Aidan Gilson had a bet.
Why else would the Northampton native and MIT cross country runner don a penguin suit to run a Tuesday night 5K at Community Gardens?
For fun, maybe, and Gilson’s situation owed most of its existence to that.
It wasn’t a lost wager that forced him to wear the suit, but a wager in itself.
Gilson lived in a Cambridge apartment with Josh Rosenkranz and some other MIT cross country teammates over the summer after completing his freshman year.
“One of them had a penguin suit for one reason or another — some Halloween party,” Gilson said. “(Rosenkranz) had always wanted to do a race in it. He was injured at the time.”
Gilson, 19, spent the summer working at the Koch Institute doing cancer research in bioengineering, his major.
He returned to Northampton in time to run the Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club’s weekly 5-kilometer cross country race. He brought the penguin suit.
“They bet me that I wouldn’t do it,” Gilson said. “I didn’t lose anything, I just thought it would be funny. Just the glory.”
Glory, indeed.
Gilson won the race in 17 minutes, 50 seconds against a field clad in T-shirts, tank tops or with bare chests.
“Besides just getting pretty hot, it doesn’t restrict your movement at all,” Gilson said. “I didn’t go out with the intent to win. I got a mile in and said ‘hey, this isn’t too bad, let’s go for the win.”
Palmer graduate Henry Domnarski took second, five seconds after Gilson.
Erin Hudson was the first woman across the line in 21:57.
Gilson’s 17:50 is slower than what he normally would run a competitive 5K in.
He said he goes about 16:00 in proper running attire.
But two minutes is a small price to pay to show up your friends.
“They said ‘I bet you won’t’,” Gison said. “So I just had to prove them wrong.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.