5K Santa Run

While I was home last week, before I got mega sick and practically curled into a ball for days on end, my family and I ran in a 5K Santa Run. The race was a fun-run. No timers strapped to our feet. (I did happen to PR since I’ve never run a 5K before 30 minutes flat wasn’t too bad.). There was nobody to impress. (Not that you could impress many in a 5-piece Santa suit.) We were just there to have a good time. After running the 3.1 miles with my mother, father, two sisters, a cousin and his wife, we went back to my parent’s house for a late breakfast. It was there, looking at the group of us gathered around scrambled eggs and cups of hot coffee, that I smiled to myself and realized there is some serious truth in the idea that healthy living is contagious. (My dad thought it would be funny to take our end of race photo by the ambulance since we all survived.)

Five years ago this would have been a very different scene. My cousins wouldn’t have been there. We would have been reaching for our second Dunkin Donuts (something about those Boston Cremes) and talking about what we would do with a whole Saturday stretched out before us. But now we were there, a little sweaty, a little tired but totally happy with the run we just complete and the sense of family and togetherness that came with it. And it’s all because my sister Emily started running a couple years ago and we got into it after that.

Have you ever done a fun-run? Look up the next one in your neck of the woods, gather a group together and do it just for fun. Your time doesn’t matter. It’s all about the memories you make. And can we talk about how adorable my nephew is?