Not Your Ordinary Exercise

I don’t know about you but I often get tired of getting dressed in the morning. I suppose being the son of an Image Strategist (whom I love dearly), the mantra of trying to “wear a ten” every day can wear you down over the long haul.

When I woke up this morning, however, something was different. I knew that it wouldn’t be your ordinary getting dressed day. As I was putting on clothes this morning (and yes, I too do it one leg at a time in case you were wondering), my suspicions that today was different were confirmed: 

I was putting on a Santa suit.

Not only that but I was putting on a Santa suit just like 1200 other anomalistic folks in Oxfordshire today- to go for a run.

Santas On The Run is a charitable organization that sets up these runs all over the UK to raise money for various charities. The Navy people were putting a team together and, an experience junkie par excellence, could not pass up on the opportunity. 

I made sure to get a few pictures as to not lose the joy of the moment.

Getting In Character

I also pieced together a few thoughts on my experience while I was running:

-There were many children at the run. I can imagine this would be a slightly traumatizing scene for an undeveloped mind that is incapable of abstract thought. Before Santa was isolated at the North Pole and at occasional visits to the mall. Now he was everywhere, including in the form of mom and dad! I don’t know what the age is when you can put together the idea that people can actualy dress up as Santa and that the guy in the mall merely works for the real Santa but I’m sure for those wee ones in the transition years, today was paradigm shattering. It’s kind of like when we evangelicals learn that God might have used evolutionary processes to make the world.

-After running for 2 miles in a Santa costume I found myself thinking, “How does Santa do this all around the world in one night?” Then I snapped out of it, recalling that I was a student of Oxford University and how silly my question was. Of course he doesn’t have to physically run around like that! Santa has a magic sleigh and reindeer to take him around.

-You may be wondering how did I, Santa #921, place. Given the relationship between the fact that the run was set up in a race format and my competitive nature I would say, “Not bad.” I tried to stay near the front of the Santa but I have been very vocal in the past about my disdain for running and many finished ahead of me.

Given my stocky nature I thought I would fit the Santa stereotype well and that there would be many others of similar stocky ilk running the race with me. I was deceived. At the end of the race I walked by some of the people that placed ahead of me. They were disrobing and revealed they had spandex outfits under their suits! They were actually runners disguised as Santa Claus! I was appalled just like you probably are right now.

-If modern day Santa movies tell us anything it is that Santa is getting old and needs a reluctant middle aged Anglo-Saxon, business man to be his successor. The good news is that today I saw many great candidates who didn’t need the stereotypical middle aged reality check but who were more than willing to train for the position should it become available.

To think that this sort of training was going on in cities all over the West this month, it reminds me that we have nothing to worry about.

Successful Santa succession will continue on in this generation.