Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis

A fun race! My buddy, Thrill volunteers here every year!
I enjoyed Jingle Bell. I’ve done it two years in a roll (not this year, but 2011 and 2012). If you are a runner, get as close to the start line as possible. Therefore, you can avoid the crowds. If you are not a runner, take your time, look around and enjoy the walk. Well, it’s in December. So, dress accordingly! It’s PNW. You never know what the weather is like, espcecially there’s global warming going on as well!
Keep the holiday spirit going!

This was my first 5k in awhile, and it was a great choice! The costumes and music put everyone in such a happy mood, you’d really have to be a Grinch to not smile (seriously, there was a guy who ran the entire thing in shorts holding a full conifer). Had to take off 1 star for the somewhat disorganized structure (the paces weren’t set well so walkers wound up starting with runners, and despite arriving early the lines were so long we didn’t have time to check our coats– so we had to run with them).
Overall a great time, a fun run (don’t run this for time, it’ll be cold and hilly), and an excellent expo and beer garden afterwards!

This was our first 5K run and boy am I glad it was fun! The morning started early — the kiddo ran the 1K kids dash but I think next year maybe he and daddy can do the 5K run/​walk together. I ran it and kind of wish I had the baby in her jogger when I saw the other moms running. The run is done in 3 waves and I thought the joggers were only in the last wave but that doesn’t seem to be the case. :) Glad the weather did not rain — it was cold but bearable once I got moving. It started drizzling afterwards which was good timing. The run was very well organized and everyone was in a good mood. It was fun seeing the outfits and all the bells. Next year I will dress more appropriately. (I was dressed in regular running clothes… nothing exciting) Afterwards there were plenty of places for the runners to get a quick snack and drinks. Loved the general mood and happy atmosphere.

I’ve done this 5k run a few times. I love that so many people come out to participate in the cold winter weather of December and that it raises money for arthritis. It’s also pretty festive, many people dress up and at the very least most people wear bells. I like to run in a jingle belled shirt myself. I have tried to run with things on my head like reindeer ears and I really do not recommend this. I also bring gloves as my hands start out very cold. This is a large, well organized event through the streets of downtown seattle. Definetely worth checking out if you are a runner in Washington, but perhaps not the best for a first one since it can be super cold and wet. Of course you are welcome to walk too. My only major complaint is finding free parking for the race in downtown, come super early or be prepared to walk super far or pay a lot for parking.

The Jingle Bell Dash was pretty fun. It was my first year running it and my second 5K.
It was COLD, but it was December, so this is pretty much to be expected. The only difficult part about this that I found was the transition from running outside to running through the express lanes tunnel. It went from very cold to HOT quite quickly. For this very reason, be sure to wear layers!
The fun part about this event is seeing people dressed up in holiday attire. I wore my normal running gear, but topped my head with a Santa hat! Others wore costumes, colorful socks, hair ribbons, etc. It was a pretty fun group to see.
One disappointing this about this race is that my timing chip on my bib did not work correctly. It only gave the clock time, rather than my personal chip time. This was annoying because I didn’t start until at least 5 minutes after the clock went off due to the number of people ahead of me. My friend’s time wasn’t even listed on the website. We’d paid extra to get the timing, so we were pretty disappointed about that.
I haven’t decided if I would run this race again, but I am glad I did it.

Well this is my 3^rd year participating in the jingle bell dash, and every year is as great as the next, but just a little bit different.
first year was pretty cold
next year was clear skies and a bit of frost
and this year it was freaking raining!!! holy crap it was freaking cold!!!
nonetheless fun. It’s a freaking fun run, it’s a 5k, all you really have to do is jog lightly and you can pretty much finish it in 2o mins :) quicker if you are running it.
From the girls in elf outfits, snowflakes, and little avid runners like myself. It was still pretty excited to run in the rain. Thank god no one got hurt (not that I know of) but it’s a fun run to do, and an easy one at that!!!