Until now...
 |
| (photo: Nicki Clark) |
Although it wasn't billed as a themed run, many people used the opportunity to dress up anyway.
I wore my red running top, borrowed some of Mrs7t's red ankle warmers, then finally donned my Christmas hat (which, by the way, is not made from a breathable material - what do you expect at £2 from the market!).
 |
| The festive ladies (photo: Nicki Clark) |
Mrs7t and the little one were both festively dressed (Christmas pudding hat courtesy of uncle Mathias) and enjoyed posing for the camera whilst I headed off to run my first Christmas day parkrun.
As always, it is the volunteers that make the parkrun possible, and today there were twenty people who willingly gave up their Christmas mornings to ensure that we (the runners) were able to get our festive parkrun fix. Thank you.
 |
| Lining up next to Brian of Condon corner fame (photo: Nicki Clark) |
Even though we hadn't had any rain since Friday the course was still as wet as it was on the Christmas eve event.
Forty-nine of us gathered at the squelchy start line and were sent on our merry way by the event director, Nicki.
 |
| I'm in there (photo: Nicki Clark) |
I started mid-pack, with no intention to race. I'm still not feeling the desire to really push any harder than this at the moment. Saying that, I kept the pace strong for the first two kilometres.
At this point I caught up with David, who has been at every event bar one and is second only to Nicki in the number of events he has volunteered at. We spent the next two kilometres chatting away. Of course, the chatting slowed both our paces and people started to overtake us. But it didn't matter.
 |
| Me and David (photo: Pete Gibson) |
As we reached the four kilometre point we upped the pace and focused on getting to the finish line.
I crossed the line in 22.20. The last kilometre was pretty hard work because it was at race pace, but it felt nice to open up a little.
 |
| nom nom (Photo: Chloe Gibson) |
With the running out of the way it was time to head over to the registration area and focus on the post-race festivities. This basically meant that we would eat mince pies and have a little chinwag before all heading off to continue our respective Christmas day plans.
 |
| Lime with her Uncle (Photo: Mrs7t) |
Later in the day (this is not a complaint) I received my result email, then another, and another, and another.... Then finally a fifth one arrived. Strange goings on in the parkrun mainframe I imagine! All arrived at 38 minutes past their respective hours, which I thought was pretty cool.
 |
| My email inbox (Screenshot) |
With the Christmas day run done that only leaves one more parkrun in December. Then it's time to reset eveything to zero and set some brand new parkrun goals!
7t.
