The race is a great family-friendly race, and a lot of younger runners attend this race than some of the other 5Ks in the area. There is a 1K that started at 8:30pm and the 5K started at 9:00pm. We arrived fairly early to race as we wanted to have some time to hang out with friends and cheer on the 1K runners.
Knowing that I had a date with 13.1 miles in 10 hours, I took this one easy. The flamingo served 2 purposes: (1) it was fun and festive (2) it helped me run at a conservative pace. As the race started, I noticed a little boy (around 6 or 7) that kept looking back at me and telling his mom that he wanted to beat the flamingo. I decided to do a little "backwards pacing" with him. I positioned myself a few feet behind him the whole time and when he would slow down I would pass him or close in on him. It was a fun "game" and really helped me pace myself better. The mom was so thankful that I helped push him during his first 5K. The post-race festivities included different vendors and snacks, a dance competition, light competition and age group awards.