to be affordable, but now carries some really shit clothes!) and Famous Footwear (no good shoes and no good sales, boo).

Bored, I decided to hit the road. I grabbed a drink from WaWa and headed home.