Chapter Fifteen - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Well, it’s finally happening.  Not sure I quite believe it yet, but somehow I have made it through pre-training pretty much on schedule and now the hard work really starts.  Day Two of my official London marathon training has arrived.

Chevin Chase was a joy.  Not as sparkly as last year, but I ran faster, and for longer.  I even ran up the whole of the first killer hill.  If you don’t know the Chevin Chase, this will mean nothing to you, but believe me, it represents a big improvement on last year.  There was an eight-minute wait at around mile six whilst we tippy-toed over a frozen stile, but even so I shaved a second or two off last year’s time.  I’m subtracting the delay and calling it an 8-minute PB.  Next year, I’ll leave the eight minutes in so that I have the chance of beating it all over again.

 

Leeds inagural Christmas parkrun



Other than that, this week has been all about Christmas.  Oh, and the first ever Leeds Christmas Day parkrun.  Fifty-five runners and a good sprinkling of volunteers turned out to spread bonhomie and Christmas cheer, before repairing home to eat and drink too much.  I was feeling all smug, having got up at 7.00 to open presents (the fact that the boys are 19 and 16 doesn’t stop us wanting to rip into the goodies), but was soon brought down to earth by my failure to load and post the results until Boxing Day.  If I’m honest, I couldn’t even manage it then – I had to be helped by the ever-helpful Tom Williams. 

I think we’ve started a trend though; I'm already planning next year's Christmas Day parkrun, even though the big day doesn’t actually land on a Saturday.  I hope to see you all there.