Spooktacular 2016

It was fun, as usual. 

I finished.

But that same couple from last year -- with the woman who’d ruined the costume contest, were back as emcees. Consequently, nothing went off as outlined by the race organizers.

“Thriller Warmup” never happened.

Signing up for the costume contest turned into the guy saying, “Just line up and we’ll pick”.

Instead of a Kid’s Costume Contest, Men’s Contest, Women’s Contest, it was “Males line up", "Females line up”, with children included by gender.

When I saw it was the same couple, I planned not to enter the contest, but a facebook friend -- met through seeing each other at many of the same races, was in a costume so fabulous that I encouraged her to line up. She said, “Let’s do it”, so I stood next to her.

There was no crowd approval. Instead, like the guy said, the woman picked, but this time she picked correctly because my friend won, and the crowd seconded the choice.

Assassin's Creed

Unlike prior years, when a special medal was awarded the costume contest winner, she was given a gift certificate to be used at the shop where packages were picked up -- $75 off.

Nice, but they made it to where she has to spend money to redeem, when medals are what we look for.

She was disappointed. I was disappointed for her. She’ll probably never use the certificate.

I also ran into another woman, who became a facebook friend through other races. She talked some of her coworkers into the 5K.

Attendance was a lot less than prior years, but still a well-attended costumed event.

Here are a few highlights.

Sushi

I commended the guys for having the guts to wear tutus.

They said their mom told them “Lots of guys wear them at races, but we haven’t seen anyone else.”

Doubtful it is she’ll ever get them in tutus again.

I did not see a ton of Pokémon themed costumes, just the one woman and her son dressed as a squirtle.

The woman with this cute little dog said his "brother" was racing.

She also said her dog was embarrassed about the costume.

How can she tell?

I later saw a boy in a hot dog costume, said to myself “This has to be the brother” and got them together for a pose.

Then there were these ...

I won’t know my finishing time until tomorrow. I know I was slow, because I played PokémonGo all the way up the mountain and down -- with one new capture, three PokéStops, but few other results.

I should have gotten a special medal for that accomplishment alone.