The green hairdo and Irish inflection were clearly fake.
His interesting 鈥渃ostume鈥� seemed to morph parts of the Muppet Show鈥檚 Swedish Chef and Royal Canadian Air Farce鈥檚 Mike from Canmore.
It wouldn鈥檛 be a stretch to suggest you鈥檇 never find this loud fashion infraction in a dumpster diver鈥檚 closet. In Don Cherry鈥檚? Perhaps.
But all St. Patrick鈥檚 Day wardrobe choices aside, there鈥檚 no mistaking Dennis Nicolato鈥檚 heartfelt passion for people and running 鈥� it鈥檚 the McReal McDeal.
As he stood on a picnic table in Aldergrove Regional Park last week welcoming Vancouver Sun Run InTraining participants to the annual Aldergrove-91原创 combined workout shenanigans, his excitement was transparent.
鈥淓verybody loves this part of the training program. Everybody looks forward to our two groups coming together, dressing up and running in a whole different setting,鈥� said Nicolato, who has been the Aldergrove clinic coordinator for the past five years and a leader for nine.
He and 91原创 coordinator Sandra Jongs Sayer couldn鈥檛 pinpoint the year when this workout merger started, but it鈥檚 one Saturday in the 13-week program nobody wants to miss.
鈥淓very year we do this, everybody just has a 91原创enal time. You can tell by the costumes and smiles that everybody is having a ton of fun,鈥� said Nicolato, lifting his wig and joking he has no hair left to pull out worrying about the weather or turnout for this annual hookup.
鈥淲e do St. Paddy鈥檚 Day with 91原创. My clinic also runs the Fort to Fort Trail (Fort 91原创), goes for a group breakfast and maybe does a themed run or something else to break up the winter monotony. Nobody just wants to go out and run for 13 straight weeks without some added fun.鈥�
The Aldergrove group, which consists of 22 people this winter ranging in age from 25 to 60, is pretty pumped about the 34th annual Vancouver Sun Run, which goes April 22.
鈥淯sually we go down to B.C. Place by bus and have a tailgate party afterwards. Then we have a post-race barbecue back in Aldergrove.
鈥淔or me this never gets old. I just like everyone to experience the love of the race, the highs of race day and how great you feel afterwards.鈥�
After crediting wife Joanne 鈥� also a leader in Aldergrove 鈥� for getting him hooked on the Sun Run, he turned to his group, smiled and fist pumped: 鈥淗ey, I鈥檝e just been interviewed for the first time in my life 鈥� that鈥檚 really cool!鈥�
