Festive Fun!

Hello blog readers.

December has been very quiet on the old running front!  But I have done some at least.  The weather has really battered about my old mojo, so much so that it's all gone into hibernation!  It's going to take some kick ass screaming to get back out there!

But I have done some running since the Secret London Run back in the beginning of December, ok so not a lot of it!  But it's all  festive fun!  The first one after the SLR was the Woo Woo Run.  Oh my, I do love this run.  Our group 1 in PWR invented this run a few years back.  I choose a route that goes through this lovely road where the neighbours are outdoing each other in the festive lights department!  It is truly magical down there! Of course that road received loads of 'Woo Woo'. Oh one other thing, just to make the run a little more fun, we bring along a hip flask of something tasty!  I had some brandy in mine!

It really was a brilliant fun run, most of us wore something festive too, from Christmas running tops and leggings to complete fancy dress!  Or maybe that was just me!  I had on my Christmas leggings and two Tutus!  It's the only time of the year that I get to wear a tutu and get away with it!  Maybe next year I will get myself a tiara and dress up as a special 'fairy from the tree'  I love a tiara!

Here's some pictures from our run that night!

Ok, so the pink jacket is me!
I was putting my key in my back
pocket! Honest

Lovely lights

Cheers!

My next run was on Christmas eve.  Well it was Tuesday club run!  But this time we met at 09:00 that morning.  I had volunteered to lead that run, if I hadn't my mojo would have just stayed in bed, hiding under the duvet.  As I have already said, the weather has been truly awful, the woods would have been a complete mud fest.  I know I wasn't ready for that!  I know in the past I have embraced the whole mud thing but right now, I just knew I wouldn't have enjoyed it.  I needed to, I need to keep on enjoying running.  So my route was the Cinder path.  It's still off road but also it's in the woods, along the tarmacked path.  But to make it special, to make it super Christmassy, I brought along the Old boys Bose speaker, I carried it on my back in a bag and we had full on Christmas songs playing as we ran our 3 miles at group 1 pace run.  We still had a bit of mud, we still had to run through some water too, not too much though, just a couple of puddles left.  But that was great fun.  Trying to sing and run was fun too.

Here's some pictures from that run.

follow the
music!

Runners

Merry Christmas

On the Cinder Path!

The last one for this blog I did yesterday.  It was parkrun, in Normans Park.  Boy, if there was a time I needed motivation to get out of bed it was yesterday!  I woke up and looked at my WhatsApp groups to see who would be running. Silence! Absolute silence from everyone!  Now, I could quite easily have just snuggled back under my duvet, but no.  I started the ball rolling with a message. "Who's running today?"  I wrote.  If only just one person from any of my WA groups says they are running then I will get up.  LouLou was the first to say that she was!  So that was it, that was all I needed, I said it, I asked the question, someone said yes, so I had to go....right?!

I checked my group again, CarolWithAnE said that she and RefMichael was going, then SnappyH said that she was going!  A few of our 'gang' were going to be there!  Brilliant,  I need my buddies.  I am glad I have my buddies!  I am glad I have PWR!  It really is the only thing that keeps me running!  I am sure I would quit if I was by myself!

It's the winter route, so almost three times around the park.  I don't know if you know Normans park or not, but there is a small river that runs right through the middle of it and then goes off into the woods.  It's a most peculiar little bit of water because it just 'pops up' in the middle of the park, I am guessing it goes underground at either end, but not yesterday!  Yesterday it decided to cross over the path to get to the middle of the park!

We start our run at Hook farm end of the park, just a few meters along the path.  It's a popular parkrun and so it was quite busy.  I met up with all my buddies, SnappyH and CarolWithanE and RefMichael.  LouLou and Terry were there and so was Debbie.  Just what the run doctor ordered!  After all the preliminaries were done we started our run, of course I always go to the back of the pack, pace my run at my pace.  The crowd start to move, slowly at first and then a bit faster and then........almost to a stop!  We had hit the water and the mud!  Everybody thought it better to go through the water rather than the mud, although there were a few brave soles that embraced that particular joy of parkrun!  "Come on everyone, embrace parkrun and all there is to offer" I called out trying to encourage everyone to just splash through that stuff! If not to go through the mud!  No, I didn't go through the mud....still not ready to fully immerse myself in mudfest just yet!

But I did run it, I did enjoy it and I did not get a pb, obvs! But I really did enjoy it!  The next park run is News Year Eve!  Will I make it?  I said maybe!

Until next time people!

Christmas PWR Yule!

Hello readers.

Last night, straight from work I met up with my PWR pals to go for a nice, run in London!  I had my christmas leggings on, my two tutus, my PWR buff!  But I forgot my running top and my bells!!! I had real bell envy when I met all the other PWR's on the platform at Petts Wood.  Some had bells on their jumpers, some had them on their wrist and some had them on their ankles!  Totally envious!  But I was truly happy to be on the train, looking forward to meet the rest of the crew!  There were around 80 of us booked in, but unfortunately there were also some that had to cancel too, due to unforeseen circumstances.

This is us at Charing Cross train station!

We travelled to Charing Cross, our meeting point was at Covent Garden, we were to meet our guides and the rest of the PWR's.  Let me tell you, we made for an impressive sight!  Most of us had some sort of festive theme going on in our running gear, whether it be just a Christmas hat or leggings to full blown fancy dress...... a storm trouper to a Deer riding a reindeer!.......the mind boggles!

We marked ourselves in with the tour guides, our guides was name was Emma.  She never stopped smiling, she must be the most smiliest person ever!  It really did put us in a brilliant mood for a nice gently jog through London.  We were going to be hearing about some traditional Christmas traditions.  Some I can remember, some I can't, some I can only half remember!

There was an absolutely fascinating story about the Cantonia Crapper!  Seriously, you got to go googly the shit ......literally...on the web.  Mind you he wont be added to my manger nativity scene!  Also the yule log, kids making a log a pet and feeding it!  Really!  Two different types of logs which will make me smile when I tuck into my Yule log this Christmas!! Another story was told when we arrived at Shepherds Market (I think that is what it was called) about a certain politician and a 'Lady of the night' getting caught while business was being transacted!

We made an absolute sight when we ran through the streets of London, I just love it! I really do.  Mind you, some of the people on the streets didn't even bat an eyelid!  Maybe they just see too many weird sights!  We were a very colourful crowd though, singing at the top of our voices too!  We were all in such great spirits!

So many lights to see, all of them were just spectacular, from the 'Spirit of Christmas' lights to the 'Peacock feathers' but of course Carnaby street were just wonderful!  This year it was 'all creatures great and small under the sea'  Stunning, but even more 'betterer' was the fact that everything recycled, even the lights were environmentally friendly, energy saving bulbs!  There were lights that twinkled only when you put coins in (I think cash going to homeless) to understated straight lines, I believe those were on Savile Row. 

Spirit of Christmas

I so enjoyed my time running through London, not only seeing the great displays but being with my lovely running buddies from PWR.  We do have a brilliant time when we all go out!  Can't wait to do it all over again!

Here are some more pictures, curturesy of SnappyH, she loves a photograph!

Anables

Cartiers!