The 2025 Fall Colours Double- Wedding Dress Dash & 10K by Mike

Event Date:
2025-10-12

Event Location:
Cumberland Heritage Village Museum

Event is on Thanksgiving weekend and brings lots of families out to participate. Events are: Wedding Dress Dash (1k), 1k Turkey Trot, 3k, 5k, 10k, 1/2 marathon, marathon.

Overall Venue Rating:
4 – Great

Overall Course Rating:
2 – Okay

The venue is wonderful but parking is a bit of a mess when the events are over. It took us about 45 minutes to get out. We would park closer to the road if we were to do this event again. Somersault puts on the event and they have lots of sponsors who offer free items (food, race photos, music, etc).
The course isn’t great. If you are looking to do this as your first race, or you’re looking to set a Personal Best, this isn’t the place for you. There are some pretty big hills and the road surface isn’t great in parts of the run.

Aid stations:
2 – Okay- There was water and electrolyte (Xact) and Xact energy fruit bars on the 10k course. Water and electrolyte were in plastic cups so hard to drink

How was the weather?
You couldn’t ask for better weather. Sunny and around 12c at the start of the race.

My Race Experience:
The Double

I did the Fall Colours half marathon many years ago and hadn’t expected to head back. The darn RunK2J Awards brought us back last year so some of the group could run the Wedding Dress Dash to get their “new event/race” checked off the list. Well… this year was my turn.

I’ve done lots of different events over the years. I’ve done snowshoe races, beer miles, trail races, kilt runs, and I even joined my son last year for a cyclocross race. But I had never run a race in a wedding dress… until now!

Yvonne was nice enough to lend me her wedding dress. My arms wouldn’t go through the sleeves and the zipper in the back was definitely not going to close so we used some elastic to hold it up. I even has some white arm warmers and white gloves to go along with the dress. Of course any respectable bride has a vail.

Just in case you’re wondering, running in a wedding dress isn’t that easy. There’s lots of layers to try to hold up while you run. One wrong step on the material and down you’d go. Thankfully I figured it out and didn’t injury anything.

I managed to come in third overall and first in my age group. But my big accomplishment was beating the bride pushing the stroller.

I don’t often run more than once a day but on this day I actually did two races. Kinda far to drive to Cumberland for a 1km run so we tacked on the 10k as well. I had a 10km tempo run in my schedule so I just substituted the race for the training run. The 36km Gatineau Park run the day before wasn’t exactly ideal but ya do what ya gotta do when training for a marathon.

The RunK2J Awards was also a factor in the decision to do the race. I already set a PB for the half marathon at the Army Run and a 15km PB at Courons Gatineau. The 15km race isn’t part of the Awards but I knew I was running well so thought I’d try for a 10km PB.

I didn’t realize how popular this even has become. There were 460 starters in the 10k and plenty more in the other events. There’s a downhill section in the first kilometre so I figured I’d be relatively fast for that part. In the third kilometre you climb a fairly long hill. I have a hilly marathon coming up so I’ve been doing some hill training. Due to this training, I was able to pass a few people on the hill. After 3 kilometres I was behind where I wanted to be but knew the hill slowed me down a bit so wasn’t worried. I knew I’d be coming back down the hill on the way back and I’d gain time.

With 2.5 kilometres to go you encounter some of the 5k participants who are turning at their half way mark. By this time in my race I’m going quite a bit faster than the 5k runners so I had to selectively make my way around them. All was good and I don’t think I lost any time.

With 1 kilometre to go I looked at my watch and still had a chance to set a new PB. But the hill I ran down at the start was staring me in the face. I pushed up the hill and knew the rest of the race was flat but there wasn’t much extra time to wave at the crowd and celebrate.

I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch. I beat my previous best by 4 seconds. What a relief!

Now I have a PB from a 10k and half marathon. Darn RunK2J Awards. Now I’m signed up for the Cookie Run 5k and I have the New York City Marathon… could there be PB’s in those also??? Won’t be easy but if I wanted easy I’d sleep in and go for brunch on Sunday’s!

Would you do this event again? Why?
Somersault puts on some great events and this is no exception. They give awards for top three finishers for male and female and also top three per age category. RunK2J was well represented. Yvonne Mery was top overall female and top female 55-59 and 18th overall. I was second male 55-59 (third male over 35) and 16th overall. Mary Sarumi was third female 65-69. And Helene Fortier was the 2:30 pacer/bunny for the half marathon.

Would you recommend this event? Why?
The race is well organized but I likely won’t do it again. It’s not the best course but the atmosphere is great.

I’d recommend it for the atmosphere but if you’re looking to set a spectacular time it isn’t the race for you.

Closing thoughts. Any hints for others planning to do this race? Where to stay? Things to bring? What to wear?
This is an event for the whole family. Some of the kids are so cute doing the Turkey Trot. One dad was dressed as the Swedish Chef from the Muppets and his daughter was dressed as a Chicken.

Go early because the road to the event is single lane and lots of people are trying to get there at the same time. Also, park as close to the road as you can. It took us a long time to get out of the parking area after the event.