Myself and a fellow wannabe climber, Yvie, arrived at Bouverie Place Shopping Centre at 11am on a clear bright Sunday to a very surreal experience, being surrounded by hundreds of people dressed as Santa with a few random reindeers thrown in.
We collected our Santa suits which included, jacket, trousers, hat, beard and belt and adorned our outfits in the middle of the heaving throng of Santas and bewildered shoppers.
I did wonder what people who were not from Folkestone or not aware of the Santa Fun Run thought when they turned the corner to be confronted by hundreds of people dressed up as Father Christmas, I'm sure there were a lot of confused faces!
After a photo shoot by the Press........well, Gary from the Kentish Express, we took our positions behind the runners as this was a strictly walking thing for us, as I kept saying to numerous onlookers cheering us on, 'You can't run up Kilimanjaro'.
A countdown began and the runners were off..............leaving a huge gap between them and us, the walkers. Myself and Yvie found ourselves leading the walking pack so we tried to set an example and sped off with a maximum speed of at least 2mph. By the time we got to the traffic lights by Debenhams we were exhausted so we slowed our pace to enable the stragglers to catch up, this included an elderly lady with a dog......
We reached The Leas where we paused to admire the view over the English Channel and take a few photos to show our progress so far and realised that we were possibly the last of the thousand runners/walkers taking part in the event. As I explained to Yvie, the first and the last are always remembered........
Upon our arrival at the zig zag path we chatted with some other ladies also taking part who kindly took some photos of us whilst we imitated the art of running........we did have to explain to the lady that we were actually pretending to run in a Bionic Man sort of style after she kept urging us to 'Run, run'....
We then proceeded through the coastal park where we debated whether to pose for photos on the drag slide but after deciding that we would have to physically remove the children from them we thought it wouldn't be such a good idea. The image of children being traumatised by two women dressed as Santa dragging them off the slide was a not a good one.
Now this is where I reveal a secret and only those of you that read this will ever know about it..........as we left the Coastal Park, the stewards monitoring the race directed ourselves and other 'stragglers' towards some wooden stairs leading up the cliff to The Leas.........basically the course was cut short for us as the stewards wanted to 'Get home for dinner before the sun set'....
With heavy hearts we started to climb the wooden steps, and my God this is where we realised how unfit we were and how much training we would need to do for Kilimanjaro!
The steps were endless but luckily there were areas where we could stop, sit and admire the views, which we did........often! Although we told ourselves that we were just being polite and letting other stragglers pass us.
It was during this time that I asked Yvie if she had prayed for the snow to return or some other calamity, i.e., another Folkestone earthquake, we've only had two, we must be due for another. She replied........'Yes'..........I reassured her how much fun we were having as we stumbled over the last few steps and found ourselves back at The Leas with Santas running towards us from the official route.
This was the final straight, the finish line was in sight, we were nearly there, although I did have to pose for another photo opportunity on a bench.
The finish line which was located by The Leas Lifts was eventually within our sight so in true 'Chariots of Fire' style we ran.............those last few steps were the hardest of our journey but we had done it!!!!
We received our medals which are actually made of metal and not plastic, posed for photos and collected our freebies, a bottle of water and some Mr Men fridge sticky things......no, we have no idea why either.
We had completed the race within an hour!!!!
We then rang my husband to see if he could collect us from Bouverie Place as we were physically and emotionally drained.....
Whilst walking through Bouverie Place we were accosted by some foreign language students who asked if they could buy our medals. I replied 'No, I'm sorry, we've shed blood,sweat and tears for these', Yvie's reply.......'Yeah 100 quid!'.........
We sent them off to see the organisers on The Leas and said that they may consider selling some to the students for a donation to charity.
We returned home jubilant!
Our verdict on the Santa Fun Run? It was brilliant, we had fun, we had a laugh, and it's a great way to raise money for charity! Due to the fact we registered late we didn't have enough time to do any proper fundraising but next year we aim to take part again and Ciara, my youngest daughter, wants to do the mini run for children. It's well worth doing and it's always for a great cause!
Googies at 7.30pm. I shall be showing Caroline and Angies DVD diary again, it's well worth watching!
Please come along if you are interested in doing the mountain climbing thaaang or know anyone else who might be, all are welcome!
