Race Recap: Santa Hustle 5K!

And this is it: my last race recap of the year! My December event was just a little old 5K - a little old 5K with over 8000 runners in Santa/Christmas themed attire! Last Saturday I got out of bed before it was light out to head down to Soldier Field to meet up with my friend Ron, who you may remember from my April event - he ran the Ravenswood Run 5K with me. But today I was particularly honored to have him join me, because it was his birthday!

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!!!

It was a nice race, well-organized, not too crowded, and fun in that silly, kitschy sort of way. And we headed to brunch afterwards to celebrate Ron's birthday and the completion of all 12 of my events for the year. Woo-hoo! :)