A frosty parkrun, a trip to London, water troubles and some Christmas prep

On Saturday morning I was up early (scraping my car because I hadn’t put the car cover on because the weather didn’t say it would be frosty…) heading to parkrun. I was going to go to Westmill, as I fancy running it again (plus Wonky Bear was going to be there) but then Dad told me he was marshalling at Ellenbrook so I went there to see him.

It was so cold- a lot of parkruns nearby had cancelled due to ice, but as Ellenbrook is mainly on grass it went ahead. (Also, one of the regular volunteers got some salt to put down on the start/finish area). The tarmac taxi-way which is the start and finish route was sparkling in the sunshine, so it was a case of taking it gently. Some of the route was really hard to run on- about half way around you run back on a path again, and a combination of not much foot traffic plus a shady route meant that the ice went across most of the path still. They had added extra marshals on the route to warn people and had told everyone to not aim for a pb.

As I ran I kept looking out for Dad- all the marshalls were wrapped up like Michelin men so sometimes I was quite close before I worked out it wasn’t him. I ended up running with Donna (my lovely run leader from the club) and I ended up wondering out loud to her if he’s not made it in the end. He ended up being the very last marshal, 1km from the end (just before the runway started)- all the marshals give loud cheers but it was great to see him. Once I’d finished I put my jacket on and walked back up the runway to see Dad.

I wrote in the frost (this made my finger go numb…) as it was still so thick everywhere- Ellenbrook even set this as their cover photo.

By the time I got to the end, the tail walker had gone past so we walked back and had a little chat before heading back to the cars to warm up. I was freezing! I didn’t get home until much later than usual, and I was so cold so I decided to have breakfast (and more importantly, hot tea) before a shower. We had toasted hot cross buns with the  lemon and ginger marmalade that I’d made a few weeks ago (to test/quality control it before I gave the rest away as presents)- luckily it was very tasty.

As well as the standard long way walk into town, I finally got around to covering the Christmas cakes in marzipan, as well as having a mammoth present wrapping session.

On Sunday I headed out for a run in the morning- still a week after the snow, the shady and less walked on pavements are still pretty icy. I was going slowly and concentrating on the ground, until at one point I needed to run under some trees. I was looking up as some of the branches looked broken and as if they would fall any moment. Of course the moment I looked up I landed on some ice and skidded- luckily I caught myself before I fell.

On Sunday evening we headed into London to see Idlewild- they were doing a tour of an album that was released 15 years ago (I feel so old!). It was at Koko (formerly the Electric Ballroom in Camden) so we just got the tube in. I wasn’t feeling that inclined on the way (normally it’s PJ’s on by 9pm on Sunday nights) but as soon as they started playing it was all worth it.

On Monday I headed home quickly after work to squeeze in a quick run and shower as I was heading out for dinner with the girls from Andy’s family. On my run I’d had to hop across a huge flood as a water main had burst. I reported it on the website when I got home, as it was flooding the road too. My good deed didn’t get repaid though as I woke up on Tuesday to find we had no water in our taps. If I turned them around to hot, a little came out (obviously some left in the tank) but no normal water. I was so glad I’d had a shower and washed my hair the night before! Weirdly it was a different water main that had burst (maybe frozen pipes?) close by.  I had to clean by teeth by dipping my brush into my glass of water from the night before. It did make me think about how we take water for granted.

Them, finally it was the end of term. I usually have a meeting after work on a Tuesday, but as it was the last day we didn’t, so I’d booked a massage. I headed into town and had a little wander, and then a drink in Starbucks. There are nutcrackers all over St Albans at the moment so I hunted for a few of them. The massage was very well needed (as I was told by her at the end) with a few painful knots to be sorted, but mostly it was the sort of good pain (not really pain- more like relief) to get rid of all the crunching when I move my shoulders. The lady I see always has lovely scents going on in the room, and this time was a very festive mix of peppermint and orange, which on paper sounds strange (flashbacks of my mum making me drink my orange juice after I’d already cleaned my teeth because she was worried about scurvy) but in reality was really uplifting.

Do you feel ready for Christmas now?