London Santa Run 2014

What a great morning running around Battersea Park with hundreds of other Santas. The Santa Run was organised by 209 Events. Our £25 got us our race number and Santa Suit ticket mailed to us in advance. We exchanged the tickets at the Millennium Stadium close to the start point. A bag drop was available but I don't know how well manned it was as we left our valuables in a friend's car. The un-timed 6k event consisted of a warm up at the pagoda central to the park, before completing two laps around the main park pathway. 

It was a good vibe on the run with a handful of people taking a more serious pace. My friend Alex brought a flag to help us find each other as it's difficult to find your friends when everyone is dressed the same! The flag was such a good call as it allowed me to run off or hold back to film the action before rejoining them.

Our friend Muhayman was there representing his charity Wheels and Wheelchairs who were at the front of the pack to keep safe from the runners. There were a few other wheelchair users and kids on scooters on the wheels side of things. A lot of runner brought their dogs dressed in Santa attire as well.

The Santa Run overlapped the Easy Saturday Skate's weekly meetup in the park, which I regularly attend. My fellow skaters loved watching the runners, but weren't quite sure why I'd choose to run around the park!

The sun was out on this frosty morning and I captured some brilliant footage of my run group, my skater friends as well as other runners on the event. I feel I have to give a special shout out to the Spanish ladies for giving me a really enthusiastic wave for my camera. Gracias. 

As we crossed the finish line we were given a nice gold medal as well as a bottle of water. It was funny seeing Santas doing their post run stretches in the park.

Summary.
Overall the event is very well organised and the marshals were great in supporting us on the way round. The only thing that was missing was a bit of music. Guess I'm spoilt with the sound system we have on the London Santa Skate. However it didn't stop a few people singing their way around the park with Christmas carols...