de facto redhead

In a little less than two weeks, I am going to be running in my fourth consecutive Santa Shuffle fun run. It’s a five-kilometre run-walk that happens every year on the first Saturday in December, and proceeds and go to the Salvation Army just in time for Christmas. But, one of the best things about this fun run, to me, is that it takes places on the same day in 34 cities across Canada, from Victoria, B.C., to St. John’s, N.L. I admit, the first year I did this race in Toronto, I didn’t really think about this aspect because I was already running the 5K with one of my best friends, and I didn’t know anyone who ran in any of the other cities participating. But, then, I up and moved on that best friend, far and away to a land called Edmonton.  Now, for the third year in a row, I will run the Santa Shuffle here, and she will run it in Ontario. If we can’t be together to run our races, she and I always try to sign up for events on or around the same day, but every year, we are guaranteed the Santa Shuffle will be there for us, and it is well on its way to becoming a tradition. I love to run, I love Christmas, I love traditions, and I love my friends, so EM, here’s to this year’s Santa Shuffle and its inevitably lacklustre race kits!

Key memories from my Santa Shuffle experiences:

SS 2006: EM and I scored one of the best race kits EVER—chocolate, gum, a stuffed bag. We likey. I remember laughing with EM and eating our pop-rock-filled chocolate elves on the way home on the subway—we were giddy on sugar and the exceptional-race-kit high.

SS 2007: My first official run of any length in Edmonton, and it was COLD! What had I gotten myself into, moving to this Canadian Siberia? It was so cold, Boyfriend DN exclaimed at the end of the race that he could see my “whiskers”—all of the tiny hairs on my face had frozen, making me look like a National Geographic picture of a scientist working in Antarctica—the race clock froze solid as well, and my thighs were burning not because of exertion but because they were probably close to turning black from frostbite.

SS 2008: Boyfriend DN decided to participate this year, and he and I walked the race together. We saw Santa along the way and he even got a little fresh, taking liberties by putting his arm around me. What would Mrs. Claus say!

SS 2009: Upcoming on December 5! I am not hopeful for a race kit that will even come close to rivalling that special year in 2006.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.