Santa Claus Shuffle

The Santa Claus Shuffle is a 3 mile fun run in Manchester that debuted last year with thousands of people coming downtown to run Elm Street wearing a Santa suit. This year was no different. Participants received a free suit with their registration. Those who opted not to wear the suits were encouraged to dress in a holiday costume or wear red. 

I was looking forward to running this event again because the girls were planning a meet up. It got even better when we started coordinating our outfits. Katherine ordered Peppermint Swirl Sweaty Bands and I picked up some matching holiday socks to go with our red shirts and black pants. 

As with most of the downtown weekend events, we parked in the comfortable garage right near Stanton Plaza and then made our way to bib pick up by cutting through the Radisson Hotel lobby. Thanks to modern technology, I easily found all of the girls before the start of the race. After watching the kids run their 50 yard dashes, we made our way into the start corrals. There were so many people lining up for this event that we completely ignored the designated pace signs and just found an open spot and tried to keep warm.

Once we were actually moving, my body temperature stayed comfortable in my new Nike Pro Thermal Training Shirt and I think I made the right call by wearing my Aspaeris compression shorts under my Nike capris. My toes, even with my Zensah compression socks under my cute holiday knee highs from Target, were painfully cold in my Mizuno Wave Rider 15s, but warmed up before the halfway point. On the other hand, my ears stayed nice and toasty the whole time since I was wearing my Sprigs Earbags. It didn't hurt to be surrounded by thousands of runners in Santa suits either!

Saturday's weather was perfectly suited for the Queen City event with temperatures in the low 30s and light snow covering the streets. A winter weather advisory did not interfere with the line up of events: Kid's Elf Runs, the Shuffle, post-race pizza and beer, and the Manchester Holiday Parade. The cold weather also didn't keep the spectators from lining the streets again this year with their cheers and bells.

The Millennium Running Company produced another fun event that certainly captured the spirit of the holidays and had me humming Here Comes Santa Claus on the way home. 

How do you combine exercise with your holiday?

Combine exercise with the NEW YEAR by joining the first ever Chilly Challenge and logging as many miles as you can for a chance to win some fabulous prizes. Check out all the details here or skip right to the sign-up part and be sure to choose #TeamEscapades! Then be sure to invite all your friends - more people = more miles!