Santa Claus Run

As crazy as it may seen, I ran yet another race the following week. Back to back 5k races - I really have not done this since my high school days! The event was held in Lausanne (about 30-45minutes away from Geneva by car or train) and one of my classmates who lives there helped organized the event. Initially we were going to have Santa and reindeer costumes sent from the US. But when that plan fell through, it was time to get creative. I happen to find some mustaches and corny lighted up Santa hats so..why not? This is how we look, not too bad huh?

An interesting thing about this race is that it's held at night! Our race started at 9pm but thanks to the beautiful light up around the Old City district of Lausanne, the roads for the most part were mostly lit up. As you can imagine from the race name, almost everyone was dressed up in costume which added to the fun!

Pre-race beer

Pre-race shot!

EVERYONE was a Santa, we felt a bit unoriginal!

All the shots taken at the starting line & during the race were taken by Jamir. Special thanks for being the camera man and team manager and holding our things during the race.

T'es prête?

Unfortunately, as has happened with my other race, we got to the starting line quite late so we were pushed back to the middle pack - again my first kilo was zigzagging through crowds in which immense energy was taken away. But in all since this was my second race, I got to enjoy it a bit more - fortunatley the weather was quite warm for December and the ambiance of Christmas and costumes made it enjoyable. However, the city of Lausanne is considerably more hilly than Geneva. Some of the hills along the course almost made me gag. Note to self: work more on hills!

I look so ordinary compared to the other runners!

Afterwards we were invited back to my classmates' house where we were greeted with baked goodies, hot wine, and a "marmite" brought by my Genevoise classmate (this story to come in another post). The race happened to fall a few days before one of our assignments were due so we were quite stressed but nevertheless, it was fun to experience a race in a different Swiss city and feel a bit of the holiday love.

Post race!

Munchies after the race