Santa Running

Team Rouse has been running again.  With winter descending upon us we're discussing what event we should run next (and also more philosophical questions like why are we running and what are we running from).



While out running, Brandon 'ran' into the Mount Erie runners a local group of legit trail runners. We couldn't believe we've never ran into any of the 40 bad ass trail runners crushing the most heinous trails that Anacortes has to offer. Probably because these guys are fast, and they're so legit, they trail-run at night. So, we started running with this group- a fast group for Brandon and a nice group of lady runners for Lisa. 

The pace of a runner appears to be related to the length of their shorts. The shorter the runner shorts the faster their pace.  After daylight savings time all that was left of the Mount Erie Running group was runners wearing shorts, well above the thigh.  Lisa  just kept getting dropped and all she could see was a blur of  really short cow patterned shorts. And then just the beam of her own flashlight surrounded by a sea of darkness and rain. So much rain. 

The decision of whether to quit running with the group until spring or try to get faster haunted Lisa's thoughts for some time- (probably the haunting lasted somewhere between five minutes and less than half a day).  She did a weeks worth of "speed workouts" and signed up for a 5K Race.  A Santa-dash as it turned out, hoping  the competitive nature of a costumed, fundraiser, race would help her pick up the pace. The race itself supports the high school cross country team, and all participants were required to run in fully body Santa suit with the objective to finish before the elves- two high school cross country runners who start the race five minutes after all the Santa runners.  

On race day Lisa was sporting her Santa suit, frankly feeling jolly as fuck about the whole race situation. She ran into Melissa H. and they decided to run together and try to hold an 8 minute mile pace through the whole thing. 

We followed the course down the Tommy Thompsen trail. With  over 300 Santa suited runners giving it their best, the trail soon looked like Santa went on a massive bender. It was littered with lost belts, parts of Santa's pants, whole sets of pants, hats, pom-poms, and hats without the poms. begging the question where'd the poms go?   

Brandon was cheering for us around what he thought was mile 1.5 wondering why nobody has been there after 18 minutes surely someone is running faster than that. When we finally showed up I looked like I was going to pass out, all while Melissa was still smiling.  

The course was miss-marked and ended up being over half a mile longer. We ended up doing three different sprints - each time thinking we saw the finish line but then it ended up just being another incorrectly-marked turn. Finally we crossed the real finish line just before the elves and won some pretty fancy coffee mugs. The mugs are proof that running 3.7 miles in a Santa Suit will enhance your  overall performance and speed.