One of the most well organized run events around is the Cold Storage Kids Run. From the race pack collection with fringe activities to the start of the race to the pick up kids to the many goodies after race are super organized. I am especially impressed by the fast pick up of kids after the race. Having been to a few run events, I do think that there are many races that need to learn from how Cold Storage Kids Run does it.
With all run events, there are a few important areas that must not be overlooked. Here are what we love about Cold Storage Kids Run:
Good Location
For the 2 years that we took part, we really love where this run was held: The Meadows at Gardens by The Bay. Never mind the far parking lot that we took and had to walk a distance. The fresh air and scenery more than compensated the distance and we had a pleasant walk in the early morning fresh dew. Along the way, we saw these amazing pruned sculptures 🙂
Lots of complimentary health drinks and snacks
Who can resist FREE Vitagen, Magnolia Milk in 200ml packs, Gardenia buns, Yoghurt Drink packs, Milo Van and more!? All these are free flow and are enough to feed the hungry kids and parents after the race. I have not yet seen another race event like this, probably because this is “Cold Storage” run and being a kids event, such health drinks and snacks fit in perfectly.
Well organized races
Each year, the hub and I had to race back and forth the holding pen where the kids waited for their races to start, the starting line to take pictures, the finishing line to show our support, the kids pick up area after race, and back to holding pen again for the next kid. Most of the time, the elder kids’ races were back to back and hence I may not catch Master 9 at the finishing line because I was ferrying his sister to the holding pen.
Despite the ferrying to and fro part, the races were well organized. There were several holding pens for the kids and they started the race pen by pen which eliminated chaos and overcrowding.
On both years, our kids were able to make their way to the front of the starting line which was easy for me to snap pictures and less likely to be shoved by all surrounding kids.
Lots of Fringe activities and Carnival for the kids
At a kids’ event, you will not miss cute mascots with adorable kids like these ones:
There was one mini bouncy castle that had no queue. Why? Because it required one to buy anything at the nearby Cold Storage booth to entitle one 10 minute entry. As the hub needed to rush off, we could not stay long to queue for the Carnival booths, hence, I decided to buy one bottle of vitamin drink so that Master 4 could go in to play without needing to queue and less crowd. It turned out that for the less than $2 drink, I got a free loaf of bread worth more than $2!! LOL! However, within 2 minutes of play, Master 4 cried because he was knocked off by some older kids. But, he still remembered to climb up and slide down the slide before exiting with tears. Well… when kids are in bouncy castle, such things happen, don’t they?
While Master 4 and I were waiting for our parent and child race under the Jolly Kiwi category, the hub took the 2 elder kids to the Carnival for some “muddy” fun! It happened that the night before, it rained really heavily and gave way to the clear blue sky in time for the run. So, the grass was muddy and with hundreds of kids stepping up the gigantic bouncy castle and play stations, you can imagine what was the fun like!
Cute Race Packs
Prior to the run event, we collected the race packs in soccer balls! What you see below includes the apple balloons on the kids’ wrists. There was also a mini bouncy castle and a couple more games while parents collected the race packs.
Several reminder emails with important information prior to the race
There was one run event that we recently took part that sent not a single reminder to collect race pack. It was quite weird for such silence as most people would forget about it and probably miss the whole event totally. But in Cold Storage Kids Run, there were several reminder emails to ensure you will not miss the race pack collection or the event day. One pleasant surprise was seeing Master 4 and my face on one reminder email! This picture was taken during last year’s Cold Storage Kids Run 2015!
However…
some things were different from last year’s and with all events, there will be feedback and room for improvement in my opinion.
Feedback 1 – the race pack collection fringe activities were a far cry from last year’s activities. There were many game booths to play at last year’s Pit building including Laser Tag, Stage activities, Ball games, etc compared to this year’s activities.
Feedback 2 – Last year’s run day fringe activities needed no entrance fee, but this year’s Carnival required paid admission of $10. However, there were more activities to play.
Feedback 3 – This is a suggestion from me: I would be happy to have a small breakfast box packed with some snacks like energy bars, health drinks, fruits in a nice lunch box for each of the kids after the race. Then the kids would not need to collect one banana from here, one drink from there while juggling the many complimentary snacks on hand. The lunch box would be attractive to the kids and would also promote eating healthy breakfast which is in line with the run’s theme: Eat Healthy, Get Active.
All in all, the kids and I enjoyed the Cold Storage Kids Run once again. I hope they will still host it at the same awesome location next year in their 10th year!
Disclosure: We were invited to Cold Storage Kids Run to review our experience. I find it a meaningful event and kids really love it. Hope to see you at the run next year!