Featured 5k of the Week - Rosehill Cemetery Crypt Run & Walk

Purposely saved this one to post at night.

Picture this - October, crisp (but not cold) autumn air, nightfall comes early this time of year, a cemetery, a dark cemetery, a large dark cemetery, a large dark cemetery with very old monuments, lighting only provided by the moon, and some candles, Halloween Theme music playing in the air, the sounds of night...................and about 1100 of your closest running friends!!

That is the Rosehill Cemetery Crypt Run & Walk, located on the North Side of Chicago, not far from Uptown - and only minutes away from the ever-so-scenic Lake Shore Drive.....at night.
"Don't be afraid to run in the dark" is the event slogan.  And that is exactly what the participants do - they run (or walk) in the dark.  But it's not total darkness - there are a few sources of light :

1) The moon casting elongated eerie shaped shadows
2) Distant city lighting creating more shadow than light
3) Creepy green and purple pulsating lights making the monuments dance to some unheard music
4) The sounds of running feet echoing from every direction
5) The sounds of heavy breathing from all around, within inches
6) The ever moving shadows engulfing the participants one by one
7) Blood red glow enveloping runners at every mile
8) A street named RAVENSWOOD, quoth the Raven

Oh yeah - and

1) Lots of smiling
2) Lots of laughing
3) Lots of enthusiasm
4) Lots of fun!!

And that is the Rosehill Cemetery Crypt Run & Walk.  The event begins at 7:00pm just across Ravenswood Street - with the giant arches and entrance way of the cemetery looming less than 50 yards away.  Halloween music echoing through the street from the Halloween Theme to Tubular Bells to Monster Mash to Werewolf In London, as the runners prepare to run in the dark.

Runners leave the starting corrals and head across Ravenswood Street, then immediately under the passing Metra trains overhead - as they exit the viaduct the grand archway of Rosehill Cemetery - clad in rising fog - comes into full view. 

Runners then narrow down to get through the gates, and then narrow down even further to stay on the candlelit path.  (Battery operated baby candles line the path on both sides from start to finish - thank you to the volunteers who place those!)

The path winds its way for 3 miles throughout the cemetery heading west, then north, then south, then east, and back and forth, to the point of never really knowing which way one is heading - almost like being chased through a cemetery at night.

Eerie green and purple lights illuminate various monuments throughout the cemetery - and the familiar red digital lights of the mile-marker clocks become a blood red glow.  The only other lighting is from the moon, the city, some runners with headlamps, and some runners with glow-items.  It truly feels like being chased through a cemetery in the dark...........with 1100 other people.

The feeling is almost indescribable.  And, though most runners always go out to do their best and be relatively serious, they always have fun - and at this event, it just sounds like they are having even more fun - more laughing more joking - even people howling at the moon as they run (usually followed by someone singing "Werewolf in London" in response.  The time literally seems to fly by - whether the participant is a 17 minute 5k-er or a 59 minute 5k-waker - the event seems to be over just as it starts.  Time flies when having fun.

This is definitely an event every 5k runner AND 5k walker should experience at least once!!!  And then, it becomes two times and three times and so on and so on!