Santa’s Arrival Family Fun Run aka 5K in the Rain

I know the last time I talked about running, I said I was done racing for the year.  Turns out I lied.

Saturday, there were actually two 5K’s in town.  Don’t worry, I only did one of them.  This one was at the mall, and it was to celebrate Santa’s arrival.  He was supposed to kick off the race himself, but rain kept him from showing up.  I guess he’s okay with snow but not our rain.

It worked out perfectly for me.  I dropped my car off to get an oil change, walked over, did the race, and when I got back it was ready to go.

We started at the mall, but quickly jumped on the bike paths that snake all through town.  I use them for my long runs, but this was a section I hadn’t run before because it was so far from home.  It was fun getting that much more territory marked off.  There are some I still need to see where lead.

We were supposed to be wearing antlers and jingle bells.  I left my antlers in the car, but I was one of the few.  I did tie my bells on my shoes, but they fell off not too long into the race.

The race itself was actually 3.2 miles, and it was raining.  In fact, a couple of times it rained hard.  I got a little cold waiting for the race itself to start, but once I was running it felt great.  I had a grin on my face the entire time.

And the reason I did this run?  The medal they gave us at the end turns into a Christmas tree ornament.  Now perfect is that?

Of course, by the time I got home, the sun was coming out.  We did get a few more pockets of rain during the day, but that was the worst of it.

And it was the start of a very productive day.  I put lights on my Christmas trees and put my outside lights up.  This way, I’ll just have ornaments to hang when I get home.  This is always the unfun long part before I get to that.  Then I wrote or edited a ton of reviews.  I have two more I want to write before I head home for Thanksgiving, but that’s it.  Normally, I have a bunch of stuff I’m trying to finish, so this is nice for a change.