More than three dozen festive runners dressed in Speedos, Santa hats, ugly Christmas sweaters and onesies gathered outside Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre on Sunday to participate in the second Santa Speedo Run for the Pacific Pride Foundation.
At around 11 a.m., organizer Leighton Jones instructed the participants to watch for traffic, and the runners took off jogging down State Street to Stearns Wharf, 1½ miles away.
The run is not a competition, but rather a fun way to celebrate the season and raise money.
“It’s not a competitive run by any stretch of the imagination,” Jones told Noozhawk. “In fact, when we hit a red light on State Street, we stopped.”
Ricky Alamillo attended the run for the second year in a row.
“It feels good,” Alamiloo said. “It’s sort of a break toward the end of the year to catch up with friends during the day and make new friends and see community support.”
It was suggested that participants contribute a $20 donation to enter the run, with all proceeds going to the Pacific Pride Foundation.
Last year, around 45 runners raised $1,000 for the nonprofit organization, which provides LGBTQ+ services, programs, trainings and advocacy throughout Santa Barbara County.
“The main reason isn’t necessarily to do it as a fundraiser,” Jones said. “The main reason is to just have fun.”
As the participants made their way down State Street, they were greeted with cheers, cars honking, and people stopping to take photos as they went about their business.
Following the run, the group headed to nearby Brass Bear Brewing in the Funk Zone, which opened early to welcome the runners.
Although the run is fairly new to Santa Barbara, the Santa Speedo run is a tradition that originated in Boston in 2000, when a group of friends thought it would be funny to run down one of Boston’s busiest streets full of Christmas shoppers.
The Boston group played Christmas carols and wore only Santa hats and Speedos. Since then, the event has taken place in cities across the nation in December.
Jones brought the tradition with him when he moved from Boston last year. After looking for a Speedo run in Los Angeles, he decided it would be better to hold one in Santa Barbara.
“I think it’s a little different in a place like Santa Barbara,” he said. “Obviously in Boston, it’s cold and snowing and running in a Speedo — there’s a dynamic to that that’s very different.
“In Santa Barbara it’s usually fairly warm and a nice day. So it’s not quite the same, but I kind of think that makes it even better.”
Jones said he was surprised by the success of the run last year.
“I live my life with low expectations,” he said. “I was kind of expecting it might be, you know, a half-dozen of me and some of my friends running down State Street.”
Jones said the event attracted about 45 runners last year without much marketing for it.
“It was people who just heard of it,” he said. “Just wanted to have fun and do something a bit silly for Christmas.”
