The 2nd Annual Charity Challenge Flashback 5K was held on November 1, 2015 at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. This was race #3 on my journey. This a race like no other that I have done before. It started at 1:50am. The reason for this is that the clocks were set back an hour at 2:00am. So, any runner worth his salt would be able to finish the race before the time he/she started it. This start time presented some challenges, such as not knowing when to sleep or eat.
Saturday I began my day as I normally do, except I didn’t go to the gym or run. I took a nap from about 2:00 until about 5:00. I would have preferred to go to bed a little later, and wake up around 9:00. However, that Saturday also happened to be Halloween. So, I got out of bed before the little monsters started arriving. It worked out though, because I wasn’t too tired that night. I had eaten when I woke up from my nap. Then I had a bannana and coffee around 10:00, and headed out at 10:30.
Arrival
I arrived at Mohegan Sun at midnight. It was a good thing I put the address in my GPS. I would have went to the parking garage at the casino. But the GPS took me to a warehouse on the casino’s property. There were signs and I heard music, so I knew I was in the right place.
I checked in, and got some goodies:
And I got my shirt:
I walked around a little, and took in the scenes. Being Halloween, there was an interesting snack table:
And some tough competition:
There were some other fun costumes as well:
And yes, during the race I was passed by at least two of those turtles. Then again, they are ninjas, so I guess it’s ok.
I didn’t dress up in a costume. Most people didn’t, but the people that did all looked great.
Here I am posing for my picture:
Pre-Race Party
Then a little bit after 1:00, we were all told to go outside. There was a radio station DJing the event. There were dancers from the casino that were going to do a dance for us. But, one of them couldn’t find the warehouse, so that had to wait. Instead, we were going to do a dance party, for one song, to get warmed up. There was a team there who picked the song. It was Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”. As you may, or may not know, I have another web site called Return to the ’80s, so I really appreciated the song choice.
Next, the dancer, that was lost, arrived on the scene. It was two dancers dressed up like zombies. Then Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” started up, and the girls did the Thriller dance. I had taken video of the dance party and the Thriller dance. Unfortunately, after the race, my phone acted up, and kept resetting. So, I had to reboot my phone, deleting everything off of it. So, the pictures I am posting are either from The Charity Challenge’s Facebook page, or they are pictures that I had uploaded to my Facebook page before my phone died. Here is a picture of the Thriller zombies:
Then we lined up for the race.
Leading up to the race, they blared “The Final Countdown” by Europe. Between, “Hungry Like the Wolf”, “Thriller”, and “The Final Countdown”, I was in ’80s heaven! The gun went off at 1:50am.
The Race – Back in Time (You’re Gonna See Some Serious S**t)
The race itself was tougher than I expected. I felt good after the first mile. Then we had to run up a huge hill. About 3/4 of the way up, there was a turn. But, there were still about two or three more hills to run up. Then we were finally able to run down the giant hill. It was at this point where I believe I hit the 88 MPH mark.
I finished the race at 35:10. It was my slowest of the three that I have done, but the other two weren’t nearly this hilly. Then again, I did start at 1:50 and finished at 1:25! Wow, that’s heavy.
Post Race
We aren’t done yet! Before the race, we had to put our bib number in a container for a raffle. The raffle was drawn while we were out running. So, we were told to check the board when we got back, to see if we won anything. Here is the board.
I won two tickets to Mystic Seaport! Very cool. The two grand prizes were drawn during the awards ceremony. I would have traded in the Mystic tickets to complete my ’80s night. One of the prizes was to see Def Leppard at Mohegan Sun. Oh well. The biggest prize was to see Little Big Town on New Years Eve at Mohegan. That would have been cool too. But, I made out pretty good. I wasn’t expecting anything.
They didn’t waste any time going through the awards. The amazing volunteers had already been there a while, so I can imagine that they wanted to clean up the place, and go home and get some sleep.
I had to drive 1 1/2 hours to get home, and luckily I had slept enough earlier, so I was wide awake. It took me a few days to get caught up on sleep, but it was worth it. I had so much fun at this race! I would definitely recommend it to anybody. It was so fun, and the people working at the race were incredible.
Now I have to decide on my next race. I would like to maybe get out of the New England area until next year, and maybe hit a mid-Atlantic state. With the holidays coming, it may be tough to fit in my schedule. I’m sure there are many Jingle type races to choose from. I’ll keep you posted.
Until then, I’ll see you out on the Rhode!
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