Exeter Santa Run
Dec. 4th, 2016 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylDown to the river mid-morning for the second of this weekend's runs. Unlike yesterday's parkrun, today's was a gentle 1.5 mile jog up to Miller's Crossing and back for a charity santa run. Getting there with time to spare, I stopped off at D&P's place to suit up. When I arrived, I discovered that someone was already dressed up and looking forward to his run:
I pulled on my fancy dress while the others got ready. D tried to put some Christmas socks on little Dasher but she was not best pleased and pulled them off again just as quickly as they were put on her. Finally, all prepared, we went round the corner to the start where our santa suits suddenly went from fancy dress to total blend-in anonymity.
We started somewhere at the back and allowed H, our non-runner, to set the pace. All was going well until we reached Exe bridges, where the spaniels put on a sudden burst of speed — Dash, for all that's only 12 weeks old, is pretty quick and she ran a good part of the distance without needing to be carried. Our average pace was 7:37 a kilometre and we finished in 19 minutes and change, with a couple of slowdowns and a couple of surges when the dogs decided to step on the gas.
After the fun we picked up some rather classy medals and went back to the house for some lunch which definitely wasn't anything to do with my forthcoming birthday — as ever, all celebrations of my natal day are strictly off-limits but I find that I'm OK with having a not-birthday instead.
My afternoon was spent lazing around at home and catching up on things I'd put off during the week. I'd half-intended to go climbing, but the thought of going out in the cold put my off and I decided to treat today as a semi-rest and go tomorrow instead.
I pulled on my fancy dress while the others got ready. D tried to put some Christmas socks on little Dasher but she was not best pleased and pulled them off again just as quickly as they were put on her. Finally, all prepared, we went round the corner to the start where our santa suits suddenly went from fancy dress to total blend-in anonymity.
We started somewhere at the back and allowed H, our non-runner, to set the pace. All was going well until we reached Exe bridges, where the spaniels put on a sudden burst of speed — Dash, for all that's only 12 weeks old, is pretty quick and she ran a good part of the distance without needing to be carried. Our average pace was 7:37 a kilometre and we finished in 19 minutes and change, with a couple of slowdowns and a couple of surges when the dogs decided to step on the gas.
After the fun we picked up some rather classy medals and went back to the house for some lunch which definitely wasn't anything to do with my forthcoming birthday — as ever, all celebrations of my natal day are strictly off-limits but I find that I'm OK with having a not-birthday instead.
My afternoon was spent lazing around at home and catching up on things I'd put off during the week. I'd half-intended to go climbing, but the thought of going out in the cold put my off and I decided to treat today as a semi-rest and go tomorrow instead.
