Santas to Dash for Cash

Over 250 people have signed up to run around Cambridge in festive costume to raise money for charity.

Participants in the Cambridge Varsity edition of the International Charity Santa Dash will run an 8k route around Cambridge’s colleges, bar Girton and Homerton, on Sunday 25 November at 1pm from King’s College.

Santa Dashes will also be taking place in other university cities across the UK, including Durham and The Other Place, and globally. In New York, almost 150 people have signed up.

This year, the Cambridge Santas will compete against Oxford for the first time. However, the organisers are adamant that the event is: “A slow and beautiful jog (not a race!)” according to its Facebook page. The winner will be determined by how much cash is raised for charity.

Runners will pay £5 each, to be donated to the Kenyan Orphan Project’s student programme, which will fund students to travel to Kenya to support orphans and vulnerable children, and victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Got the balls to run the route in a Santa-Kini?

Sam Gregson, 29, and Nathan Boublil, 27, post-grad students at Selwyn, decided to establish the Cambridge Santa Dash after hearing about a similar event in London.

They told The Tab: “We are very fortunate in our lives and thought we should should give something back. So we thought, why can’t we do this in Cambridge?!”

When asked how they have managed to generate enthusiasm for the event both across the country and globally, they said: “Your newspaper recently ran a piece asking for the biggest names in Cambridge… you do the Math”.

For those who go the extra mile with their costumes, the stakes are high: “Anyone prepared to wear the Santa-kini all the way around will win first place straight away, a bottle of champagne and everyone’s respect for eternity!”