The Darth Valley Challenge

I perused the Runner’s World website this afternoon and stumbled across a unique story on everyone’s favorite Star Wars character (hint: it’s not Luke Skywalker). Apparently Jonathan Rice, a Colorado resident, ran in Death Valley, California, dressed in a Darth Vader costume this past Sunday. According to the article, Rice did this when the temperature was at its highest point in the day – 129 degrees at 4 p.m. He started doing this in 2010. Rice’s creative feat led me to start pondering the various races that take place throughout the year and leverage the power of the costume. People dress up as Santa Claus for Christmas, turkeys or pilgrims for Thanksgiving, and even characters from Disney films for the race extravaganza in Orlando, Florida, each year.

As I ponder Mr. Rice in his Vader costume further, I wonder how often costumed participants in a foot race position themselves as “racers” as opposed to “runners.” I’ve even started pondering the difference between these two words myself when it comes to a foot race. A buddy of mine at Big Peach talks about races with me in the context of whether we will decide to run or race. Is there a difference? Follow me for a moment. Running a race, at least in our perception, equals nothing but more training, whereas racing a race equals a quest to win overall, in an age group, or at least maximize the pace and push the legs to their fullest, screaming potential – even if we don’t win. But maybe I’m engaging in semantics here and this paragraph is all for naught. You decide.

Perhaps what matters most is the fact that runners, costumed or not, are taking initiative to stay physically active. What’s more, you don’t need to don a costume in many of the themed races that are taking over in popularity – The Color Run, Warrior Dash, Spartan Race, and Foam Fest all come to mind. You will just get bloodied, muddy, and powdered from head to toe in the process. One also needs to remember that costumes will undoubtedly be affected by weather conditions. Heat will facilitate more sweat loss and may cause the costume to be more of a hindrance than a joy to wear. I would surmise that this is why most costumed runners choose shorter distances like Rice has to dress up, notably a 5 or 10k – though I’m not surprised in the least to see the bold pursue longer mileage like half or full marathons.

Rice describes the experience of running in a costume best: “Some people collect porcelain kittens. I run in the heat. I do it partly because I love the look on people’s faces as they pass by in their air-conditioned cars – the bewilderment, the innocent, wide-eyed expression of pure disbelief. It’s great.” I’d certainly be one of the people with a look of disbelief on my face, and I do wonder if I may ever take up a race and subsequently strap on a costume. I tend to focus more on color coordination between a shirt and shorts for races, but I do consider myself a big Star Wars fan like Rice. I don’t foresee a day when I join forces (pardon the pun) with him to complete even a mile in Death Valley, but maybe I can do some looking around for a storm trooper costume and scope out a race in my neck of the woods. On second thought, I’m already feeling hot just thinking about it.

On the web: The Darth Valley Challenge