Christmas in July 5K & Reindeer Relay
Wilkes-Barre, PA
- 5 Mile Relay, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Join this July in Kirby Park for the Christmas in July 5K & Reindeer Relay. Proceeds from this race will benefit the Northwest Area Cross Country Team. The event will be professionally chip timed with splits provided for the 4 loop relay. The Northwest Area Cross Country program has been … MORE
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Fine little race
I had plans to go to Maryland and DC this weekend and wanted to drive halfway on Friday. I looked for Saturday morning 5Ks in between Rochester and Maryland and … MORE
I had plans to go to Maryland and DC this weekend and wanted to drive halfway on Friday. I looked for Saturday morning 5Ks in between Rochester and Maryland and found this one. This is a small race with just over 100 participants that benefits a local cross country team. The entire race is located in Kirby Park. There was good pre race communication with an email 10 days before the race and an email with final details right before. This was professionally timed by Second Wind Timing. Race morning very easy with plenty of parking and porta potties in the park. Bib pickup easy and also included the race shirt and some coupons to local places. The shirt is a navy T-shirt. It has a nice design. The swag isn’t super exciting but more than adequate for a $15 race. The race started at 8am but it was an open course and you had to finish by 10am. I would say at least half the participants started at 8am so it was a somewhat exciting start. The course was very blah just through the park. It was a pretty nothing park although not unpleasant. It was not a hard course. Almost all was paved. There were no true hills but 4 kind of inclines. Course was marked pretty well with arrows and it was pretty obvious where to go but it definitely could have been marked better. This was my first run since the Kinzua Half marathon so I could heal my ankle so I was a little rusty and also looking to avoid aggravating my ankle again so I took the race easy and walked the inclines but I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t recently injured and I wasn’t running 2 more races this weekend. There was a water stop halfway but it was just someone handing out little water bottles so I didn’t take one. I was aiming to finish around 34 minutes and that’s what I did. They had an area at the finish line where you could punch in your bib number and it printed results. There was a very nice selection of post race snacks including 2 or 3 different types of granola bars along with chips, cookies and fruit snacks. I also liked that the timing company emailed your finisher certificate and your finishing time very promptly only about an hour after the race was done. Overall this was a fine race. There was nothing particularly special about it but it did what it needed to in my quest for 100 races. I doubt I will do this race again but it’s a fine race for locals or if you happening to be traveling through PA like I was.