Live, Run, Grow

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living on Cape Cod?

When we were first talking about moving here I can’t tell you how many people said to us, “do you know how boring Cape Cod is in the winter?!?”

Well 3 months in and Jason and I have found more great local activities and events than we ever had where we lived in New York – like this local Jingle Jog 5k, which was part of the Falmouth Holidays by the Sea weekend!

We registered for this race with our friends Allison and Ben who we met through run club (and who coincidentally just moved to the Cape from New York this summer too!).

Having pre-registered, the race was $20 each and honestly at the end we all agreed it was a great value – we got a well organized 5k run, a long sleeve t-shirt and some great snacks at the finish – not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning!

Allison and I picked up our bibs and race shirts the night before…

…we were also given some jingle bells to run with (hence the name Jingle Jog!).

I wasn’t quite sure where to put the bells so they wouldn’t bother me while running, but I ultimately decided on pinning them right to my sneakers!

I was pretty excited about running a holiday themed race and had heard that a lot of people dressed up for this one.  Of course not wanting to miss out I picked up some Christmas attire for Jason and I to wear!

It was cold and rainy at the start, so the four of us hungout in the registration tent until the start (there was an “Elf Run” kids race before the “Jingle Jog”).

When it was time to start we headed right outside and lined up with the other runners.  I’m not quite sure how many people were originally registered and if some didn’t show up because it was so cold and rainy, but I’d say there was about 200 people running which really made it feel like a nice small community event!

Of course being in Falmouth most of the 3.1 mile loop course was along the water and had gorgeous views, in fact much of it followed the Falmouth Road Race course!

Jason had been sick much of this week, so we weren’t really running for time (although oddly the only 5k’s I’ve run have been at Disney (so REALLY not for time) and this was Jason’s first 5k, so there was a good chance it’s be a personal best time for both of us!).

We finished the race in just under 28 minutes – not bad for what wasn’t an all out effort!  (I haven’t seen official times posted, but my watch said 27:44.)

After the race we headed back into the tent where there was coffee, donuts, chowder and ice cream (which of course I ate despite it being FREEZING out!).

And then we ran down to the water for the moment I had been waiting for – Seafaring Santa!

Yup.  We live on Cape Cod, and on Cape Cod Santa arrives by boat!

And Santa didn’t arrive alone – he came with carollers!

There were plenty of other Holidays by the Sea events going on, but we were hungry so we headed over to Main Street for some brunch…

…where we were of course held up by Falmouth’s infamous gang of turkeys!

(Seriously, they’re famous – they were in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago!)

We had a great time doing this race and can’t wait to participate in other local races and events around the Cape!

Are you doing a holiday themed race this year?
Do you participate in small local races?