Remember that one time when I said that the Run 4 Donuts was going to be my last race of the year? I liiieeed …

I heard about Brennan’s Ugly Sweater Run back in September, I believe, but it took me a while to decide whether or not I wanted to participate. (I had no ugly Christmas sweater, after all!) After canvasing social media to see if someone wanted to join me, my mom said she’d come as long as she could walk, and I told her she could as long as she didn’t mind if I ran. She didn’t, so finally at the end of October we registered! Isla even decided to join in, so she walked/ran with my mom.

A little back story on the run itself: It’s a 5k Fun Run organized by a young lady (Payton) whose brother was killed by a drunk driver when he was 10 years old. He was a lover of all things Christmas, so in honour of him, Payton created Brennan’s Ugly Sweater Run, with 100% of the proceeds going towards the Boys & Girls Club Power Start Program.

Our “ugly” sweaters! A homage to John McClane and a sweet little llama!

We had been fortunate enough to have really nice weather so far, but alas, on Thursday we finally got a little dump of snow. Thankfully, the weather stayed relatively decent, so the trail/path we would be running on was mostly clear of snow and ice. The only downer was that on run day the wind had picked up and it was fairly chilly, but once we all got moving it wasn’t so bad. (Thank goodness I opted to squeeze a Santa hat on my head, or else my ears probably would’ve froze off.)

I’m so thankful that the ran was being hosted close to my house on a trail/path that I’ve ran before, so I knew what to expect! The hills were tougher in the cold, but manageable, although having to slide down a path to get to the trail wasn’t ideal. (No fault to the race organizer – Mother Nature doesn’t care about your plans!) I believe Isla slipped a couple of times, but she insisted on finishing the race, much to my mom’s dismay, haha. (The race was two 2.5k loops, so instead of stopping after 1 loop like many of the other walkers, Isla protested and said they HAVE to finish properly!)

I finished with a time of about 35:15, which I’m pretty happy with considering the weather, course condition, and the fact that I made the silly decision to try out weight training the Friday before the race and exhausted every muscle in my body, haha.

I’m looking forward to next year’s Ugly Sweater Run already and want to congratulate Payton on a job well done in honouring her brother! The support from the community for the race was unbelievable for it only being the second annual event, so it will be exciting to see where this goes in the future!

Now I’m done racing for the year ;)