Santa Jingle 5k Report

On Saturday a bunch of running friends and I ran the largest Santa race in all of Canada. There was just under 4000 people dressed as Santa running and walking this course.

I had to get up at 6am to make sure I was up and ready to meet up with friends at 7am for the 1 hour drive to the race. Thankfully we met at Starbucks so I was able to grab a coffee and wake up. The drive over  was super fun with lots of joking and running mishap stories. Once we found a parking spot we got into our Santa suits. We then went off and met up with the other car of friends to head to the start.

Pre Race Group Pic I'm front and center

Once we got the start line it felt like forever before we got going. Thankfully there was no winds but it was still -2C(28F) and we were dressed for running not standing out in the cold. The suit did ok at keeping warm but even with my wool socks on my feet were frozen. They didn't warm up till the race was practically done and by that point, my toes just hurt from stinging every time they touched the ground from the warming up, that is how cold I was.

Finally we got to take off and it was crowded. It was insane trying to get around people and of course there was so many people not seeded correctly but we were just doing this for fun so I tried to not let it get to me. A couple of us managed to stay near each other and we kept picking up speed to get away from the craziness. Around the 2.5k mark where there was a water station I realized that it was possible (if I was willing to hurt for the rest) I could get close to PB. Well of course I went for it.

1km:6:13

2km: 5:50

3km: 5:41

4km: 5:07

5km: 4:55 (no wonder it was hurting)

It was hard to not slow down as it got closer to the end. I just kept having to tell myself that it just had to hurt for less than 10 minutes when I got to that last KM. Thankfully I ran (haha) into Bill and he helped pull me in.

Us sprinting to the finish

It was a great race and the whole group has plans to come back and even fancy up our outfits for next year. It took a while for everyone to get back together again and we headed back to Toronto. Of course we had to hit up a coffee shop and refuel with warm goodness, dressed in our suits still. We got lots of smiles and compliments from others getting their coffees.

Gun Time: 28:53

Chip Time:27.53 (52 seconds off PR)

Average Pace: 5:35

Overall: 494/3054

F25-20: 29/281

Gender: 158/1930

And check out my line!





Look at how frigging flat my running was! Normally I'm all over the place. I was smooth and I'm totally impressed. It took me an hour after seeing this to realize it wasn't elevation of the course but me.

Seriously if your in the area next year, definitely come do this one with us. It was crazy fun.