Race Review: 5 Peaks Ugly Sweater Run

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A while ago, Solana posted that she was organizing a 5 Peaks Ugly Sweater Run! It was a trail run, approximately a 4.5km loop which you could run as little or as many times as you wanted. I was more than ready to be done marathon training but a 5km fun run sounded right up my alley so on Saturday I headed up to the North Shore for some Christmas ugliness in the trails!

Another gal from Maple Ridge was also going so we decided to carpool. After a stop at Starbucks with all of my Christmas ugliness mostly concealed under baggy sweatpants and a rain coat, we began our drive at around 7:00AM. Thankfully, it took us no time at all to get up there. We couldn't stay long because Jacki had to be back home for the rest of the morning and I had to catch up on some school work this weekend... I spent too much time during the week christmasifying my house and Black Friday shopping for gifts that I fell a little bit behind on everything else.

I think we got there much earlier than most, just before 8:00AM. We promptly received our souvenir Santa hat and candy cane and decided to make our way outside to get things underway. It was drizzling but not pouring rain yet. We headed off down a forest road assuming we would head into a trail eventually. Well, apparently we are not very observant because we missed a marker and thankfully someone was coming out of the trail and yelled at us to turn around. It was marked pretty well, we were just too busy chatting.


Photo courtesy of Rob Shaer

Once we got into the trails, I was immediately reminded why I don't do very much trail running. Although, I'll admit it is so beautiful running through the trees, I have a hard time navigating all of the rocks, slippery logs, and mud puddles. I'm clumsy even on the road so I'm pretty much just asking for trouble when there's actual obstacles. None the less, on we went. After missing that marker we were much more observant for the rest of the run and had very little trouble spotting which way to go.

We walked whenever we hit bridges or logs because they were quite slippery and neither of us wanted to leave with an injury. It wasn't until we were on our way back that we spotted the rest of the runners heading into the forest. It was fun to check out people's outfits as they went by! It had started to rain more at this point, and my cotton sweater was definitely getting heavier.


Photo courtesy of Rob Shaer

We returned to the start in about 44 minutes, definitely no record time for a 4.5k run, but like I said, it was a "fun run", I'm learning to like that phrase a lot more haha. For every loop you did you got to roll a big die and if you rolled a 5, you got to select a prize from a HUGE table of prizes! When we returned pretty soaked after the 1st loop and looked at the time, we decided that was enough for today. So I was really hoping, I'd roll a 5 and get a prize, and what do you know? I totally did!

Mountain Equipment Co-Op Hydration pack!

There was also a baking competition:

I did not get myself organized enough to bring something unfortunately. I know, I know... my blog has the word "bake" in the title, you think I'd do something but alas, life got in the way. Secretly, I'm kind of glad I didn't because these looked a lot better than anything I've made before, hah!

I would definitely do this race again next year. I'd love to bring Griffin too, was so pleased to see lots of kids came out. Hopefully it will be an annual event.

Race Review Summary

Package Pickup/Expo: N/A. You just come wearing your ugly sweater and you're in!

Price/Value: $20 for adults $10 for kids. I'll admit that I was originally a little miffed about the $20 for just a fun run... but since I didn't know much about what was going to happen, it was a premature judgement and it definitely wasn't JUST a fun run.

Upon giving it more thought, if you're going to do several loops, that totally makes sense. Running an event for 4+ hours is a lot of work. Also, the prizes were amazing and your chances of winning were really high, it sounds like most people left with something. So I'd say it was definitely worth it, especially if you were going to spend your whole morning there, which unfortunately we couldn't. Also, we got photographed by the amazing Rob Shaer, I'd pay $20 just for those photos. My original thoughts about the price turned out to be completely unjustified for a well organized GREAT VALUE fun run.

Note: Because I know someone will  point it out... The other 5k fun run I'm doing this upcoming weekend is $30, it didn't bother me because it is for charity. Somehow I totally missed that they were collecting warm clothing for the homeless at this run, so my bad.

Aid Stations: There is no aid station on course per say... But since it is a loop course, you can get water or blueberry juice, or even a baked good in between each loop (every 4.5k)!

Course Difficulty: Pretty simple, I imagine especially so if you're an avid trail runner. There wasn't very much elevation change and if there was I didn't notice.

Medals: There are none, but you get a souvenir Santa hat. I'd pay more if there was an "Ugly Sweater" medal because that would just be bananas!

Solana did an amazing job. I was really impressed with the event and wish I could have stayed all afternoon with all those crazy fun trail runners! Trail runners are cool people for sure, almost cool enough to convince me I should be a trail runner... Thanks to Jacki for the ride and the conversation :)