The beginning of January for me was spent in Florida, ahead of the Walt Disney World marathon weekend (which was a 5k on the Thursday, 10k on the Friday, half marathon on the Saturday and a marathon on the Sunday- more on that in later posts), and so I didn’t get to a parkrun on New Years Day. However, on the 3rd Andy said he’d drive me out to Clermont (it’s a good 50 min drive from the WDW area). The parkrun begins at 7:30am so it’s an early start to get there in time (especially as I like to go to the toilets and walk along to the lake to look at the view).
The sunrise was around 7:20 so as I got to the lake I was treated to the sun coming up- the sky was so orange just before although it wasn’t captured that well in the photos. I was wondering if I’d need a jacket at first (Florida was having a cold front just before we arrived and on NYD there was a thin frost on the car first thing, although it would warm up once the sun was out), but I was fine in t-shirt and shorts even before I started running. It was funny seeing the locals wrapped up in thick joggers and hoodies (with hoods up!) when I was just there in minimal layers!
The sun shining through the trees and moss made it look as if the trees were glowing with fire- it was so beautiful.
This was my 4th time at this parkrun, and my third doing this route (as once they were on the alternative route away from the lake)- I didn’t even listen to the first timers welcome (I did on my third visit!) because it’s such a simple route- out and back along the lake. (If you were visiting, the car park is right by the start, in that as you turn in to the car park you can see the parkrun teardrop flag and all the flags in the finish funnel. You need to exit the car park and cross the road to get to the start but it couldn’t be any closer).
Going back to the course, there is a small section where the paths leads you away from the lake a bit, but it’s clearly marked with signs, and it’s a fairly busy parkrun (150 people this time) so there is someone in sight to follow. There is a turnaround point clearly shown with a cone (and sometimes a marshal) but it’s really very easy, so rather than listen to the welcome I went along the little boardwalk to the edge of the lake to watch the sun come up. The main briefing was prompt and friendly, and then we were off!
This was a few days ahead of the big run challenge and I hadn’t run since the Wednesday before, so I was mindful of taking it easy. I was keen to do a few runs ahead of the challenge to acclimatise a little, as of course Florida is a lot more humid and a lot warmer than any of the training runs, and so I was quite pleased to finish in 30:51 as I felt like I was running quite gently and stopping to take photos (I paused for a while to take a photo of that bird (bottom right in the picture above).
By the time I finished (around 8am) the sun was properly up- such a contrast to when I first arrived. As it’s out and back you get to see everyone on the other side of the path too, and it added to my anticipation of the following weekend as I saw so many Run Disney shirts being worn by parkrunners.
I didn’t hang about too much after finishing- a few quick photos and then I headed back to the car, very relieved that I wasn’t dripping in sweat (after doing this course in the summer and having sweat pour out of every single pore) and happy that I felt like I managed the much warmer weather OK.
They often have a photographer there (although I’ve not looked up the photos from this event yet) and I noticed on the bench by the finish area that they have a special volunteer bib for the photographer to wear, which I thought was a lovely touch. It’s a very scenic parkrun by the water, and it’s so nice that they value the photographer role so much.
I’d seen a recommendation for the vegan bagels and toppings at Jeff’s Bagel Run, and after going there earlier in our trip we found that there was a branch on our way back from parkrun, so we stopped to pick up some bagels for breakfast once back at our hotel.
As I’d been there before, of course there is no Voronoi update, but happily when I looked on the 5k app I had filled in a date bingo slot and if I had missed it it would be a few years before the 3rd would fall on a Saturday again, so hooray!
On the Monday following this parkrun, Andy and I did a run together of about 3-4 miles around a lake by our hotel, but then it was strictly no more running until the WDW marathon weekend began! Although of course there was plenty of walking around theme parks in the meantime.
So, up next will probably be my race recaps- you have been warned!
