By JON WILSON, Times Staff Writer
Published December 14, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Led by a motorcycle cop, the swarm of thousands first surged west on the Pier.

Then, like a gusher turning a pipeline corner, it streamed around a landmark comfort station. It swept toward the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, where perhaps 40 bon vivants looked out from the veranda, munching iron-seared grouper and certified Angus burgers.

Fine Pair, a female guitar-and-bass duo, struck up Silent Night. A galaxy of lights, red, gold, and green, splashed Straub Park. People cheered the first dog wearing antlers.

The Jingle Bell Run, the annual woo-hoo holiday chase on the downtown waterfront, hit full swing just a little after 7:30 p.m.

It benefits the Boley Centers, an organization looking after people with a variety of health and behavioral issues.

The event, which is for fun rather than running glory, has a past a quarter-century old.

But it represents the spirit of Christmas present to a legion of pedestrians - including decorated dogs - who run, skip, lumber and stroll around a 3-mile course stretching to North Shore Park's nether regions and back to the Pier.

"Look at how slender they are," said Margie Norris, one of 47 who took a 45-minute bus ride from Sun City in Hillsborough County.

Members of the retirement community's Fun Squad, they came specifically to eat on the Vinoy portico, more formally known as the Promenade Lounge, and to watch the run.

Or many of them did.

"Half the squad is over at BayWalk partying," said Maggie Pliska, the group's president.

Those who remained enjoyed a rarefied vantage point at the south end of the 1925 hotel's front porch, nearly half a football field long.

Down Bayshore Drive, candles glowed in white bags, lighting the course like an airport runway.

The event's signature green bands glowing around their necks, people pushed tots in strollers.

"We walked that far. I don't feel sorry for you guys," said Barbara Peters of the Fun Squad, whose members took a 3-mile walk as soon as they got off their bus.

At least 3,000 took part in the run, Boley officials estimate.

As usual, a few energetic thinclads bounded to the fore, deserting those of heavier foot but hardly confounding them.

No one keeps official time.

On their return, the frontrunners met the event's rear guard, still pouring off the Pier and slogging through the first mile. The motorcycle cop drove a pathway through the masses.

But no one cares who comes in first.

Seasoned runners can finish behind four nuns, half a third-grade class and a lighted St. Bernard in a Santa Claus hat.

It's merely part of the merrymaking in a festival afoot.