It's a charity event for Guide Dogs with 5-600 people, each in 5-piece Santa suits, running around some city blocks and a couple weird out-n-backs until they reach the milk and cookies at the finish. I am not a big themed 5k person (bubbles, mud, paint, glow-in-the-dark, all that crappola) but I am a sucker for all things Christmas (you know Amy Grant's Christmas album, plastic baby-Jesus in the manger scenes, lights, etc.) so wearing the Santa suits and having my wife Kattie there made this race extra fun.
Here's some pics from the trip which also included some great runs in the surrounding mountains (Painted Canyon in the Mecca Hills Wilderness Area, Art Smith Trail off Hwy 74, and a bit of Magnesia Canyon).
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| Mr. and Mrs. Claus, down from the North ready to race. |
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| Victory! A 17:26 was good enough to be 1st overall in the greatest athletic accomplishment of my life! |
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| Ladder in Painted Canyon, Mecca Hills Wilderness. Very fun to run/hike. |
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| KT and me in the barren desert hills above Painted Canyon. |
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| I am a sucker for all things Christmas. This tree at La Quinta--and the mescal I drank at dinner there--made me really stoked. |
Yesterday I started 2014 with the New Year's Hangover Run (a 3k) out on a farm here in town. It started at noon so I was able to sleep in a bit and finish digesting all the food, champagne, and beer from the night's festivities before heading over to the race. It was really laid back and fun to see a lot of the local runner scene there for the short x-country style race. Some mud and a handful of dodgey twists and turns made for a fun little dash. I made a push just a 1/4 mile into things and Mark Robins came with me but never caught up like I thought he would. A 10:44 was good for 1st place and a good little Wednesday speed workout to start the year.
The Beer Mile was an hour or so later and I am glad I stuck around to witness the course record get smashed by Eric Jeffers with a 6:05! Cups were used but I am sure that advantage was probably negated by a tricky cross country loop vs. a track. Dude can pound beers and run! Fun (in a weird/sick way) to watch the people puking too. I love beer and running!
Cheers to a bad-ass 2014! Keep it real folks.
Nice finish to 13 and good start to 14!
ReplyDeleteGZ--not PRs (unless santa suits have their own PR catagory) but fun way to end a racing spree. Best of luck to you in '14--run hard and post all that awesome info often!
Deleteand you didn't go for the beer mile trifecta?! wins on back-to-back days and one of them in a costume...you're treading on mike wardian territory for sure.
ReplyDeleteSenor P.- I would have been puking with the girls in the beer mile had I not had to drive myself home immediately afterward. I am just an old purple toothed wine sipper these days, my slamming beers prowess a part of a bygone era. The wins were separated by 10 days of food and booze intake... hardly Wardian.
DeleteWait. So you mean that just because the pictures are next to each other on the blog means that these things didn't occur next to each other in time? ...whoa.
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