Dashing thru the sand in Grand Cayman

Today was the annual dashing thru the sand run on Grand Cayman. I say that like I knew it as a world famous event but I only actually heard of it 3 days ago.

I arrived in Grand Cayman on 22^nd December ready for a sunny Christmas ahead of a friend’s wedding on the 29^th. Picking up the hire czar I was perusing the usual racks of tourist brochures and  came across a “what’s on” guide and gave that a flick. Two things stood out to me:

1) A recipe for Egg Nog

2) An advert for the dashing thru the sand run

In my head I agreed to both. First things first. it was time to make some Egg Nog. I have never made it from scratch before but can tell you now that every festive season from now on it will be as traditional as mince pies, Christmas tunes and Starbucks Eggnog lattes.

I then signed up for the dashing thru the sand event. Only a few hours later I got a personal  email from the organiser to welcome me to the island and to let me know all the final  arrangements for the day. I think he was excited that I had travelled from London….a detail I would realise why later on after the race.

On Christmas morning I had a swim in the sea at sunrise accompanied by some Prosecco on the beach. I then decided to have a short run along the beach in order to prepare for the race the next day. It. Was. Hard. The heat was quite something to contend with (I am certain the lobster we had later on for Christmas dinner could have BBQ’d itself) but the sand was pretty deep and every step was a challenge. It reminded me of when I first started getting into running back in 2010 when I took a trip to Carbis Bay in Cornwall and would run on the beach before breakfast. Again a beautiful beach but harder to train on than the roads of London.

So getting up this morning we made our way down to the start where we met Jerry (the race organiser) to say hello and to pick up our t-shirts. It was a very friendly atmosphere and everyone was still in the Christmas spirit. Some wore Santa hats. Some wore reindeer antlers (moi included.) Some wore halos. Some simply looked like seasoned beach runners with no tops on. They looked good. Those would be the people I needed to chase. I also followed their lead and removed my trainers to run barefoot (also slightly aided by the fact I had just been caught by a rogue wave and was soaking.)

We started at 07:30 so the heat was not so strong. We ran along the beautiful 7 mile beach (not all of it….just 1.5 miles) and the stretch that we took was on less of a camber than my run the day before and on much harder sand. It was really fun. Running barefoot was a real treat and I would say something I would adopt forever but I know that it will only be whenever I have the chance to run on sand. Occasionally the waves came right up onto the beach which was a welcome cool down as well as making me feel like David Hasselhof or was it Pamela Anderson? You decide.

I finished in a healthy 7^th place out of around 200 people I think. Coconut water was in abundance at the end (this is the Caribbean after all) as well as a breakfast buffet at a beach bar. They announced the prizes for the top 4 men and women finishers as well as giving a prize for the person that had travelled the furthest to get to the race. We lost out to some people from France but were then given a special present for making our way from London. A lovely gesture.

A lovely race in a lovely country. I will run on the beach every day until I leave…..

The start area....a lot warmer than waiting for the start of races in winter in the UK:

Headgear at the ready:

Along 7 mile beach we go:

Baywatch envy, Can you spot me?

Finished!

The Liverpool Santa Dash

The Santa Dash in Liverpool is the World's largest Santa run. Last year Liverpool faced up to the challenge from Las Vegas to gain the coveted title and Liverpool won. Hurrah.

So this year the Santas were out in force again and I believe there were over 10,000 of us taking part today. I like to think that after today the city has retained it's crown as the greatest Santa fun run on Earth. I heard a rumour during the race that the city is potentially not gong to do the race next year but I hope this turns out not to be true. I will be devastated if it doesn't go ahead in 2015.

So the format today was the same as last year whereby you could choose to run in either a red or blue Santa suit dependent on whether you are a Liverpool or Everton supporter. I ran with various members of my family with all of us adopting a red suit except for my sister who was in blue. We also had my little niece (just short of her second birthday) to take along the 5km route in her running buggy. She was also very festive and dressed in red.

As a family team we were also carrying the following handicaps:

1 of us had a chest infection and tonsillitis

1 of us had a swollen and painful knee from a fall earlier in the week

1 had a hangover

I was up drinking with the aforementioned person until 3am. (i.e. 6.5 hours prior to the race.) 

A healthy bunch if ever there was one eh?

The atmosphere at the start line was excellent. Despite it being a little breezy down at the docks the mighty setting of the Liver Building and thousands of Santas was enough to get the adrenaline going and stay warm. My trousers were way too big and fell down twice. Dirty old Santa = me. Fortunately we had safety pins to salvage the situation. We started near the back of the crowd since I had the buggy and soon we passed the start line to the sound of Christmas tunes and we were on our way. Marvellous.

I love Christmas and the build up to it so today was a perfect way to get further into the Christmas spirit (if the prosecco and mince pies the night before weren't enough.) I have to say though at the start I felt a little upset as my Mum and Dad would have loved to have been part of this event and what has now become a newly made family tradition. Don't get me wrong; they may not necessarily have been running with us but most certainly would have been watching from the sidelines at the very least. It just made me a little sad that they are not here to share in it.

But on with the show we went. After all; I had a buggy (not an empty one) to push for the next 5km. 

The route went through town and being at the back of the pack meant we had excellent views of the thousands of red (and occasional blue) people ahead of us. It was awesome. The weather was pretty kind to us and my niece didn't moan once during the course. She's a star. 

Despite our ailments we crossed the finish line together under snowfall that the city had kindly arranged for us. It was a shame we had to break it to my cousin that it was indeed fake snow and not real as she first had thought. Still a magical moment though. 

Post run sausages and bacon butties were the order of the day followed by watching Home Alone by the open fire. 

It has been the most simple race to sum up in three words.

A wonderful day.

Number, beard and hat at the ready

Niece ready

A beautiful niece in front of a beautiful building

The docks fill with Santas

The dream team at the ready

Sibling selfie: Red vs. Blue

Almost ready

Let's go!

It's tiring being pushed for 5km

Lovely and festive. Time to get warm post run

Ken Dodd at Liverpool Lime Street. Clearly the make over victim of some runners