Leighton Santa's Dash... ho ho ho snow

 

The real Santa! Lili asked for a Lego house :-)

Today was the first Leighton Santa's Dash! A 2 mile loop out and back from Church Square. Organised by the Leighton Fun Runners this was a lovely jolly affair with at least 50-60 fully clad santa's raring to go (mainly because it was so cold!). It had snowed last night making conditions under foot interesting.

To add even more fun and festivity to the occasion I chose to run with my 2 1/2 year old daughter Lili in the pushchair who was also addressed as Santa, as the photos show. Aarrr so sweet!

Lili fuelling before the big race!

I thought what with this not being a proper race and all, plus dressed as Santa, plus pushing a pushchair that I wouldn't have my competitive hat on today... Yeah right who am I kidding! Even on the start line I was positioning myself to ensure I had the very best of getaways.



Getting prime postion on the outside line

 And it worked a treat. Lili and I blasted off the line (mummy missed it on camera!!) and we chased down the Christmas Pudding in true festive style. It was SO much fun.

I haven't raced with lili in the pushchair before so wasn't sure how she would be. She was ok, but I was glad the race wasn't any longer. Not sure I would take her on one of my Ultra runs :-O The pushchair was actually helpful in a way too as I had something to hang onto on the patchy snow and keep upright!

Anyway back to santa's dash and we were fighting for 3rd place after the first mile. The Christmas Pud had disappeared in to the distance and 2nd place was gone too but we looked good for 3rd. Singing jingle bells to lili we sped on our way and made sure of 3rd i thought only for lili's Santa hat to fly off her head with the sheer speed we were going :-) Disaster. I quickly retrived the hat whilst I was overtaken and back in fourth spot. But this guy wasn't really going flat out so we took back 3rd and pushed in the final 1/2 mile all the way to the finish.

Santa gave lili and I our medals and we waited for mum (who decided to go shopping and missed her daughter's first race and podium finish!) oh dear mummy. Soon mummy was back all apologetic and cuddles, and we retired to the pub to enjoy our well deserved mince pies and mulled wine.



Paul - The Christmas Pud (LFR runner)



I was very proud of my little girl.

Her first race medal and many hope to come ;-) A great race and very well done to LFR for organising such a lovely event. All proceeds also went to KidsOut charity so a nice warm glow all round :-)