I received entry into the A Christmas Story Virtual Run as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

I have an amazing running friend who always says to me when it comes to running, “If it’s not fun, don’t do it”. I often hear her wise words when struggling through a tough race or race and ask myself, am I really having fun, an ultimately the answer is yes (even if I don’t realize it at first). Ultimately, I love running and every run, even crap runs, make you just a bit better.

But I’ll be honest, this year it has been a struggle to keep things fun. 2020 has been a lot. I’ve struggled through having knee surgery this year and basically everything that makes running fun has been cancelled or deferred. Finding the fun has been hard. So when I heard about the A Christmas Story and Elf Virtual Races, I totally thought to myself, this looks like an opportunity to make some fun! 

Always a party with this Festive Chick!

The moment I learned about the races, I messaged my trusting running bestie, Kim (aka BarkingMadAboutRunning) and told her we HAVE to plan one of our Epic Race Day Adventures (see here for our last one: http://box5183.temp.domains/~joshuany/runnerdgirl/2020/06/run-for-zoo-virtual-recap.html. She was immediately in, because OF COUSE SHE WAS!! 


First off, I knew which races we would be doing. We’ve had this ongoing thing for years that Kim is super into Christmas to the extreme (basically Buddy) and I am way more of a Ralphie (I’d totally shoot my eye out) so she would be running the Elf Virtual Run and I would tackle the A Christmas Story Virtual Run. 

Race day will be Dec 20 and we are going to have an amazing race day event at Kim’s house. We’ll do our 5Ks in her neighborhood. After, we are planning themed events – Christmas treats and cheerful run for Elf and a Red Ryder BB shooting contest for ACS (her hubby actually has a REAL one!!) There will be décor and themed stuff for both movies. Then, we plan to watch both movies, and especially since I have never seen Elf (can you believe it) we are going to “live tweet” as we watch. So feel free to join in with us on Twitter the day of the event. We are still working out the time for maximum-festivity, but I will post. 

And speaking of joining us, why not go ahead and register as well! 

You can join #TeamRalphie here: https://www.achristmasstoryvirtualrun.com/virtual/ 

And #TeamBuddy here: https://www.elfvirtualrun.com/virtual/ 

The SWAG looks amazing and I cannot wait to receive it! 

If you have any other ideas of things we should plan for our race next week, please drop some suggestions in the comments below. I cannot wait, and will be sure to post all about it with tons of pictures after. You’ll want to read the recap and find out if I shot my eye out!