Firecracker 5000 5K Recap - Midnight July 3rd

Took it nice and easy because a) It was dark and b) Left leg and knee still a little sore from the Rock and Roll. I was excited for my first midnight race...little did I know how much it would screw up my schedule for the week! I had fun though, so I'll probably forget that little detail and do it again next year. The Firecracker 5000 is billed as Seattle's only midnight race, where we 'Run into the 4th'.It starts at 11:55pm on July 3rd. So ha!

Jess and I met up with Chris, another one of our Ragnar teammates for this run. They hit up Party City beforehand so we could run in the proper festive attire. Jess and I were in Blue, of course, and donned glowing jewelry, red white and blue leis, and the girls even wore festive headgear. I have a strange child size/shaped head that nothing fits on, so I had to go bare-headed.

Chris, Jess and I - Running for America!

I definitely had to take a nap after work and once I got up, I had a few cups of coffee so this old lady could stay up way past her bedtime. Met up with the girls around 10:30pm and hung out scoping out all the patriotic costumes. There were lots of red white and blue tutu's, at least three dudes dressed up like hot dogs, and an Abe Lincoln. There was even a guy wearing an all red suit body suit thingy. With clothes over it, thank jebus.

No eye holes, people. In a midnight race.

There were about 1600 people...a pretty typical size for Club Northwest events. The course was just a winder loop around Seattle Center, beginning and ending at Memorial Stadium. The roads were blocked off, but as you can imagine, not many spectators. The final loop around the west side of Seattle Center was perhaps the most populated.....a few bars along there had sidewalk patios full of people. That part was fun, as they were all in very festive (drunk) moods--yelling, high fives, the whole bit.

At the start, waiting for the gun....

My only complaint was lack of facilities. A lot of Club NW events are sort of bare bones - minimal on course support, limited race 'expo' area, etc. This was no different, which I didn't mind at all, except for the no port-a-potty thing. You do a few of these and know what to expect, but I thought they'd have at least 3 or 4 extra potties out. No such luck. They did open the facilities in Memorial Stadium up, but that consisted of two stalls with no doors in a locker room that saw it's prime about 4 decades ago. So, yeah, a few extra potties would have been good.

Overall, a great race. Had a lot of fun....so I just might do it again next year!