Just a quick bonus post today to send a shout-out to all of my Barry’s Runners friends who traveled to Seneca Falls on Saturday afternoon to represent our running club at the annual It’s a Wonderful Run 5K. Fourteen of us made the hour-long drive, which was the largest Barry’s Runners group we’ve ever had participating.
Several of these friends decided to attend the race because I’m always telling them how much fun it is. It always draws thousands of runners (this year the total was 4,600), and almost everyone dresses up in holiday attire, including bells, Santa hats, elf costumes and Christmas lights. I saw people dressed as Christmas trees and snowmen, and lots of tutus. Everyone is in a jolly mood and more than happy to step in to take a picture of your whole group if you ask. And there was a lot of that.
And this is also a must-do event for any fan of the Jimmy Stewart classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s generally accepted that Frank Capra based his movie on the charming little village. There’s an It’s a Wonderful Life Museum, and the race actually begins on the bridge believed to be the inspiration for the one in the movie — and 83-year old Karolyn Grimes herself (who played Zuzu) starts the race by announcing the famous line, “Every time a bell rings, a angel gets his wings.”
True to its name, the It’s a Wonderful Run is more a run (or walk) than a race. For sure there are many runners who wiggle to the front of the pack to do their 7-minute miles, but many more thousands of us are content to walk most of the route, to experience everything there is to see and do along the way.
Seneca Falls village residents come out in force for this event. They set up fire pits and ring cow bells and give high-fives to all the runners. They hand out Fireball shots, wine shots, whiskey shots, pudding and jello shots. They hand out full cans of beer and hard seltzer. At one house, they were grilling hot dogs and handing them to the runners. At another, they were cooking up marshmallows. The houses are ablaze with Christmas lights and Christmas music blares from the porches.
And there are lots of opportunities to take your photo with signs and backdrops with scenes you know from the movie.
I’m pretty sure that my Barry’s Runners friends enjoyed themselves very much and were not disappointed after my big build-up. I’m already looking forward to doing it again next year with an even bigger group from Webster representing.
If you’re interested in seeing more photos from the event, click here for a gallery. I tried to capture some of the more outlandish costumes, and the sense of community generated by Seneca Falls as we all celebrate one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time.
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(posted 12/10/2023)
webster on the web 
another job well done Missy ! every town should have a Missy but they can’t have ours !!!
Oh, Penny, thank you! You are so kind!