Plain Can Be Lovely

Before I continue with my Disneyland half recap (which is coming up!) I wanted to take a moment to talk about a race I ran on Nov. 24. Arlene and I ran the Santa 5k in Hamilton! A Santa suit is included in your registration and you get to run with hundreds of other people dressed as Santa! It sounded like fun so we signed up.

Arlene and I waiting to start the Santa 5k with a sea of other Santas.

We met up bright and early at 8:30 to pick up our race kits (and Santa Suits) at the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club. The kit pick up was very well organized. I had signed up for a women’s Santa suit and it was huge on me. Arlene also had a women’s suit but it looked smaller. We checked the tags and her’s said “women’s” and mine said “men’s” with the “wo” part scribbled in in pen before it. We tried to trade my suit in but found they were all like that. So instead Dan got me a kid’s suit, which fit better and meant I was less likely to trip and fall on my face.

The women’s Santa suit was a little too big on me so I traded it in for a kid’s suit.

After getting our suits we had plenty of time to get ready.

Me testing out my new Santa beard!

Almost ready to go in our Santa suits.

The suits were pretty warm and we had a lot of fun playing with the beards. We had about 20 minutes before the race so we went outside to warm up and goof around.

Our “warm up.” I photobombed Arlene as she posed for a picture.

Goofing around and posing for pictures. We had a lot of fun in our Santa suits.

Warm up jog in my Santa suit. My Santa pants fell down shortly after we took this picture.

Boxing in our Santa suits.

My Santa pants started to fall down from the warm up so I retied them and also put the rope belt around the waist band. Before we knew it, it was time to start running. We lined up at the front and then they announced that those looking to finish in 18 minutes or under should be where we were standing. We laughed and moved back. The race started and all the Santas took off. It was a cool sight and I was excited to be part of it.

Santas start running.

A sea of Santas take off from the start line.

The route we went on was absolutely beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sky was blue and the sun was out. There wasn’t a lot of wind and we got to run by the waterfront. There was a lot of goose poo but it was pretty easy to dodge. I also have 775k on my shoes now so I don’t care as much if I step in goose poo (I’ve probably stepped in worse anyway). It was scenic with the blue sky, frost on the ground and hundreds of Santas running on the trails. I soon got overheated and had to move my beard off of my face within the first kilometre. My pants also started to fall down so I had to grab them and hold them up for the rest of the race. I didn’t really notice it though.

We stopped and had a quick walk break at the first water station. It was much needed since we were both overheated. I loved seeing everybody in their Santa suits. There were also some kids running with their parents who were pretty fast. One person was running with Christmas music (Santa Clause is Coming to Town) playing. A lot of people had tinsel and bells. With 1k left to go Arlene got a stitch in her side so we took a quick walk break. I didn’t mind since we were running for fun and I was so overheated I needed a break too (we were in the shade so the timing was really nice). We picked it up again and sprinted into the finish area. They called our names and for the first time in my running career they mispronounced my name. I’m pretty impressed that I’ve gone 2 years without having my name pronounced incorrectly (it’s bound to happen).

Dan took this picture of this fast Santa near the end.

Arlene and I approaching the end.

For an easy run in Santa suits we had a pretty decent time and finished in about 30 minutes. I was happy with how we did considering that neither of us have kept up with running regularly since the marathon. I also thought it wasn’t bad considering I had to hold my Santa pants up for most of the race. As we were running in Dan also called to us “Get your beards on your face for the finish!” and I couldn’t find mine. I realized afterwards that it had swung around my neck and was actually hanging behind me. Oops!

After the race we picked up complimentary breakfast burritos. They had egg, cheese, tomato and bacon in them and weren’t too bad. We also got complimentary coffee and they announced the age category winners.

With our breakfast burritos. Arlene wasn’t a fan but I ate mine.

Arlene posed with Frosty as we waited for our complimentary coffee.

Frosty looked hungry so I fed him some burrito.

In all we had a good time and enjoyed getting into the holiday spirit by running in our new Santa suits. There isn’t a medal for this race, but if you run more than one Santa run (there are three in the series) you can get a medal. This was the last race that Arlene and I would do together in 2013. I have one more on Dec. 1 and then I’ll be done for the year!

Next up, I’ll recap my Disneyland half marathon race!