The arrival of December means a month filled with holiday parties for most people. However, the enthusiastic turnout at local races over the past two weekends shows that for many local runners December is also a time for festive races, and of course costumes. With gray skies and rain in the forecast, it looked like the weather might be in danger of dampening the festivities at the inaugural 12ks of Christmas Holiday Run in Georgetown on Saturday. Luckily the morning turned out to be a dry one, although race director John Braithwaite admitted that he had been hoping for a dusting of snow to add a little bit more Christmas feeling to the race.
There was plenty of Christmas spirit on display among the 600 competitors in the sold-out races, and a large proportion had gone to a lot of effort to dress up for the occasion. Some of the non-running supporters joined in by wearing Christmas hats, and there was even a dog in a Santa suit. Creatively-named teams entered for the races included the Sugar Plums, Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Holiday Heroes, and a host of Santas, elves and reindeer could be seen gathered around the start-line. The clear crowd favorite however, and pre-race costume award winner, was a warm and furry looking Rudolph.