In our Santa shirts, hats and beards! |
It was an absolutely gorgeous day for December - almost 60 degrees when we started at 9:00 am. I arrived a little too close to the start time, so we had to jump the fence of a corral that wasn't too crowded; we ended up with all the 9 minute mile folks. You've got to see it to understand the sea of Santas!
We headed south from Solider Field under McCormick place, and as we ran by I got a nice chocolate chip cookie from the cookie station. In addition to the traditional Gatorade and water stations, this race had cookie and candy stations! The race turned back north along the lakefront path right near 31st street, and we ran comfortably to just before the end, where Ron successfully out-sprinted me to the finish line. My time was 30:03.90 and Ron's was 30:03.23, so I guess he beat me by 67 hundredths of a second. I'll get you next time, Ron!
We grabbed our water and treats, and followed the crowd of people across the lawns until we stumbled upon...the reindeer pen. Yes! There were actually two live reindeer just hanging out and eating grass right there on the lake front.
Reindeer!!! |