Alternatives to Expedition Everest Challenge?

[rhettreaux]

Hi Everyone,

I am still REALLY depressed about 2015 being the last year for the Expedition Everest Challenge. I live in NH and my best friend lives in Tampa, so the race was a great chance for us to hang out for a weekend.

I'm looking for alternatives to the EEC. I don't see Disney offering races which include the things I loved about the EEC, so I'm willing to look at races outside of Disney. Here are the things I loved about the EEC:
In Florida
Night Race
Afterparty
Great Setting
Scavenger Hunt
Team Categories (We finished FOURTH in the Men's team category this year!)

Do any of you know of any races coming up anytime between February and May of next year which would include some of these elements? I tried to rank them from least to most important. And YES, I have looked on active, running in the usa, and other websites with races listed. I just haven't found what I'm looking for yet.

If I find anything interesting I'll post it on here in case there is anyone else commiserating with me.

Rhett

 

[GreatLakes]

There is a pretty good running scene in Tampa. I lived in that area for a few years and that is where I started running. I can't think of anything that is EE like but there is a cool night race in Dunedin around the 4th of July every year. There are a few Dunedin area races with afterparties that I know of. One is usually around St. Patrick's Day and one around Oktoberfest. Xanadu does a few different races with pretty cool themes, check them out.

With the price of Disney races creeping up every year I have started looking for other Florida area events to do and then head over to Disney for a few days. The Gasparilla Distance Classic is a great event with 4 different distances over two days and multiple race challenges.

Sorry I can't get you anything like EE but if you want to do some races in the Tampa area there are a lot of really good options. I would love to live down there again in the winter just for the running scene.

 

[rhettreaux]

Hi Everyone,

I found one race that sounds interesting called the Glowbash 5k. It is a night race with a scavenger hunt. They need to update their website, but it looks like the St. Petersburg race will be March 12. I included a link below as well as some reviews of Glowbash races.

http://www.glowbash.com/#!st-pete/cemi

Reviews:
http://patch.com/rhode-island/narragansett/bp--glow-bash-5k-recap
http://thewanderingfive.com/2014/02/glowbash-5k.html
http://pyradannyexperiences.com/2015/03/19/away-we-glowbash/
http://rainbowofcolorrun.blogspot.com/2014/08/glow-bash-wilmington-nc.html
http://piqualitygoods.com/2014/10/09/glowbash-5k-tampa-race-recap/

 

[rhettreaux]

Hi Everyone,

The dates of the GlowBash wouldn't work for me, so I signed up for the ColorBuzz on 1/30/2016 in Tampa. I found my first 3 items from the list above. I guess I'm going to settle for less if the Expedition Everest Challenge isn't coming back.

Link for the ColorBuzz here: http://colorbuzz.com/details/Tampa/