Between the cold weather and a packed calendar of holiday events, many runners may have trouble finding the motivation to run through the holiday season. However, holiday races and New Year’s Eve runs can make the holidays both healthy and fun, and can keep both serious and leisurely runners fit and inspired into the new year.
Jingle Bell Runs And Holiday Walks
Most cities across the United States sponsor holiday races intended to get people moving, enjoy the outdoors, and celebrate the festive spirit by benefiting certain causes and charities. The popular Jingle Bell Run/Walk, for example, is sponsored by the Arthritis Foundation and is offered in many cities and towns throughout the months of November and December. The fitness website Active.com contains a searchable database of holiday races, which runners can use to find events nearest them.
Races can be a particularly enjoyable way to celebrate the holiday season, as they often combine and embody the most festive, positive attributes of the giving season. Holiday runs provide community members the opportunity to gather together under a common cause, both cheerful and charitable. They can often be a fun family event to attend together, and a way for everyone to stay fit and healthy in a joyful manner. Holiday races also allow runners to revel in the cold weather, and appreciate its invigorating qualities rather than avoid the outdoors until spring.
New Year’s Eve Races
For those without solid New Year’s Eve plans, many cities throughout the United States also offer New Year’s Even runs. Such events are planned both as a revitalizing way to ring in the new year, and as a way to jump-start fitness resolutions. In fact, many New Year’s Eve races are aptly named “Resolution Run,” and Active.com contains a searchable database of these as well, in addition to holiday races.
New Year’s Eve runs are offered everywhere across the United States, from large cities to small towns. The New York Road Runners sponsor the annual Emerald Nuts Midnight Run through Central Park in New York City, which includes dancing, a costume parade and fireworks leading up to the four-mile race at midnight. Smaller towns host similar celebrations as well, such as the Get Lit Run in Peoria, Illinois. This race begins just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, and includes a two-mile run through the town’s Winter Wonderland drive-through lights display, and a pizza party to follow. Such celebrations are offered in towns throughout the country, and can be a celebratory, festive way to ring in the new year.
Whether on New Year’s Eve or throughout the month of December, holiday races can be invigorating events for runners that promote the best impulses of the season. They promote health and wellness, they provide participants the opportunity to give back in a charitable way, and they allow runners to enjoy the season and each other in a festive atmosphere. Such races are positive additions to the holiday season, and may even become a holiday tradition of their own for many runners and their families.
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