Santa Shuffle

This year I decided I wanted to help out a charity.

Namely, the Sally Ann.
Or the Salvation Army, if we want to get all technical.

This worked out well, 'cause I was also doing this thing called the C25K.

(More on that, though, in another post.)

Knowing that all the guys in my office are also very health conscious folks (They work out EVERYDAY at lunchtime in the gym facility our office building is equipped with) I asked them if they'd like to join my endeavour. I sent an email to our entire Candian team (yep, all 12 of them!) to see who might want to join in.

Hey guys,
I know a lot of you having been hitting the gym at lunch almost every day and I thought what better way to celebrate your success on the third floor than to participate in a fun, 5K race for a great cause??
The race takes place on December 4th 2010 at 10am.
There is a fundraising component to this as well, in order to support the Salvation Army and their effort to feed some families.
It costs about $50 to feed a couple and $100.00 to feed a family. It’s not a requirement for the race at all; feel free to solicit donations from family/friends at your own discretion.
Please let me know if you are interested and I will get us registered! It should be a ton of fun – a little chilly perhaps – but a ton of fun!

Then, the President of our company sent me a follow up e-mail offering not only to pay for the entrance fee of $150 but also to match dollar for dollar everything we raised.

As a team, we put up a pretty impressive $1060.00 which in turn was doubled. It was more than I expected from the company but it was certainly a welcome addition to the event.

I was speechless, needless to say, and overwhelmed by the generosity that so defines the company I work for.

Here's a few shots of us before the race:

And after:

It was a mild -12 degrees C that morning.

Not too bad, actually, for running!

I finished in a time of 42:40 which beat my time of 45:00 that I was aiming for!

Next one I am aiming to shave about 11 minutes off that time and going for a 32:00min run.

Elsie P

PS - Which do you prefer, running indoors or out?