I had signed up for Orlando’s 5K Bubble Run a few months back. They were offering a $20 limited time sale price, a substantial discount over the $50 regular price.
They must not have sold well even at that cut-rate price as they have been offering bibs for $10 a pop the last few weeks.
On top of that, when I went to the packet pickup to save $5 on the day-of surcharge for getting your bib, the whole experience felt a bit… under thought out. It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get my bib and I was one of the first in line. The upside (?) of waiting is that I found out they had a “Foam Glow” black-lit bubble run the night before my “race” …. and it was equally under-ticketed so they were offering $10 bibs for that. I figured, what the hell?
The downside is that it meant paying the local fairgrounds for two days of parking; I already was grumbling about the $20 fee but to imagine I’d be paying $40 all in, more than my combined bib entry fees for the events, well, it really had me foaming at the mouth.
I wasn’t sure how it;d go. I kinda hate people and crowds and this felt like a recipe for disaster. On top of that, we had a massive cold front move through so that the bubbles/foam would soak through you and add a bit of a chill to the already chilly climes. But ya know what? It actually was kinda fun to be flopping around bubbles, more so frankly in the black light than in the daytime. But there was an exuberant carefree childlike wonder inherent to the experience.
A quick note though — the bubbles could be quite nauseating if you happened to swallow them. This was somewhat inevitable as massive swirling cement mixer style bubble guns fired into the crowd with the force of high powered wind machines.
While the blacklit bubbles were more fun, the sub-5K distance (I clocked it at 2.61 miles) was A LOT harder to navigate in the dark. It was in fact one of the more dangerous “races” I’ve ever done. There simply wasn’t enough illumination to see where you were stepping… and the ground was an uneven, divot pocked series of playing fields/fairgrounds. It was all too easy to place a foot in a depressed hole and lose your balance. I felt my ankles roll more than a few times… but thanks to excessive amounts of running I just kinda, well, rolled with it.
So the course was dangerous and not that much fun to run up and down a couple of soccer fields repeatedly. It was easier to see int he daylight but just kinda boring and still a little dangerous with the overgrown grass obscuring the divots and uneven ground. As for the bubble stations — there were three, one every three quarters of a mile or so. Felt like there should have been more. Maybe there was cost-cutting due to the low ticket sales. Still, the ones that we did get to run through? Kinda cool.
Again, though, the pre-race or post-race cannons firing bubbles into the crowd made for the better fun times.
Throughout the events I would wish people a “good experience” as I couldn’t really see any of us calling this a “race.” But I will say I met a woman who was thrilled to have completed a 5K as 2 years ago she had broken her ankle and wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk again. Then she was pelted with bubbles and danced around. I told her she should be proud; I didn’t mention it was “only” a 2.61 mile course. That’s still a great achievement and who was I to burst her bubble?
