The Las Vegas Great Santa Run: a paired 5K and 1-mile set of races to benefit a local charity and compete for the Guinness Book of World Records category of " Largest gathering of Santa Claus." Fun!
And added bonus? They announced before the run began that we broke the world record! It's not official yet, though, but if it is, then Life Goal for Zach checked off: be in the Guinness Book of World Records. They didn't have the final count to announce, just that we broke the previous record, but I know looking at the race number bibs people were wearing, we saw numbers over 14000! That's a lot of Santas! Hopefully no one else breaks it before the next Guinness edition is published :)
I loved all the costume variations too. These below were just a few that I saw. There were Santas with all sorts of hat variations, a handful of elves, Waldo (as in Where's Waldo), Christmas Elvis, a Mrs. Claus or two, tons of dog costumes... Such creativity! There are some great pictures in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's photo slideshow of the event, and in the ESPN video of the event. Oh, and the purple reindeer antlers you see in a lot of the pictures were a hand-out from one of the race sponsors, so not really a 'costume variation' per se... ;)
The run is a charity event to benefit Opportunity Village, an assistance facility for adults with intellectual disabilities. Assisted living options, vocational training, recreation... all sorts of programs are offered. So, not only is it a fun event, the run supports a really good cause! And of course, any charity event comes with guest celebrities. Below you see the Las Vegas mayor, Santa, and a pair of show girls. Robin Leach was also there! (His write-up of the event said that the bib numbers topped out at 14,595!!)
This is really more of a "run" than a "race." From a race perspective, it was crowded, and the course was confusing (two laps through a portion of the shopping center, then a final lap around a larger loop to the finish line). Not everyone knew where the course was exactly, and with that many people... just more confusion. Still, I wasn't looking for a fast run. I wanted to have fun, support a good cause, and stretch my legs before the half marathon on Sunday. Listening to people talk in the crowds on both Saturday and Sunday, there were a lot of other runners there dressed as Santa with the same idea in mind!
So, in short, If you're looking for a PR-type 5K, this is not the event for you. If you're looking for a fun run benefiting a good cause, then definitely check it out if you're in the area! Who knows, you might be lucky and be there for a year they break the record in the future!
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