How To Organize An Awesome Holiday Lights Run
Grab some friends, wear your holiday gear and hit the road for this fun run.
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Tis the season…for fun runs with tacky sweaters and beautiful lights. For the past couple years I’ve organized a holiday lights run with friends and running group. And each year it’s gotten better. I’ve learned a couple of things along the way. Here are a few tips if you’d like to organize an awesome holiday lights run for your friends:
- Scope out your route. This sounds obvious, but it deserves mention. When you plan your route, pay attention to things like traffic flow and any safety concerns. You’ll be running at night – try to avoid uneven streets or things that could trip people up.
- Plan start time accordingly. Some trees are lit at particular times each evening. You want to make sure each tree and light display that you’ll visit will be all pretty for your group!
- Invite everyone! This kind of run is perfect for all paces because you are running from destination to destination. Not to mention there are plenty of sanctioned stops to take pictures! We always have a wide variety of paces and everyone just runs at an easy pace, talking the whole time. This is a great run to invite someone who is intimidated by group running to because it’s all about the fun!
- Fun accessories are never wrong. If you can encourage your group to don their ugly Christmas sweatshirts or antlers, it just adds to the fun!
- End with warm drinks. This is something that I learned last year when we ended our run outside. It was awkward and not conducive to people continuing to hang out if they so chose. This year we ended indoors at a nice hotel with a lovely holiday display. We all grabbed a drink and gabbed for a bit. One more final picture punctuated a really fun evening!
Holiday light runs are so fun and a great way to combine the spirit of this time of year and running. I absolutely love these runs. I hope some of you are inspired to go do your own holiday lights fun run!
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