Running with the Ho-Ho's!!!

There is a race called the SANTA RUN that I heard about last year and really wanted to do with my friends, but we heard about it too late and couldn't get registered on time. Sooo...we all planned on doing it for sure this year! Not everyone could do it, but three of us did and we had a BLAST!!!

SANTA RUN 2009



















Click to enlarge

Me with my friends and fellow running Santa's ---Heather and Jen.































Here we are hanging with the other 297 Santas listening to instructions before the start of the race. The race was held at 4:30 p.m. right before the Holiday Light Parade.

We dressed alike and even though there were tons of others dressed just as unique, we got a lot of compliments and stares (and people taking our picture). Must have been that we were all three alike! Or possibly the socks or suspenders??? No, it had to be the cute shorts Jen made us!































They had us do SANTA WARM-UPS before the start of the race.


We did "Hat, Beard, Belly, and Boots" (a version of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes) and then some calisthenics while we counted with HO-HO's. VERY FUN!

























On our marks... get set...

GO!!!!! We are just to the right of the yellow stroller. The first green light is above Jen's head. Look for the socks! lol (click to enlarge)

We are seriously having TOO MUCH FUN! Okay, not seriously...we took nothing serious about this race at all!

The 5K route (3.1 miles) went down four blocks and then turned back the other way and repeated three times along the Holiday Light Parade route.

We saw a lot of interesting sights along the way!

As I said before, we didn't take this race seriously. We all carried our cameras and stopped A LOT to take tons of photos. Jen cracked me up because she wanted to NOT SWEAT because she knew we would be freezing by the time the parade started that we were all staying to watch. A good idea, but not really possible in a 5K...even when you are stopping a lot and not pushing it.



The aid stations had cute little elves serving COOKIES and MILK!!!

Yes, we had to stop and take our photo with the Santa's little helper and PRETEND we are eating the cookies and milk. They just don't sit well in your stomach when you are running a race... but cute idea anyway!!!

One of Santa's larger elves....




































Yes, another stop! We just HAD to take our picture with this band!!!


















Back to the pavement.....



















We turned a corner and saw the FINISH LINE. For some reason this race seemed longer than most 5K's. Hmm...I wonder if it's because we stopped to take photos so much?!!! As you can see below, sometimes we didn't even stop to take the photo!














Our time was pathetic, but all in all not too bad considering all our stops! lol





































We had to stand in line after crossing the finish line to turn in our race number. That's a first.


Some photographer guy that stalked us the entire race, asked if he could photograph us after we finished.
















MY cheerleaders!!! AND action photographer!
















It was just a little windy at times!!!















Look who we found!!! ↓ He was just walking down the street as if some normal pedestrian. We stopped and asked if we could have our photo with him. He said sure. He was the REAL thing! It was HIM, I know it!





















A little later Jen took her son Logan over to see him and look what he gave her!!! ↓ SEE I TOLD YOU! I JUST KNEW IT!!! It IS him!!!!










We stayed and watched the Holiday Light Parade. HUGE crowds even though it was FREEZING!!!





















After the parade (well, after WE had seen enough) we all walked to Costa Vida to eat dinner.

A HO-HO time was had by all!!! I can't wait for next year!!!