2013 Rotary Santa Run 5K Race Report
My dad is on a roll! The Rotary Santa Run was his third 5K this year… and his fastest!
After everyone commented on Dad’s “Santa” beard at the Run Walk and Roll 5K I was really hoping he’d do this race with me – I mean, he already looked the part*! I’ve done this race a few times before and love it! The race atmosphere is so festive and goofy in all the right ways! Luckily, my mom and grandma wanted to come this past weekend for a jewelry show, so why not have a super busy day** and do the 5K, too?!?!?
I didn’t think a new race would take this title after the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot, but this is now the coldest race I’ve done – starting temp of 9°F. Didn’t bother us! I love running year round and dressed appropriately.
Plus it was sunny and not very windy – no big deal. And I gave Dad his holiday gift early so he could use it – some Under Armour Cold Gear. We both stayed nice and warm. Especially with our beards,
and hanging out in the heated tent before the start.
We definitely didn’t go out until they called for runners to the start line!
When we were lining up to start it dawned on me that dad has never done a race of this size. The race is not humongous (compared to some 5Ks!) with just over 1030 documented finishers edited 1600 participants (according to this article (pdf here)), but the races my dad and I have done have had less than 100 finishers! I gave my dad some tips on not weaving around people at the start, to conserve energy. The only issue is that we had no idea where the race starting line was, because we couldn’t see it in the crowd. We didn’t know when to start our watches, so they were a tiny bit off, but no big deal (except Dad is annoyed Garmin Connect won’t find his new 5K PR! Ha ha.)
The first mile was a bit crowded (and somewhat “uphill”), but I think that was in our favor, keeping us at a slower pace – 9:55. Funny thing – a friend of ours, Eric, was also racing, but we didn’t meet up before. Well, in the first mile a spectator*** said “Merry Christmas” to us and I responded “Merry Christmas” back and Eric heard my voice and turned and said hello! He was right next to us!**** He ran with us for a bit but had a wardrobe malfunction and had to stop.
Ha ha ha. Those costumes. They give everyone these Santa suits to wear… which is awesome, but they don’t stay on so well! Hee hee. Since I’d done the race in the past I knew the costume would mostly be held together with safety pins, and brought a few for backup. We saw SO MANY random Santa costume pieces on the course! It made us laugh.
But laughing at the Santa suit debris was about the most “talking” we did! I had remembered Dad said he thought he could maybe run another sub-30:00 5K, and I wanted to see if I could pace us for it, so he was pushing it! When our second mile clocked in at 9:16 and I saw we had just under 11 minutes to run that last 1.1 miles, I knew he could do it! We pushed the last mile out in 9:04 and finished in 29:11 – a new PR for my dad by 2 seconds (and on a more accurate 5K course than his last race) and negative splits! Woo hoo! Dad is rocking it!
We got some post race goodies, waited a few minutes for Eric to finish, then headed to Panera for some warm drinks! I am really happy I got to run this with my dad. I can’t put in words how happy I am that he has gotten in to running (and that my mom has been working out, too!). This will probably be Dad’s last race for 2013, but he told me he enjoyed it, and even liked how you feel pushed to run a faster pace with a bigger crowd! I know he will be back for more in 2014. Maybe a 5 miler or a 10K?!
And I must confess, that I wore this blue hat to run this, so my family could easily spot me in the crowd of Santas.
Yoda does not approve.
*Except all the running probably has the opposite effect on having a “Santa belly.”
**Also including a trip to Urgent Care and a holiday party!
***I loved that there were spectators out there cheering us on. Some were dressed up in holiday costumes and one lady was even blasting holiday music out of her car! The middle school near the finish had the band outside playing holiday music!
****We also randomly ran in to Katie and Kelly in the start corral, which was awesome! I was hoping I would bump in to them but never thought I would!
Themocracy
Love this. It just makes me smile.
Thanks 🙂
One year I AM going to run this! It always looks like such a great time! I really wish I could have been there to cheer you on…bummer.
Congratulations to your Dad for setting a new PR on a super cold day – and in a santa suit, no less. Awesome! And for the record, his beard was by far the best 😉
Yes! You must! And it seems there are many other Santa themed races this day too! I even saw an undie dash one in Chicago! LOL! I would like to try the others if they weren’t all the same day as this one. And I was sad you couldn’t be there too 😉
Ha ha! It was the best! 🙂 I am super proud of him! I am excited to see what 2014 has in store!
That’s so awesome that your dad is loving running so much! And that your mom is working out. Yay healthy parents! 🙂
This definitely sounds like a fun race, especially with your own Santa to run with! Congrats to your dad on his PR!
I love this! I hope to run a race with my Dad at some point. I wasn’t able to make it home for Thanksgiving when my mom and dad won pies in their 5k! I was so proud.
As for your dad’s garmin connect PR. Mine wasn’t showing up either but I found a way to change the settings (it was searching for distances 3.1 – 3.15 or something and my PR 5k showed up as 3.18). Or you can enter a time/distance manually I think.
I just looked it up. If he deletes his old PR and then clicks on the green plus sign next to 5k PR, he can go to ‘browse’. A list of potential PRs will show up. Next to where it says ‘keyword search’ there is a button to ‘show filters’. He can change the distances to match whatever distances so this race shows up. Or if the time/distance doesn’t match up at all with his actual time, he can click on that green plus sign and click ‘create new activity’ and it will let him enter the information manually.
Thanks for the tip!
Awesome! Love that you ran with your dad. Great job to Dad on that PR!!! Love the costume and that your wore a blue hat. 🙂
So much fun!!
This race was so much fun! The pants definitely would make a PR questionable, though, but I’m not willing to shed the Santa suit. That’s where all the fun lies!
Yeah, I still remember a few years ago when I did this race and the overall female winner had none of the suit on and I thought that was kind of lame.
I wondered why you were the rebel wearing the blue hat – makes sense now! What a fun race to do!
Woah! This was a risky click for a work computer!
Another dashing good time it looks like!
It would be fun if you were able to dress like Rudolph and pace your dad!
This race is only a couple of miles from my house, and yet I have never run it, haha. Oh well, maybe next year.
This race way so fun. Except for my beard made me break out a little. Haha! (add this to the list of things I never thought I would say)
So your dad is a rockstar for PRing with the santa suit, in 9 degrees, im getting chills just thinking about it 🙂 This race looks so fun! A sea of Santas running down the streets!! If it wasnt so darn cold, I’d totally want to do another race like this. And yay to your mom for starting to workout… is a 5k in her future for 2014?? 🙂
What a fun race…and a family affair- love it! I am OOGLING over those baked goods from Deerfield Bakery- still haven’t tried it! Perhaps this calls for a scheduled nearby run/bakery stop?! hehehehe
Ha ha ha! Yeah! We need to set that run up! It never happened!
it is so awesome that your parents are so active
Yay for a new PR! His Santa suit probably fit a bit better than some. Also, how are you just gonna toss in there that you had to go to Urgent Care?? Now I need to know everyone’s okay!
His was held with safety pins, too. And the draw string helps in the pants! 🙂
You must be the only one who read that. My grandma fell on the sidewalk and landed on her face, hand and knee. Her face looked awful but the xray said she didn’t break anything. She’s healing. Thanks for asking 🙂
You’ll have to talk to your mother about last night, grandma ain’t havin a good week.
LOL, I am on the phone with her right now. She’s cursed.
Congrats to your dad!! Love his Santa beard.