…Well, to be honest it hasn’t been really, has it? It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were basking in one of the warmest Novembers on record, the news is as depressing as ever and everyone seems to have a cold – more bah humbug than happy Christmas!
However, that all changed for a small group of GWR runners on Sunday 4th December. They made their annual pilgrimage to Weston (or ‘the Bethlehem of Somerset’ as it’s never been called before) to partake in a 10K race along the seafront. There they joined with wisemen, stars, angels, Christmas puddings, elves, Santas and a whole host of other colourful characters (even a Christmas lobster!) on the start line of the 34th Weston Christmas Cracker race.
For those who haven’t run it before, the race starts under the pier, loops around the beach for about 7k, then has a couple of km on road before the final push back on the sand to finish under the pier – oh, and almost everyone wears some form of fancy dress! Representing the club this year we had the White Witch from Narnia, a penguin, several elves and a Christmas tree! It’s not all just fancy dress and running though; the race raises somewhere in the region of £10,000 for Weston Hospicecare. Running, fancy dress and donating to a good cause – what’s not to love?
As anyone who’s run a Prom race will know, there are 2 things you can expect from a Weston AC event: amazing volunteers and horrible weather! The weather was actually pretty good for December. We had a light northerly wind, which meant it was cold (not in a penguin onesie), but also blew you along the beach. Thankfully there was no sign of the heavy rain forecast for the morning. As for amazing volunteers, we had them by the bucketful. Not only had Weston AC somehow managed to reissue everyone with a new start number on the morning of the race (postal strikes meaning around 2000+ run numbers weren’t delivered), but they also had incredibly enthusiastic marshals every few hundred meters cheering us all on.
I can only imagine how stressful the few days leading up to the race must have been and was so impressed with the way they organised, then re-orgnaised and then re-re-organised everything. They definitely deserve the title of second-best running club in the Bristol area! If you bump into any of the Weston AC team over the festive period, please do buy them a drink on our behalf – they thoroughly earned it! Although I expect they’ll all be lying down somewhere in a darkened room until at least the end of January!
As for times, we’re still waiting the official results (understandably with all the reissuing of numbers), but one stand-out performance I know about was Clare Meraz. She finished 3rd lady with a 10K pb (on sand dressed as the White Witch!) of 40:58.
So, it is finally beginning to look a lot like Christmas, mostly thanks to Weston AC and the Christmas Cracker!
