Hundreds of Santas, elves and reindeer descended on Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday for the theme park's Santa Run 5K.
JACKSON - It was snowing in Ocean County on Sunday.
Well, it was only "snowing" in specific areas of Jackson Township and it wasn't actually snow.
Hundreds of Santas, elves and reindeer descended on Six Flags Great Adventure on Sunday for the theme park's inaugural Santa Run 5K, which featured approximately 300 runners navigating a 3.1-mile course that zigzagged throughout theme park.
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The first overall finisher was Marquis Cox, 21, of Mount Laurel, who used to work at Six Flags Great Adventure and when he saw the Santa Run was being held there, he made sure to sign up.
"I think this race is definitely going to grow in the future, everything about it was really nice," Cox said. "I think being able to go behind the rides and in the woods, and then behind Kingda Ka was awesome."
In addition to being able to run on a course that took them "behind the scenes", participants were also able to go on two rides - Skull Mountain and The Dark Knight - before the park opened to the general public.
The race's top female finisher was 11-year-old Middletown resident Lucy Afanasewicz, who finished the course in approximately 20 minutes, 33 seconds.
"I've never run a 5K before, so I was surprised at how well I did," she said. "It was really cool to be running through the park. It was awesome to run by the roller coasters, I liked seeing them."
This weekend kicked off Six Flags Great Adventure's "Holiday in the Park" event, which runs through Jan. 3, weather permitting.
Rob Spahr may be reached at rspahr@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRobSpahr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.