Last Friday night, Halloween, my wife and I took part in the Wicked Creepy Trail Run put on by Doug and Hana Welling. I have some video shot from the start and finish, but I haven’t even had a chance to watch it so it will be a little while before I put something together worth posting. In the meantime, I thought that I’d share my thoughts on the race.

First, it was a lot of fun! Almost everybody had some sort of costume, some that were pretty in-depth and some that were kinda mediocre. The entry fee for the race was a jack o’lantern, which was then used to line the 3.8 mile course. The course was an out and back on an abandoned road which was full of ruts, rocks and puddles. Rumor has it that one of them was about waist deep, but I went around the edges of most and never went more than ankle deep. In the 38 degree temperatures, that was wet enough for me. The turn around point was at a cemetery, where a ghoul guarded a treat bucket. Each runner was required to stop and retrieve a treat from 4 buckets along the course and then carry the item back to the finish with them.

I saw the first bucket on my way out, but ignored it since I figured that I would grab things on the way back so I wouldn’t have to carry them as far. I never saw the 2^nd or 3^rd buckets on my way out, but thankfully I did see them on the way back. In addition to the ghoul guarding bucket 4, bucket 3 was full of peeled grapes around the items, and bucket 2 hid its item inside of some cooked spaghetti. Bucket 1 was the best, since when you reached in for your item there was a hand inside reaching out for you! That poor girl was inside the bucket for over 90 minutes, and nobody told her that everybody had finished until they were cleaning up the course.

It was very dark out, so a good headlamp was a must. A few people didn’t have very good ones and had a more difficult time navigating some of the obstacles. I was glad I had my Inov-8 trail shoes on, which had a nice agressive tread that kept me from slipping on the rocks and thankfully didn’t get sucked off my foot in any of the mud bogs.

Next year, I plan on carving some double-sided pumpkins so that they’ll show up from both directions and let you know you are on the right trail as you come up on the pumpkins. There weren’t enough of those this year.

Most people managed to keep their feet, but there were a few falls, including one person who cut herself pretty good and ripped her tights. A change of clothes was definitely a must.

There was a really good finish line, with plenty of treats, a fire, and a great raffle with items such as detergent (which was necessary), free shoes (thanks, Mizuno!), running apparel (thanks, Saucony!), and various items from Brunswick Multisport such as headbands and water bottles. The prizes for overall male and female were cement gravestones, which were really neat.

About a third of the almost 3 dozen people there were Trail Monsters, and we cleaned up with both male and female overall wins and at least 1 bottle of detergent, a water bottle and a headband in the raffle.

Shauna Baxter was the first woman in 33:20, and I was the first man in 27:34. Malcom Lewis was listed with a time that was 5 minutes faster, but he had “incomplete start and finish times” (I’m not sure what that means.)

Most of the participants retired to The Old Goat in Richmond after the race, but their kitchen wasn’t open so we didn’t stick around for more than one drink.

I had a great time, and I hope that the Wicked Creepy Halloween Trail Run becomes an annual event. I also hope and expect to see more impromptu events such as this put on over the course of the year, both from Doug and Hana and from the Trail Monsters.

Once I have the video edited, I’ll throw in a link.

(More Info: Full Results – Photos – Race Reports: gIANt – Chuck)