Ho Ho Ho-rray for Christmas Day! And, just as important, time to head down to the parkrun I’ve been saving up all year. Winchester – which was my first ever parkrun, and the one closest to my parents.
The course does three laps round the leisure centre grounds, and is completely flat with the odd hairpin bend taking you on bridges over the river and back on yourself round a line of trees. It’s mostly on grass, which can get very squelchy at this time of year. It’s not too bad at the moment, but last year got so waterlogged that they had to change to a 6-lap tarmac course through the winter months.
I finished in just short of 26 minutes, which is a fair bit faster than in previous weeks. (I think that knowing the course makes a big difference.) Even better, I beat my brother for the first time ever. (He has admittedly been on crutches for the last six weeks, and didn’t expect to be able to run at all.) See results.
There was a Secret Santa at the end of the run. After being instructed by my mum to ‘look carefully at the presents you’re putting in and make sure you don’t take the same ones out again’, we left the run one woolly hat, lego elephant and tub of marshmallows richer.
Thanks very much to the volunteers, to run director Tim for your shout out in the run brief, and to all at Winchester parkrun for your generous donations on the JustGiving page.
I’m doing a different parkrun each week of the year to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Please head over to my JustGiving page if you’re able to help out.
52 parkruns, 52 weeks, 52 places 