Hooray for holiday themed races!
Erin, Jen and me. Jen said “Don’t smile! It looks creepy to see your teeth behind the beard!” Ha ha (it did).
This morning I ran the Rotary Santa Run (5K) in Arlington Heights with Erin and Jen (a blog reader). Instead of a race t-shirt, you receive a Santa Costume to wear during the race*! I did this race two years ago with Steven (also in the snow) and thought it was a total blast, and it was again this year!
We’re actually in this photo… if you can find us!
There’s Erin, number 799! I am to the right of her (3 people over). I cannot believe race photos are already up! I will have to go back and look again when they have tagged bib numbers.
I’m number 733. Jen is behind the girl to the left of me.
Erin, Jen and I ran the entire race together. We started out dodging cars (?!) and people (who decided to stop in the middle of the course), but the course cleared out toward the middle of the race (I think maybe 1000 people ran?). The course goes through a residential neighborhood and there were a few people out there cheering for us! Luckily there was not too much sludge in run in.
We kept an easy pace (a little under 9:30 miles) but I honestly felt like crap. I was in bed all day Friday with a sore throat and achy legs (I probably should not have been out running in the cold!). My lungs were not happy with me this morning! But I still had a lot of fun! We chatted the whole time. This was my first time meeting Jen**. She is a lot of fun and has a great attitude! I hope we can do another race together someday.
What do you think about our race numbers? Pretty odd coincidence, right?
Are you doing any holiday themed races this year? When’s your next race?
I think this is my last race for 2010! I am bummed about that, but am already signed up for a 5K in February, and have my eye on a fun 5K in January.
Thanks to Steven and Erin’s mom for spectating!!!
Garmin Stats | Distance: 3.1 | Temp: ~30° | Time: 29:17 | Avg Pace: 9:26 | 1: 9:49 | 2: 9:19 | 3: 9:12 | 4: 0:55 <– WOW! I think this is the first time I have had negative splits in a 5K!
*Unless you have no spirit and dress in booty shorts and just want to win (see photo below).
**She did Iron Man Madison in September! Go Jen!
That girl is LAME. I bet she’ll get coal in her stocking.
Fo sho!
Lol! I love this! You guys make some sexy Santas. 😉
I’ve only participated in one run and as it turns out, it was a holiday run for Halloween.. but I didn’t dress up. I was.. too.. disabled from the previous night.
Love the santa suits for everyone (well except booty girl) 🙂
What a fun race!
Haha, that looks like a hoot! Sorry you didn’t feel well, but it sounds like you had a ton of fun!
Seriously, I have to meet you someday. Haha…you just seem to have so much fun with everything – even silly Santa suits! 🙂
Yay on the 5K and negative splits! I’m doing a 5K tomorrow but it’s not holiday-themed, although I’m guessing some will come dressed? Who knows! I do the Turkey Trot every year and we sometimes have people dress up, although not too many did this year for some reason. Just a few turkeys around! 😉
Aww, thanks Stephany! That is such a nice compliment! I will have to let you know if I am ever in FL… and you with Chicago! 🙂
Good luck on your 5K today! I hope you have (had?) a great time!
That looks like a super fun race!
Also- the snowshoe race looks awesome. I want to run it!
As for holiday themed races- I’ve done the turkey day 5k three years in a row. And my first race ever was a jingle bell 5k.
Hey Kim! Thanks for the fun pictures – your banner looks AWESOME! It was so great to meet you today and the race was so.much.fun! <—-look, I'm typing like a blogger now. 🙂 I didn't realize how crappy you felt, you hid it well. You are quite the trooper! It's too bad you guys live so far way – I think we'd have a ton of fun hanging out. Your sense of humor is awesome and so is Steven's! Take care of yourself so you don't get sicker. Talk to you later!
Ha ha. You crack me up Jen (with your blogger “type”). We had a great time hanging out with you today! And I don’t think we’re too far apart! Let me know if you want to meet up again! We need to make more friends out here! 🙂
The banner photo turned out so awesome! It almost looks like the rest of the photo is in black and white but we’re in color.
This race was so much fun, I almost didn’t want it to end. I’m sorry you weren’t feeling well, though. Like Jen said, you hid it well 🙂
It does look like that! I love how the red pops! And I like how our silly poses turned out.
I am happy you had fun! 🙂 I did too, even though I didn’t feel well 😉 Maybe next year they’ll make it a 10K? Ha.
That looks like so much fun! And booty-licious is definitely LAME.
Hope you’re feeling better!
That sounds like such a fun race! Everyone looks a like! Must have been easy to loose someone in the crowd!
Ha! It was! My husband didn’t see us at the start or finish… we weren’t very distinguishable!
What a cool race, you three look like you had way to much fun!
That chick might be lame, but she’s faster than me. Also, she looks SLIGHTLY better in those shorts than I do. …though maybe I should recreate the photo for comparison.
I always want to do that race but somehow never do. Seriously she could only manage 20:XX in the booty shorts? Definitely lame. I think the suit would have helped rather than hinder!
You should do it one year! It’s so fun!
I thought that girl should have at least worn the hat!
I showed my kids these pictures and was kind of sad I didn’t sign us up for it because it looks like so much fun! My son said he was glad I didn’t because (like me) he is always freezing and didn’t think running in the cold would be worth it. The race just looks like so much fun with all the santas!
I’m so mad I didn’t dig my car out faster! This would have been hilarious to see!
Glad you had a good time…
How come the girl that won the race isn’t wearing any clothes? Oh wait, she has underwear on, ok. Man, I wish I saw 1,000 Santas running around in my neighborhood! That has got to be such a fun sight to see! Hope you’re feeling better.
that’s so funny to have all you wearing a santa costume!
I LOVE that you dressed up! Hilarious!
I love love love love your banner.
This might be the coolest race EVER!!!!
PS- I am doing a card exchange if you want to stop by and check it out. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
I love your Santa run! That looks super fun! I really want to do a holiday-themed race, but I haven’t found any down here. Sad times.
I’m sorry you were feeling crummy during the race though. That’s kind of a damper on a Santa-themed run…
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! This post made me so happy! I completely love that they give you a santa costume to wear. Those pictures were so great to look at. What a fun race!! 🙂
This is, quite possibly, the most awesome race EVER!!! Too cool.
BTW, the winner is TOTALLY a lamo for not wearing the costume. Really???? 19:49 is totally slow enough to be rockin the costume.