Santa Hustle Half Marathon

Late race report so I’ll keep this pretty short.



3 of many Santas. Me, Jim & Coy


I wanted to do one last half marathon before the end of the year.  Finding one in the winter is not easy.  We came across the Santa Hustle Half Marathon in Indy and I was sold immediately.  You got a Santa shirt, hat, and beard as well as Christmas music, cookies, and candy along the course.  And the best part was that it was only a 7 hour drive for Jim and I…not bad really, and a 3 hour drive for my friend Coy of First in Philly so she decided to do it with us.

Coy & I exchanging gifts.  Merry Christmas plate

The gift that keeps on giving...a photo of yourself :)  (pic of Coy and I at the Flying Pig Half Marathon)

We got into Indy late Saturday and enjoyed some dinner and the Christmas lights.  Indy was nicely decorated for the Holiday.

The next morning we joined a few thousand other Santa’s for the race which consisted of a 5K or a Half Marathon.  I think more people were doing the 5K than the half, but there was still a nice crowd.  The race area was full of Holiday cheer with a giant blow up snowmen, reindeer and Santa.  They also had a few real life reindeer on site.

Jim doing his best Santa impression - hard to do when you have zero belly fat.

The course itself was not that exciting, but it was fun to run with my good friend Coy.  Running with someone makes the time go by so much faster.  Coy and I decided to take it easy and enjoy the race, especially since we are both doing my 5K a Day Challenge and we had put in quite a bit of mileage leading up to the race.  We did a run/walk ratio of 5 minutes run and 1 minute walk.  This seemed to work well.  And honestly if we hadn’t stopped twice for the bathroom, our total time would have been closer to 2:30 instead of 2:36, which is about where I’ve been all year.

Time flew and before I knew it the race was over.  I did partake of a few cookies and some M&Ms along the course….of course.

The race swag was good, but there was no crowd support and very little volunteer support.  The tables were full of water and Gatorade and cookies and candy, but they were usually just piled up on the table with 1 or 2 people manning it.  This was a little disappointing.  But overall it was still a good time and I would recommend the race to others.  They did offer a buffet after the race but only from 11-12.  If you didn’t make it by noon, they offered fresh warm pretzels instead.  We did get either, but I suppose it was a nice perk.

After the race we showered and had lunch and then jumped in the car for the much longer 7 hour

drive home so we could be back at work Monday morning!