VIDEO: Runnin O' the Green begins

• Runners

Runners make their way downhill during the 35th annual Runnin O' the Green Saturday in Jamestown. Logan C. Adams / The sun

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Cold, snow and a slippery hill didn’t stop the crowds from attending the 35th annual Runnin O’ the Green Saturday, though many people accessorized with green gloves, scarves and boots.

“I have footwarmers in my boots,” said Annette Hazelton of Kulm, N.D., who also wore extra layers to help keep warm.

Hazelton participates in the annual pub crawl every year, and said this year’s crowd was likely the smallest she’d ever seen.

“I like the sociality of it, and it’s just fun to see everybody dressing up — and in the end they make a lot of money for their charity,” Hazelton said. “And it’s fun to let loose for a day.”

Funds raised from the Runnin O’ the Green go to Elks Camp Grassick and people with cancer.

Before the event was set to begin, Hazelton was chatting with Mallory Bear of Jamestown, who has also done the run before — but had never before begun at the top of the hill.

Bear said she planned to go cautiously.

As it turned out, that was probably a good idea, given the snow on the hill between the Frontier Fort, where the run begins, and McElroy Park, where the route leads.

Many of the people who tried to run down the hill at top speed took a tumble and ended up face-down in a snowdrift. A few of the luckier sprinters made it across the bridge unscathed, and a few of the cautious ones ended up slipping in the snow, too.

As is usually the case, a small crowd of people gathered at the bridge in McElroy Park to watch the runners get down the hill — on feet, feet-first or face-down in the snow.

The runners themselves seemed to be in good spirits, and even the ones who had taken a spill and remained covered with snow had plenty of smiles for the people greeting them at the bridge.

“Where’s the first bar?” one runner said with a grin.

“Are we there yet?” another one asked, jokingly.

“Show your leg, get us a ride,” one runner teased a companion.

“Her shoes fell off when she was going down the hill,” someone exclaimed.

Other runners seemed slightly confused.

“There’s sand in my shoe!” one exclaimed.

“Are we warm, or are we not?” a runner wondered, perhaps simultaneously warmed by exercise and chilled by the 11-degree weather.

And then there was the runner who may have been celebrating something else entirely after he made it past the bridge.

“We got a new pope!” he exclaimed gleefully.

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