A day in the life- volunteering mode

I love reading the day in the life posts, and I have not written one for ages, so today I thought it was about time!

Although it is about today, which hasn’t finished yet!

Anyway, here goes.

7.45am Wake up- I did set an alarm luckily- usually I wake up at that sort of time at the weekends, but I have had a cough this week so less sleep. Potter about and get dressed.

8am- Drive to parkrun.

8.20am- Collect the bib and map, and head off to my marshaling position.

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On my drive there, there was the most beautiful sunrise- really pink, and when I was in my position it was still visible.

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I took some pictures of the course, although it is one big loop so not all visible from where I was.

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Such a pretty place to have a run in.

I was cheering runners past until about half 9, and then I collected the sign and the gate lock and headed back along the path to the start.

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Then I walked back to the car and drove home.

10.10am- Have some breakfast- toasted sourdough bread and tea. Then I straightened my hair, put some washing away, weighed out some dried fruit to soak and watched The Soup with Andy.

11.15am- Drove to work. I was helping out at the Christmasย market- I had worn a festive t-shirt to get into the spirit.

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(Hard to photograph while I am wearing it). Anyway my stall turned out to be outside so no-one saw it! Ah well.

2.45- Get home and have some lunch (ryvita and hummus, and festive clementines hooray!) and watch a bit of TV.

Head into the kitchen to make some stollen dough. Pop onto the computer for a bit while it is doing the first rise, and peruse shops for Christmas present ideas. Suddenly I am feeling festive!

4.30pm- Walk up to the shops with Andy. I needed a few bits for work, and for my lunch on Monday. Urgh Tesco was just horrible- the heat was blasting out and I felt like sweat was pouring off me within seconds of getting in the shop. It was also heaving and horrible annoying Christmas music was playing- makes me want to get out of there as soon as possible! Festivometer is going back down! We got a chai latte to shareย on the walk home as I had a free drinks voucher.

6pm- The stollen dough still needs a bit longer so went back on the computer for more browsing of shops and general time wasting. I do have work to do but that will have to wait until Sunday now!

The rest of the day will look something like- finish making stollen (hopefully feel more festive again), have some dinner (spiced butternut squash soup), watch a film, and get my running gear ready as I have a race tomorrow morning.

Have you put up your decorations yet? I have not, but some friends have. And for the record, I think they are crazy! I mean, it is not even December yet. I love having decorations up, but having them up for weeks on end makes them feel less special. Also, people with children should remember that it hypes the children up even more…

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16 thoughts on “A day in the life- volunteering mode”

  1. I’m holding out on putting up decorations, if at all this year โ€ฆ I may wait for the kids to ask ๐Ÿ˜‰

    I really enjoy marshalling at parkrun its great fun and loads of runners zoom past saying thank you back at you ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Good plan with the waiting- I am sure when I was little we decorated once the school holidays started.
      Yeah I like marshaling too= seeing the speedy runners is so impressive, but equally the spread- there is a regular runner in his 80’s and he is great to see too.

  2. We just tend to ignore anything Xmassy, but there’s one house I ran past today with a huge inflatable Santa up already, and I don’t think he’ll be coming down until the middle of January. There are always one or two people who go absolutely mad with their decorations, and I do wonder what their electricity bill looks like!

    The Parkrun looks gorgeous – what a lovely setting! And it’s so nice of you to give up your time and dedicate it to the race as well. I have a huge amount of respect and appreciation for race volunteers and marshals.

    All the best for your race tomorrow – you kept that one quiet (or maybe I’m just spectacularly unobservant as per usual and didn’t notice…)

    xxx

    1. They always ask at parkrun for you to volunteer 3 times a year- I think I managed it last year but only twice this year. It is enjoyable too. It is so pretty there- I love it much more than the other parkrun and I think I would only go back to that one if I was really chasing a 5k pb as there is not much chance of that at this one!
      I booked on to this race a while back- it is on my race page, but to be fair I have probably not mentioned it on here at all- I have been a bit busy with work so blogging has taken a bit of a back seat. ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. At least you are waiting until December! ๐Ÿ™‚
      Yes the course is beautiful- more of a cross country one than a local park but I love it..

  3. I’m at such odds at the moment as to when to decorate. I’m away in Berlin this weekend and feel a bit mean leaving it all to Ben (and I’ll never hear the end of it – what a martyr he is doing it all himself yadada haha ๐Ÿ˜‰ But then the weekend after seems like it’s leaving it far too late! Ho hum.
    I do love all the festivities but hate busy shops…I tend to just do all my shopping online. It’s far too stressful!!
    I love volunteering at parkrun. I usually do the set up and pack away which mans I can still run. There’s a usual gang of us so it’s always nice, but it does mean getting there for 8 rather than later. But I really don’t mind as it’s just nice to natter to the parkrun lot!

    1. I think the weekend of the 13th is when we would normally decorate- I like them up for the last week of term. But we are away that weekend so I need to persuade Andy to do it one evening next week I think.
      It’s great that you help out so much at parkrun- I don’t really know the team who put it together, but I suppose as time goes on I will know more people. They did have sweeper runners, which the other one doesn’t have, so I suppose that is a role where you can still run,.

  4. No decorations up here yet and as we are out over Christmas they may never get put up! I love stolen I must find a good gluten free version to make one : )

    1. We are away too but I love having them up in the final week of work – I treat myself to putting the tree lights on when I eat my breakfast!

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