Santa Run! 2012!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Well folks, last weekend.  Santa Run.  Did it.  Thought it would be good to blog about.  In the actual doing of it, not really sure it's worth blogging about.  But hey!  I'm a blogger!  That's what I do! No matter how mundane the topic! Or whatever.

Anyways!  The Santa Run!  2012! Burlington, Ontario! (In which there is not actually a coat factory, because THAT Burlington is in the U.S.!)  How long?  Five kilometres.  The hook?  Everyone running...has to do it in a Santa suit!  That's why it's called "The Santa Run"!  The largest in Canada, so they say. 

How large? 2,800 people! Now that's a lot of Santas! Men Santas! Women Santas!  Kid Santas!  What do all those Santas look like? Like this!

Look at all those Hanukkah Harrys! I mean Santas!

And who is the mysterious Santa beside me in the picture?  Why, that's my running partner, of course!  LL!  (Coincidentally, she also is known solely by her initials!)  And, just to be clear, the beard is fake.  Hers, that is.  Mine is real.  (No, no, no.  Even at my advanced age, where I have hairs growing out of the outside of my nose and the inside of my ears, I don't think I have enough facial growth to grow one of those bad boys.)  See, no beard!

No beard! Plus Christmas-y shoes!

So! The run!  What to say?  It was good! Lots of Santas (No duh).  The suit comes with the race kit.  Made of felt!  So comfortable.  By which I mean super-uncomfortable.  So itchy.  And sweat inducing. And the belt they give you is a rope.  But they give you choice as to size of suit! Men's, Women's and children's. What a great selection!  So my pants were massive.  And the pant tie up was a super thin polyester string that would untie as soon as you tied it. And the beard!  My goodness, the beard!  No way could you run with that monstrosity on your face! But that's all fine! What did I expect!?  The "Cadillac" of Santa suits? For a running race with 3,000 people? Come on, JJ, give your head a shake! And!  Most races I do, strollers are not allowed.  This one?  Holy Moley! So many jogging strollers!  And not JUST jogging strollers.  A bunch of kids on scooters.  Scooters! Trying to run a race and I gotta dodge some 10 year old-on a scooter!  Plus, I got passed by at least one dude pushing a jogging stroller.  Damn.  Now THAT is not good for the psyche.  There may have been more that passed me, but I have now successfully repressed memories of any further passings.

It's raining.  The Santa Gun goes off. (Note: there was no actual "Santa Gun".  Although that would be super cool if there was!)  We run.  The jacket comes open at the front.  Starts sliding down my shoulders.  It continues to rain.   My pants come loose and start to fall down and the bottoms are dragging on the ground and getting more and more waterlogged.  So I am forced to run and hold my jacket on and my pants up.  Which, notwithstanding the Christmas spirit....sucked.  But it was 5k! Stop whining? Right?  Yes. I fought through it, like the true hero that I am.  Casey Ryback style!  (For those of yu who are too ignorant to know, Casey Ryback was Steven Seagal's character in the "Under Siege" films. Karate....chop!)

Then we went to get some breakfast with LL's parents.  Plus I got a free piece of pizza after the race, because Panago was a sponsor.  So that was cool. Although it was pretty small. Complain, complain, complain.  Yikes! Hopefully Santa's not reading this and getting ready to give me a lump of coal!

Ok.  I think that covers all my talking points. So I guess, in conclusion, I will just say "just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there."  That's Radiohead.  Plus I will also say, "JJ out"!