The MRC Annual Holiday Fun Run

Some people dressed up in holiday costumes. Most of us wore our Halloween costumes of reflective vests, colorful clothing and head lamps.

We jogged through the streets of Melrose like horribly lost carolers looking for the next house party.

Our Social Committee put together a series of tasks for us to carry out. Some requiring physical dexterity, others mental dexterity.

I was appointed Team Captain by The Director. My main contributions were the team name and making sure no one got lost. Pretty odd given that I had little idea of where we were going!

At one stop we had to toss ping-pong balls into cups of water. We were also encouraged to drink beer which made it more difficult the second time you had to go and take aim.

At another stop we had to carry an un-cooked egg on a spoon and pass it to the next team member. At this stop we were invited to drink egg-nogg, spiked if we chose to.

Our team arrived back at the Knights of Columbus hall in second place. So we figured we did not win. We did not know how points would be tabulated but we figured another team must have consumed more beers than us and received more drinking points than we did.

As Katherine was announcing the winner she said all the teams were pretty close. Some points were awarded on judgement calls. To make things fairer she went to the bar up stairs and had the patrons vote on our team names.

Apparently my reference to an 80’s Irish band Dexies Midnight Runners helped, as we were proclaimed the winners. Our award was the feeling of being winners and of having a good time.

I came up with our name off the top of my head. No idea where that came from! Here is a YouTube vid of what I think is their only hit, “Come on Eileen.” A blast from 1982! A real old school MTV video.

These photos are each team re-enacting a family holiday tradition. I did not take any of these photos. All poached from Facebook!

Happy New Year

I’m going to take a few days off from social media. I might even shut off my smart phone! So besides a few carefully scheduled posts and tweets, you won’t be hearing from me until 2015.

Unlike Thanksgiving, I haven’t found many Christmas Day runs. You can find these on cool running so I won’t list them here. I may jog to the Post Office to send some very last-minute cards and bills, but not a lot of running for the next few days either.

Time to start planning for next year.

• Any racing goals?
• Is there a destination race you want to do in 2015?
• Any challenges you are taking on in 2015?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!

Live well my friends!

Andy