Dia De Los Muertos 5K Run 2018

Dia De Los Muertos 5K Run/Walk & Kids Fun Run

What a glorious day for running: beautiful sunshine, no humidity, and morning temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s. We could not have asked for better conditions. To top it all off, we were greeted at the race by the legendary Catrina and her escort, Juanito (see pictures), a nicely decorated start/finish area, and cheerful music. If that wasn’t enough to inspire folks to run well, the colorful display of the festive finisher trophies would certainly motivate runners to make their very best effort to win such an appealing-looking prize. It was a great turn-out, with 195 runners lining up at the start line. Among them were three Running with the Grad Deans participants and another 17 runners organized by a faculty member in the College of Education. 

The race wound its way through the slightly rolling hills around Hernandez Elementary School. As an out-and-back course, the race route provided runners with the opportunity to cheer one other on. Upon crossing the finish line, everyone was met by Catrina and Juanito as well as plenty of food and water. The Kids Fun Run at 9 a.m. was extremely popular this year, with runners ranging from three (we think) to 12 years in age.  All kid runners received a goodie bag (see pictures). Due to technical issues the awards ceremony was slightly delayed, but runners cheerfully passed the waiting time by indulging in some impromptu dancing to live music and eagerly anticipating the results of a race raffle. Although we do not participate in events in order to win prizes, our Running with the Grad Deans members did rather well in that we won the overall master’s awards in the male and female categories as well as third place in an age group (we will not say which one…).  With our efforts, we raised $90!