Clermont Clay U Run U Pick Blueberry 5K

I’m not gonna lie. The free pancake breakfast and picking blueberries after the race was the deciding factor in signing myself and my husband up for this 5K. In hindsight, I probably should have mapped the distance from our house. Clermont is quite awaaaays out there from Winter Park. But, in the grand scheme of things, we had a great time. Southern Hills Blueberry farm was nice enough to host this 5k and the landscape made for a beautiful and scenic race. The hardest part, by far, was running through the loose sand at the beginning of the race but, thankfully, it didn’t last for long. I’ve never run on clay roads so this was a cool and different experience. At the completion of the race, all finishers received a cool medal and the ribbon part had a nod to blueberries on it. Nice touch.
Make sure to get in line for blueberry pancakes right away as it built up quickly but thankfully moved fast. The tear away tickets for the breakfast were on the race bibs but family and friends not racing could purchase a ticket to have breakfast. Nothing is better than fresh pancackes and syrup using fresh blueberries! Afterwards each participant was able to pick a pound of blueberries for free! Anything over that amount was sold at the rock bottom price of $ 4/​lb!
I would highly recommend this 5k for a uniquely Florida racing experience. My husband and I had a great time and think we would be up for doing it again next year. The beautiful scenery also helped.
Some tips:
They offer packet pickup the day before in a hotel in Clermont. But for those of you that live far, arrive extra early the day of to pick up your race packets and to get parking close to the starting point.
As for official race times, I wasn’t used to their method. There were no chips on the bib and, instead, you had to tie the chip to your shoe. I opted out of it and just used my fitness tracker.