Trick or Treat Track Meet

The Rush Running crew meets up every Monday night for a speed workout on the old Bentonville track.  Attendance varies each week with our max around 100 people and on cold and dreary days around 20 people.  We have celebrated holidays with special workouts since our group started over four years ago.  This year was no exception...we introduced the group to the Trick or Treat Track Meet!

This was my brainchild and I couldn't contain my excitement in the weeks leading up to Halloween.  The timing was tough since our coach Mike was busy taking a group of runners to the Des Moines Marathon the weekend before.  I knew that I had to make the workout and track meet as easy as possible for Mike in order for it to be successful! I lined out the workout plan and got Mike's okay on the events that I was proposing.  Since this was supposed to be a fun workout I wanted to make sure and mix up the distances that we were covering.  We had the race clock out for people to keep track of their times and we had the stereo blasting for some musical motivation!

Dressed as SuperGirl and unveiling the meet events with Mike Rush!

Going over track etiquette and the waterfall start. Safety first!

Here's a rundown of the events.  Some were treats - just simple running and others had a trick to them! It was the Trick or Treat Track Meet so we had to throw in a couple of mischievous tricks!

1) Madame Fortuna's Prediction Run - a timed one mile run.  Participants were asked to submit a prediction of their finishing time.  GPS watches could not be utilized for pacing.  A costume bonus was given of a 10 sec deduction for wearing a costume (however, this deduction could be refused.) Closest actual time versus prediction was the winner. We had several come within 1-2 seconds of their predictions.  Very impressive pacing!

2) It's the Great Pushup, Charlie Brown - a 200 meter sprint with one small trick! Participants began on the sound of "Go" by dropping to the ground and completing 10 pushups.  Upon completion, each began a 200 meter sprint. 

 

Proof that we do listen to Mike Rush! Directions for the Pushup Sprint event!

 

The Men's heat winner...Jon who was dressed as a crossfit enthusiast! How fitting!!!

3) Werewolves Run in Packs - a relay event.  Participants selected a relay team of four individuals to run a 4 x 400m relay.  Each team was provided a light stick baton to use for the relay exchange.  The winning team was determined by flair! We have a wide mixture of paces and we did not set up the teams evenly so winning time would have been unfair.

One of the eight relay teams!

Mike thought that this team was a little too stacked and offered to help their final leg runner get started or not.

4) Zombies are Bound to Catch You - an 800 meter event with a trick!!! This trick involved a bounding zone on each straight away.  The bounding zone was about 25 m in length and when participants entered the zone they had to begin bounding. 

The ladies demonstrating how to bound!

Overall, it was a fun night and everyone had a great time.  The workout was challenging yet fun and was full of both tricks and treats!

Ready to pass out some medals!



The medals were a big hit!