Holding his position with a strong finishing kick, Florida State University freshman Connor Hollander won the 2013 Jingle Bell Run 3K in downtown Tallahassee on Saturday evening, 7 December. Hollander, formerly a middle-distance runner at Coral Springs Charter School, finished the race in 8:34. Lindsay Taylor was the first woman across the finish line, running 11:14. Taylor is pursuing graduate studies in sports nutrition at Florida State. In spite of forecasts of wet weather, thousands of athletes showed up once again for the annual event.
Before you get excited by the times, consider that the course was somewhere around 300 meters short of three kilometers. Inaccurate courses are a sort of tradition at the Jingle Bell Run. The race route changes frequently, long some years and short others. The distance was allegedly a just-right 3,000 meters in 1988 according to USATF course certification records, but the times from that year would be impossible to check on--another Jingle Bell Run tradition is that no complete race results are ever published.
But that's not what people come for in their thousands. Mostly, everyone is there to run around the streets of Tallahassee in the dark, wearing Santa caps and blinky lights. It's a chance to be part of the Winter Festival parade before the parade actually begins. For this, people endure the crowds and the twenty minutes of pre-run announcements. During this year's pre-event speeches, the weather went from threatening to a drizzle. By the time the runners had cleared the streets a light rain was falling. No one seemed to mind rain on this parade, though.Links
- Complete results of Tallahassee's 2013 Jingle Bell Run
Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas.
- A few more photos of the 2013 Tallahassee Jingle Bell Run
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10103913682969803.1073741934.5215641&l=e72e358c47
- 2012 story, "Jingle Bells peal victory for Linton and Resavage"
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2012/12/tlh-jingle-bell-2012.html
- 2011 story, "Linton and Kurgatt head the horde at Jingle Bell 3K"
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2011/12/tlh-jingle-bell-2011.html
- 2010 story, "Slupecki and Hagen lead a cast of thousands at the Jingle Bell 3K"
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/12/tlh-jingle-bell-2010.html
- 2009 story, "Mizereck masters the mob at Jingle Bell Run"
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2009/12/mizereck-masters-mob-at-jingle-bell-run.html
- Find upcoming races that include timing and results on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
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