During this year’s Philadelphia Marathon  on November 22, 2015, I will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the Fastest Marathon Dressed as Santa Claus .

The Current Record: 2 hours, 55 minutes, 50 seconds, held by Paul Simons of the United Kingdom since 2009
The Suit: I am required to wear a Santa hat, false white beard, and a full Santa suit.
My Application  to attempt the record was accepted in January 2013, and now I’m finally ready to tackle it!

The real reason I’m doing this, and the part that excites me the most, is that I’ve partnered with an amazing Philadelphia charity that shares my passion for helping kids reach their potential by giving them the literacy skills they need to be wildly successful in whatever path they choose in life.

Philadelphia’s literacy crisis is well-documented:

• Only four major U.S. cities rank lower in reading proficiency (2013)
• 40% of Philly’s students drop out of high school
• Half of all working-age adults (over 500,000 people) have basic literacy issues

These are stats that Mighty Writers — and now Marathon Santa — are out to change. I can’t think of a more important skill for kids to learn and master than reading/writing. I have a hard time imagining how difficult it must be to interview for a job without being able to communicate clearly — yet that’s exactly what hundreds of thousands of Philadelphia residents are faced with every day!

The good news is that we can do something about it. Actually, organizations like Mighty Writers already are. And the holidays are the perfect time of year to get a little help from the big guy in the red coat — as well as a ton of people who honestly just want to do some good for their fellow man/children. So let’s do this together!

How YOU Can Help:

• Donate $$$ .
• Share this website link on your social media channels and email it to everyone you know.
• Come out to the streets of Philly on November 22 ^nd in your favorite Christmas sweater or costume and cheer me on as I run 26.2 miles and (hopefully) break a World Record!