Hooray for the holidays!
Hooray for running!
Hooray for friends!
Hooray for beer!
(As you can see, I’m in a really good mood tonight!)
Mal and I joined our friends Elizabeth and Nick for the Jingle Bell 5K in Davis Square this morning. They had a couple of extra race bibs that they weren’t using, so they offered them to us. Holiday road race? We’re IN!
Thanks to some great planning by Elizabeth and Nick, we stayed in their nice warm car until about 10 minutes before the race started. This meant that we didn’t need to stand outside in the 20 degree weather. Somehow, the temps in Boston went from nearly 60 degrees to 20 degrees in, um, about 48 hours. You know what they say about the weather in New England!
While we waited for the race to start, we saw a bunch of fun holiday costumes, including a four-man avalanche.
And Santa’s reindeers!
I have no idea how running in blow-up reindeer heads tied together would work, but it looked so cool! I wonder how the race went for them?
At 11:00 on the dot, the race started and off we went!
I went easy on the first mile since my body was cold and stiff and pretty stinkin’ sore from yesterday’s CrossFit class.
But, once I warmed up, I kept a pretty good pace. Check out these splits:
- Mile 1: 9:10
- Mile 2: 7:49
- Mile 3: 7:47
Not bad, right?! I finished in 25:59, so I didn’t break my Jingle Bell PR, but I’m still pretty happy with my time, especially since racing wasn’t my top priority today. I just wanted to have fun with Mal and hang out with Nick and Elizabeth.
After the race, the four of us headed to Sally O’Brien’s for lunch and beers.
While there, I drank two Harpoon IPAs, which might be my favorite post-race brew ever.
I also ate some chili as well as a few of Mal’s French fries and a couple of Elizabeth’s onion rings.
Group pic!
I’m so glad that I got to participate in this year’s Jingle Bell 5K. It’s an awesome race, and I swear the holiday costumes get better and better every year. (I dressed up as coal and/or Santa’s boot if you’re wondering.) The Jingle Bell definitely put me in the holiday spirit! Bring on Christmas!
P.S. If you haven’t entered my giveaway to win a $100 gift card to Eddie Bauer, there’s still time to enter. I’m picking a winner tomorrow morning!
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
how fun!! great job on your time too! and what better way to reward yourself with chili and beers?! sounds perfect!
Jingle Bell Runs look like so much fun! Every year I always tell myself that I am going to participate! Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Fun
20 degrees is effing colddd!
I was there too, wish I had seen you!
I could totally go for some warm chili and onion rings right now. I just need to run 3 miles to earn it.
I’d say you look more like a running ninja in all black, lol!
Haha! That’s what Mal said too!
Your Jingle Bell 5k was MUCH colder then ours here in Orlando. I wish it was colder here yesterday though, as it got hot. Florida is weird.
How fun Tina! Looks like y’all had a great run. How are you and Mal feeling after a few weeks of crossfit?
Great! I’m already looking forward to tomorrow tomorrow’s class!
How fun! Sounds like a great run
I was there and I looked for you! How funny was the group dressed as an avalanche?!
Awesome run! I wish we had something as fun as that around here. We have a few holiday runs..but people don’t really get into it. I mean, an avalanche?! That’s awesome!
Beer is just a delicious carb to refuel with. Yeah for beer. I love the four man avalanche. That is, an awesome costume. Looks so fun!
I tried to register for that but it was already sold out.
Looks like a fun time!
I’ve been reading for a while but haven’t yet commented…but I have to let you know that I ran by this race this morning! I had no idea that it was even happening but it looked like a great time
After finishing my run, I watched all the costumes go by from the warmth of my dorm. Too bad I didn’t know to cheer you on!
Seriously, what happened to the weather here?! It was painfully cold outside today. I wore two pairs of gloves and my hands were still numb. Hate it!
I love holiday 5k races because a.) They are short distance and low stress b.) They are a really fun way to get together with friends c.) The festivities always seem to be worth dragging yourself out of bed early on the weekend!
have u tried harpoon octoberfest?! i can rarely find it, but it’s in my top 3!
i live in MA too, and it has gotten awfully cold within the last day or so! yikes! awesome 5k time
Hi! My name is Alex and I’m a Boston runner too! I have been reading your blog for the last few months and I think it’s fantastic. I found it from runningonwaffles, my friend Amandas blog. I read that you ran the Jingle Bell run this morning and wanted to let you know that I was there, and totally understand how cold you were. Also the avalanche was one of my friends! He dressed up with three or four of his friends from The Training Room on Somerville ave. So funny! They were dropping white fluffy stuff for the entire race.
Have a great day! Keep up the wonderful blog
I ran this race too with my boyfriend and my sister! It was SO COLD. I seriously could not feel my legs for like the first ten minutes! Hahaha awesome race though. The Jingle Bell is not about the time it’s about the costumes, friends, fun, bottle opener medal, and post-run pub crawl! What a huge turn out! Cheers!
Tina! I can’t believe you were there this morning – I ran too! I wish I would have known, it would have been so great to meet you! Hope you stayed warm, it was such a chilly day, but I agree, so much fun with all the costumes!
Looks like y’all had a blast! I have just recently discovered my love for the post run brew– perks ya right up!
Looks like you all had a blast! Yum chili and beer!
That looks like such a blast!! I love all of the costumes. When we ran our 10k in September, it was freezing (for September, at least), and we had to wait outside for at least an hour. Definitely no fun!
Looks like you guys had a really great time!!
I was there too! It was so much fun! I was running behind the reindeers for a while and they even had a santa that was leading them all with reins. It was so funny…. I don’t know how they could see where they were going.
There isn’t any snow here…yet, but there also aren’t any races. A holiday race would be a great way to keep a fitness goal and not get out of hand at early Christmas dinners and parties. Good job!
What a fun race! You were super fast once you got warmed up!!!!
How fun, looks like a great way to share in the holiday cheer!
How fun! I really wonder how well the reindeer were able to stay together lol.
Great splits, Tina! Looks like a fun race to get in spirit the week before Christmas
oh gosh! I didn’t realize this was what was happening – I was walking along Boylston the other day and saw all these wacky costumes, and my friends and I were just stumped! But hey – now I realize I could have seen you! [I was the dork in front of the Four Burgers on Boylston waving...]
Sounds like a great race to get in the holiday spirit! I love running with friends!
Looks like you had a great time!
Nice work on the great time! Looks so fun. And that avalanche is hilarious–I laughed out loud at that one. Hah.
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