The Music Run Race Recap

This past weekend, I participated in The Music Run presented by 24 Hour Fitness.  Originally, when I registered back in December the website said that it started at 2pm, but sometime after that apparently changed the start time to 6:30pm.  Small hiccup.  When I registered, they had 2 registration options, there was the regular and the rock star.  With the regular registration, you got a snap bracelet (honestly, I threw mine away as I have no use for a snap bracelet, but my friend Heather gave hers to her daughter and she loved it), a unisex sized tech shirt, a drawstring backpack and your bib.  With the rock star registration you got all that plus a pair of 80’s style sunglasses, a trucker hat and an arm band for a cellphone.  While the trucker hat would have been nice, I didn’t need the other stuff and that registration was like $20 more, so I just got the regular registration.  I was excited because when I watched the video for the run, they showed these nice circular medals that had a play button on them.  Hooray, bling!

Anyway, I talked my friend Heather into registering too.  Since I had just run the Austin Marathon less than a week before this event AND I had run 7 miles that morning AND it wasn’t a timed event, I decided to stick with Heather.  She is just getting back into running and I wanted to support her.  This was her first 5K in about 2 years. 

Before the run started, we were all assembled in the Travis County Expo Center’s arena.  They had a concert stage set up and they had this musical group up on stage that pretty much sounded like they thought they were The Cure.  They weren’t bad, but the bass was way too much so we went outside and just chatted.  About 15 minutes before the run was supposed to start, we headed back inside.  At this point, they had started the Zumba warm up.

6:30pm came and went.  Finally, at 6:40 they announced that in 5 more minutes they’d be opening up the starting area.  Really?  15 minutes after the posted start time we were finally going to start?  So far, Heather and I were not impressed.  They did wave starts every couple minutes.  As we were waiting our turn to start, they were throwing glowsticks and these foam tubes with little green LED lights inside.  Heather and I both managed to get one of the foam tubes.  We also snagged a foam rocker hand.

 

It was finally our turn to cross the start line.  Heather and I started running, weaving in and out of people.  At first, we were cruising along at about a 10:10 pace.  I was like wow, this is great!  This was my first ever night running event.  As we came out of the arena, there was a drum line.  Oh my how I love a good drum line!  As we made our way to the parking lot, you could see all the people that started before us snaking across the parking lot with all their glowsticks and lit up foam tubes.  It was pretty awesome to see. 

I started getting into the spirit of the run and as Heather and I ran along I said “maybe I will do this run again next year if it happens again.”  She agreed it would be fun.  We decided that if we do it again, we’ll go buy a BUNCH of different colored glowsticks and bracelets and just cover ourselves with them.  Despite my initial annoyance with this event, I started really, really enjoying it.  They had music stations along the route.  There was Pop, Country, Dance, Hip Hop, and Rock.  Each station had 5 songs that it just rotated through.  There were a couple stations that were lit up with blue toned lights and they were taking some pictures.  However, I cannot find anything on their website about accessing those photos. 

Heather was able to run the first .6 of a mile and then we switched to speed(ish) walking.  We did run the downhill portions, but for the rest of the run, we walked fast.  I didn’t care, though.  I was spending time with one of my greatest friends and supporting her and helping her make progress toward her goals. 

As we made our way along the course, the same drum line that greeted us as we exited the arena reappeared a couple more times.  YAY!  There was also a woodwind and percussion band and half of them were dressed as pirates.  ARRR!  There were also a couple fire dancers!  Oh and there were oodles of classic cars and trucks!  They were parked along the course with their headlights on to light up the course a little bit.

As we made our way toward the finish line, which was back in the arena, I noticed that people were walking back out of the arena, leaving by way of the actual course.  And none of them had medals.  Hmm.  We crossed the finish line and I checked my Garmin.  45:42.  An average of about 15 minute miles.  Not bad for walking most of it!  Heather and I both grabbed a Propel electrolyte water (I don’t recommend it, by the way…unless you like water that tastes like salty tap water, of course) and a Gatorade granola bar (pretty tasty!).  We wandered a bit to see if we had missed something but could find no station handing out medals.  Ugh.

After a few pictures, we decided to head home.

When I got home, I checked their website and sure enough, they say they offer a party instead of medals at the finish line.  Really?  I know their promo video showed them handing out medals to people finishing the run.  Whatever.  It was still lots of fun and I had a great time with a great friend and that’s what it’s REALLY about!