Events have really changed over the last five years. Everyday more and more run/walk events are popping up. You can have a kaleidoscope of color thrown on you, you can be chased by zombies, you can run and have a food fight, you can run and get an electric shock, and you can run through mud, snow, and crazy obstacles. But are many of these events truly something for the whole family?
A majority of run and walk events today claim to have fun activities for the family. This usually consists of maybe a couple of jump castles, and few other kid flare activities, but is it really something that is for the whole family? Eleven years ago, in creating our charity event to support the Fetal Health Foundation (fka Race for Fetal Hope), we wanted an event that not only would cater to the runner athlete, but also to everyone in the family. We set out to create a fun experience from the starting line, along the course, a celebratory finish, and fun post event activities that truly are for all ages from 1 to 99!
While our events were fun and popular, we had a very charitable sounding event name (Race for Fetal Hope). Our base always comes out, but how were we to compete with all the fun sounding events? How would we increase our participants outside our base? We needed a name that would reflect the fun atmosphere we had already created. When we started to brainstorm, we thought about timeless family fun games such as Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, etc. Now if you are honest for a moment, we all at one time or another all thought about how cool it would be to actually go through the peppermint forest, take the shortcut at gumdrop pass, and hang out in the lollipop woods. Whether you are five or 65, we all get a bit giddy about the idea of being in this fun world.
[blockquote name=””]While we couldn’t create a full blown Candy Land experience, we could take what our event currently had and enhance it with a theme that brings out of the kid in all of us: CANDY! Hence The Great Candy Run was born.[/blockquote]
Think for just a moment. Have you been fairly recently in a nostalgic candy shop? They are certainly back with a vengeance. A couple years ago I had this experience with my own family. As we walked in, I went from 38 to five (okay my wife probably things this happens to me way more than I would admit to). It was so much fun checking out all the candies we had as kids and being able to share that with my own daughters, but more importantly it created a feeling of simpler times. With as plugged in the world we are today, we all could certainly use time to unplug and do more as a family.
The Great Candy Run is the answer to doing just that. In our world you can see things from amazing fun candy (and sometimes zombie themed, – and why are we so obsessed with zombies lately) dance routines, to surprise flash mobs, on course fun and entertainment (with a few surprises along the way), sweet aid stations, fun sweet themed course, and a truly fun family post event expo. Our post race expo has a fun candy shop, many kids carnival type games, music, great refreshments, interactive family crafts, candy themed costume contests, and you might even see some popular movie characters from Star Wars.
The best part of all of this is it is something to be enjoyed by the whole family and why we have been voted as one of the best 5K events.
What are you waiting for? Come join us in our sweet, sweet world!