On Sunday members of Goodgym South West (ten from Bristol & one from Bath) hit the sands of the quintessential British seaside resort of Weston Super Mare for the 29th annual Weston Christmas Cracker 10k, amongst 2,500 Santa’s, elves, snowmen, fairies and menagerie of Christmas characters that swarmed onto the beach.

With runners encouraged to wear fancy dress, so the tale of Santa’s wheelbarrow sleigh team began, in a bar in the weeks running up to the event, with a combined love of wheelbarrows & a friendly challenge, in that if Mr B Senior could combine a task into the run he would earn the much coveted reward of receiving a Goodgym cheer from Caroline!

And all it took was a little help from his friends… The electronically charged ‘Blitzen’ in his lightening tights, a space-age ‘Comet’ in a super hero cape, the ballet-reindeer ‘Dancer’, ‘Donner’ (kebab), the light footed ‘Prancer’, the naughtiest trickster ‘Vixen’, Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer and Santa’s little helpers; an elf and a snow-woman…and in true Goodgym style Team GG combined a beach run & litter pick!

Despite our efforts to enter the fancy dress competition (team entry), our entry was a little overlooked, and it wasn’t until the race was underway that others really caught on….with a fellow runner overheard; “have you seen the Santa with the wheelbarrow over there! All the reindeers are running around him picking up litter and putting it in his wheelbarrow! That’s such a good idea!” And so grew the respect for the bearded man in red trying to weave his wheelbarrow sleigh in between hundreds of runners without taking their legs out, accompanied by a rather comical band of associates who jingled their way along the beach, ducking and diving for litter!

Thankfully, with this being my first ever 10k run, the Christmas Cracker was a flat route that zigged up and down the beach and then on to the road and promenade as you headed back to the Grand Pier and finish, and we couldn’t have been luckier in terms of the beautiful December sunshine, although it has to be said we perhaps underestimated how warm it would be in those costumes! But I take my reindeer-shaped hat off to Mr B, because as we passed 5k I struggled to keep up with Santa and his wheelbarrow sleigh, hitting the finish a couple of minutes after he and the rest of the team. Pleased I’d managed to run 10K without stopping, Mr B pushed his sleigh barrow the whole 10K!

After a few stretches we headed back to race HQ to collect our complimentary mince pie & Christmas Cracker t-shirt – then it was off to a nearby pub, parking up the sleigh barrow out front, before heading in for a well-earned lunch and MONSTER roast!

Was a lovely lovely day! Well-deserved cheers all round for Mr B & Team GG! 

Emma