Holiday Lights 5k (Cherokee County, Georgia)

 

Though, I've run a lot of foot races over the past ten or so years, I generally only write about those that are 10-miles long or longer. I'm making an exception with this one due to it's uniqueness. Every year the small community of Canton, Georgia decorates their Veteran's Park with a large number of Christmas Light installations. These range from Santa Clause and his reindeer to the Loch Ness Monster. When I learned that they hold a 5k race through these lights, it seemed a great opportunity to check out something new.

It's about an hour's drive from my house to Canton and once I arrived at the designated parking area, I had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to catch a shuttle bus to the park. It's a little cool standing out on a late November evening in my running cloths without actually running just yet, but it wasn't that bad.

Once at the park, I quickly checked in and used the restroom before heading towards the starting area. Because there were delays in getting everyone from the parking area to the park, they had delayed the start by a few minutes. Now with the shuttling complete, all of the runners and walkers were ready to start and with a quick countdown, we made our way through a tunnel of Christmas Lights. 

I'm all for fun runs, which are very very friendly to children and families that want to walk, but I really wish they would have two separate events here. Combining runners, walkers, and a dark course illuminated only by Christmas Lights seems like a recipe for disaster. I can't count how many times I almost collided with someone, nearly ran over a small child who was zig-zagging across the path, or potentially tripped on a speed bump or electrical cord stretched across the road. Eventually this became so bad that I gave up running and walked the majority of the route. I just didn't feel that I could safely navigate without injuring myself or someone else. 

That said though, it was a cool event and I enjoyed running through the various decorations. My favorite may have been Santa driving a Jeep Wrangler (ah, how I miss mine). After completing two and a half laps around the park, I turned into the lighted 'finisher's tunnel' and completed the race. It really was a fun time, but as I said, it would be much more enjoyable and safer if they separated it into a 5k and a fun run as different events.