Last Friday my running buddy Emily and I trekked south to Silver Dollar City, an old timey theme park just outside Branson, Missouri, for the inaugural Run to the Lights 5K. 

Branson is a popular summer vacation destination for families and seniors, but SDC tries to keep the tourists coming in the winter by covering every square inch of the place in Christmas lights from November-January.  They have Christmas themed shows and you can still ride most of the rides (except the water rides!) if you can stand the cold.  I had never been during the winter until this weekend.  My expectations were pretty low, as I think SDC is generally a pretty cheesy place, but the lights were actually very pretty in an over-the-top kind of way.

We got to SDC about 7:30pm, got checked in, and then rushed to the roller coasters to get in a couple of rides before the race started.  We got to ride two coasters, five rides total.  It was great because the park was basically empty except the runners, so we got to stay on the ride as many times in a row as we wanted until they shut down at 9pm.

I love roller coasters no matter what time of year it is, but it was really cool to see all the lights from way up at the top of the coaster.  "Glorious," as Emily likes to say!  Plus, the people running the rides were dressed up like elves.  Hee hee!

After the rides shut down at 9pm, all the runners and walkers gathered in front of the big Christmas tree for annoucements and entertainment.  My favorite part was the characters from the Christmas parade roaming around the crowd.  They all had lighted costumes, and the gingerbread men looked like giant spacemen from a distance. 

The race itself was just your basic 5K, except half of the race was inside the park, which made it go very quickly because it felt like you were running through a winter wonderland.  The only bad part was the Hill, which anyone who has ever been to SDC will remember – we ran up this monstrous hill inside the park not once, but twice.  I may have been passed by a six year old on my way up the second time!  Oh well, it was about having fun, not running my fastest time ever!

After the race, we got free wassail (that’s hot cider in Silver Dollar City-land) and Christmas cookies to tide us over for the 45 min. drive home.  All in all, I think it was probably the most fun 5K I’ve ever run.