Perfect start to the weekend

So, half time finally rolled around. What with extra meetings, parents evenings and other things, I was pretty shattered by the time it arrived. I was just imagining laying in bed all day (something I never do, but I sometimes like the idea of it) when I got a message from my dad asking me if I fancied parkrun in the morning. Well, I couldn’t refuse!

Andy got me some flowers for Friday evening as the last week had been so manic.

He picked me up as we chose the newer one (I am on the way to that one, whereas I drove to the other one as I passed their house on the the way). This time I brought gloves with me, as it was a chilly morning. You have to park a little way from the start (7 min walk for us) so I wore my jacket and we left them in carrier bags near the start as we knew we would get cold on the walk back.

My dad got me into parkruns last year, but this year has had a knee injury (apparently at 60 he is too old for the op…) and over the summer had the OK to start running again. October was his parkrun target and we went a few weeks ago to the first Panshanger one, although he ran a bit ahead of me that time. This time we ran together – it was lovely to have a catch up and chat, and enjoy the beautiful views. He kept doing little spurts to overtake people, and I would catch up, but in the final half k he put on a great spurt and I could not keep up. The course is undulating, but finishes with a very steep climb, so I knew I could not catch him. There were less people at the start than the time we went before, but I was still surprised to have finisher token 81- normally I am in the high hundreds- my first ever one I finished number 82 but the weather that day was shocking so not many people came!

Dad had finished 3 places ahead, so we queued to have our chips scanned and then headed back to the car. It was just such a great start to the day- I am really pleased for my dad that he is back running again- he is not competative at all, but he really enjoyed doing parkruns and when he first got his injury that was what he wanted to get back to doing. I didn’t get a pb overall, but I did get a pb for the course (I didn’t realise that the parkrun stats keep the different courses separate to each other)- 29.32, which was still pleasing.

Ages ago I mentioned to Andy that I wanted to do 25 by Christmas. He took this to mean a sub- 25!  I don’t think I could manage that (especially not on this course as it is more hilly and not on roads) – I meant doing 25 runs. Well, this weekend was my 23rd, so you would think I am well on track. But, we have a few weekends away (including a trip to Brighton for the 10k race there), and I am marshaling on one free weekend, so I think I only have 2 Saturday’s left between now and the end of the year! We shall have to see if I make the target or not.

I made myself caramel apple french toast for brunch- I have not had this in a few weeks! I made the french toast as usual, then chopped an apple and cooked it in the pan, and then drizzled with a little toffee sauce (from the Lake District). Delish.

Then I put on some music and spent a few hours cleaning and tidying- when work gets busy our house slowly turns into a tip so it was very therapeutic to return it to a livable state.

Someone at work gave me some beautiful flowers after our very busy week.

I even tidied my nail varnish collection!

A little later I went out to the shops.

The fountain in Welwyn is always dyed pink in October for Breast Cancer awareness, and it looked rather pretty in the autumn sunlight.

I had parked a bit of a way from the town centre, so I got a chai latte to drink on the walk back to the car, and enjoyed crunching all the leaves.

When I got home I got on with some work while I waited for Andy to get back from football- it was such a great start to the weekend as I felt like I achieved a lot, but also relaxed and had some good “me” time.

How have you been enjoying this wonderful weather? I am at a wedding tomorrow, but I am not sure that the lovely weather is going to last until then.