'Tis the Season

Let us go back. Way back to last Thursday when I plopped myself down on the couch, laptop in hand. I was bright eyed and eager to register myself for a New York Road Runners Race called the Jingle Bell Jog. This was to be a 5 mile race in Prospect Park (Brooklyn). There were two reasons for my excitement over this. First, all runners were to receive a technical tee. Remember, I'm cheap. I don't spend money on technical t-shirts. One might argue that the money spent registering for races is effectively buying the shirt, but I like to think that at least then you sort of get two for one. Anyway, I like to take every opportunity I can to augment my small (but growing) collection of technical shirts. The second reason was that the race description promised there would be jingle bells for your shoes. JINGLE BELLS. Best swag of the season? Quite possibly.

So there I was eagerly anticipating my technical tee, jingle bells, and a nice Saturday morning race. I visited the NYRR website and clicked on the race page only to be horrified. The price of the race? $50! My face looked a little like this:

So much for that. $50 is just too much to pay for a 5 miler. I pay half that much for each of the Half Marathon Grand Prix races and they're more than twice as long!

But I digress. Part of the allure here was that it was a holiday race. These are really fun, particularly if you're just getting into running and want to cut your teeth on a low-pressure race. They're often family friendly (even pets are sometimes welcome!) and you'll find racers dressed in costumes that fit with whatever the holiday theme happens to be. These races exist for pretty much any holiday during the year, but during this time you'll have Turkey Trots (a little late for these), Christmas runs, New Year's runs, etc. Here in New York City we have the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run, which takes place in Central Park and begins at midnight on New Year's Day. I LOVE this run. I'd love it more if I could ever round up a group of people to do it in costume. Shockingly enough there aren't many who are eager to leave their New Year's Eve revelry to run 4 miles. Who knew?

Do your holiday plans involve a run or race? Is there a particularly notable run that happens near you? If so, happy holiday racing!