Something a bit different tonight – the club Santa Run! That one night of the year when I put on clothes I don’t normally wear and make a fool of myself running around the streets of my hometown.
Oh. Wait.
Anyway, as I said, tonight was Santa Run night. It was my second year doing it, I had fun last year and I had fun this year. Thankfully my trousers stayed up this time!
As always, the purpose of the run is to raise much needed funds for charity, with TinyLife being the beneficiaries this year.
TinyLife are the only premature and vulnerable baby charity in Northern Ireland dedicated to reducing illness, disability and death in babies born too soon, and since my eldest daughter arrived over five weeks early back in the mid-90s and spent the first week or so of her life in a special care unit it was a charity I was only too happy to support.
Because I needed to make up for some lost miles this month (thanks snow and ice) I decided to run up to the meeting point in the town centre (Montgomery’s), whereupon a very pleasant young chap sold me my Santa suit and after chatting and getting the Elf & Safety briefing (Elf? Geddit?) we set off … to walk into the Tower Centre across the road to sing some carols and festive classics with the Ballymena Chamber Orchestra.
That done it was time to go for a wee bit of a run, exiting the shopping centre out onto Wellington Street, up to Broadway, down the full length of Church Street, along Mill Street to the Adair Arms Hotel, group photo on the steps and into the bar for a quick drink!
After that it was back out of the hotel, a return via Lower Mill Street and up Wellington Street for a loop of the town centre (Ballymoney Street, William Street, Broughshane Street), stopping off for a while at the bandstand in the centre of town to sing some more … and then back to Montgomery’s for some food.
All in all, an enjoyable night out and a fantastic £890 raised for charity. As they say in these parts, sure where would ye get it?
I decided to run back home again to squeeze another mile or so into my Run Up To Christmas total … but only after changing out of my Santa suit! It’s one thing dressing up along with 40 or so others but an entirely different proposition doing it on your own!
All told I managed to squeeze in another cheeky 5k and although I still have a bit to do I’m confident of at least reaching the 50k mark on Christmas Day for #RU2C.
Run Up To Christmas progress (31.1k)
2nd December – 5k
4th December – 8k
9th December – 2.9k
17th December – 10k
19th December – 5.2k
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 