Working at the 2015 Reindeer Run

Last month I worked at the Reindeer Run that took place in Sea World.  The event is a 5k fun run that goes through the park.  Since it is just a fun run, it was not timed.  I had looked into this run the year before and wanted to participate myself.  I figured running through Disney is fun, why not Sea World?  I didn’t get to run there so I am glad I got the chance to see what it was like by working at it.

I arrived there before the sun came up like most of our races.  It was nice to see the park all lit up that early in the morning.  The run started at 7:30 am, so we had to set up all of the tables by about 6:00 am, when the runners would start arriving.  I was at packet pick up again.  I stood behind the tables helping volunteers and handing out shirts.  The shirts were really nice!  It was a long sleeve cotton shirt with reindeer run forming a circle on the front.

There were so many people there!    There were even people picking up their packets after the race had started.  I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s holiday inspired costumes.  There was a costume contest after the race that looked like a lot of fun.

After the last person had received their packet we began tearing everything down.  Once everything was picked up by the Track Shack truck we headed to the finish line where I was told to make sure everybody kept moving through the finishing area.  The finishing line has always been my least favorite part of the race working experience because there is a lot of standing around without having an actual task to do.  On the plus side I did get to see a lot more costumes!

Once the last person had crossed the finish line we went over there and started taking it down.  That was the most tiring part because there was a lot of heavy lifting as we had to load everything in the truck.  Once that was done we were free to go.

The event was another success and everyone there had a great time!  I may try to run it this year even though it isn’t timed.  It would be a great holiday event that I could share with my family right before Christmas!