COEUR d'ALENE - Face covered by a burlap sack, straw sticking out of her clothes, a mysterious scarecrow named Karen Shirley ran over three miles on Saturday.

So did a cat named Teri Morris, a skeleton called Daniel Shaw, and a "guy in a box" - quite literally, a young man wearing a cardboard box over his head - better known as Spencer Davidson.

They all crossed the finish line at the first Pumpkin 5K Fun Run and Food Drive, a Halloween race that began and ended at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Hanley Avenue, in Coeur d'Alene Place. Participants donated 470 pounds of non-perishable goods for the Community Action Partnership food bank, and all finishers received a pumpkin for their efforts.

In the spirit of Halloween, costumes were out in force.

"It made me a little dizzy, but aside from burlap in my eyes, it was good," said Shirley, the scarecrow, a Hayden resident. She ran alongside Morris, her friend from Coeur d'Alene, who sported whiskers and a tail.

"It was a lot of fun," Morris said. "We had a great turnout for the first time."

Race organizers said close to 300 runners participated and at least half were festively dressed.

Wearing a black, full-body skeleton suit, Shaw jogged with his two dogs, Chloe and McKinley. Running in costume wasn't hard, he said, but racing with two leashed dogs proved difficult.

"My wife is running with our son, too," the Coeur d'Alene man said. "So we have the whole family."

Davidson's homemade box costume was pretty creative. The 13-year-old from Hayden said he had a lot of fun, even though his costume was a little too hot. He'll still wear the box for trick-or-treating, though.

The whole Langford family of Hayden turned out for the pumpkin run. Six-year-old Katie wore a Pooh Bear costume, 4-year-old Brooke was a green dinosaur, and Conner, 7, dressed as actor Jack Black in the movie "Nacho Libre." Even little Brinley, 18 months, joined the Halloween fun.

"I think it's fantastic," said Natalie Langford, who dressed as Cindy Lou Who of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" fame. "It's so great for the community to all come out together for a good cause. I love Halloween."