The event was fun-filled and festive, smashing recent year’s ‘Santa Run’ numbers with over 400 participants braving racecourse headwinds in their Santa suits to make their way around the 5K course, dotted with a range of varied and brightly coloured obstacle challenges set up by Extreme Adventure.
Once they had climbed the final inflatable wall, and slid down to the finishing straight, they were awarded a unique festive snowflake medal and then enjoyed relaxing in the Falstaff Bar where there was a Christmas Fayre with festive stalls including local companies, Vin Neuf, the Little Gin Company and Henley Chocolate.
Teams of santas enjoyed a vigorous warm up by Anytime Fitness before setting out around the obstacle course. Team ‘Langman’s Little Helpers’ from Langman’s Dental in Stratford were all smiles as one of the first groups to set off and there was an all-female team from ‘Zig Zag’ Women’s Fitness and Motivation.
A few of the teams were groups of families and friends who had come together to celebrate the memory of a loved one that had been supported by the hospice. Janet Frenchum organised teams, aptly named ‘Bruce’s Champagne Filleys’ and ‘Bruce Bog Trotters’ to run in memory of her husband, and former Shakespeare Hospice patient, Bruce Frenchum.
Gavin Daniels, Community Relationship Fundraiser at The Shakespeare Hospice said:
“We were thrilled at the amount of support and the enthusiasm of all the Santas. It was amazing to see red dots all around the racecourse, tackling obstacles with huge smiles on their faces as they came through the finish.
“A huge thank you to all our local supporters, too many to mention all of them, but especially Extreme Adventure, White Stuff, David Lee Solicitors, Barbers Flooring and Guy Salmon Landrover in Stratford who have all been very generous.
We look forward to seeing even more Santas next year!”
