Another Freedom run in the snow (23:45)

Another very enjoyable freedom parkrun in the snow this lunchtime.

Plenty of snow on the ground and light snow falling gave this freedom run a very Christmassy feel. My brother Andy joined me for the run today. We both wore Santa hats to add to the festive fun, but it wasn't quite as well received as the Santa outfits at the weekend, which went down really well, both in the park and along the road on the way home.

We did a nice gentle warm up lap taking in the scenery and discussing our plans for Christmas and for runs that we may want to do next year. No firm plans made for next years runs, but we will "think" about doing something longer than the parkrun 5km at some point. We shall have to wait and see.

The lack of traction meant that we only set ourselves as sensible target of 24 minutes today. At the halfway point that was looking a bit optimistic as we reached it in 12:43. We realised an 11:17 or better would be needed and without much discussion we picked up the pace. Neither of us like the thought of missing a target, no matter how insignificant that target may be.

The faster pace was much slower than normal, but with the lack of traction and the fact we both gave blood at the weekend, it actually felt much harder than it should have. Anyway, our pace remained much higher for the second lap as we completed it in 11:02. Andy was actually disappointed that we missed the 11 minute mark!

All in all yet another very enjoyable Freedom parkrun. That's 22 in total for me now, only 1 less than my official parkrun event total of 23.

We are already a planning a Christmas eve lunchtime freedom run in Santa outfits to finish the year off in style. Or is that lacking in style? Either way, we will enjoy it and hopefully put some smiles on a few face in the process.