This was both my first ever birthday parkrun and my 50th run at Jesmond Dene!
We knew the snow was coming, but it wasn’t forecast to arrive until this afternoon – so it was a bit of a surprise when the first flakes fell from the sky a minute or two after we set off from home. A minute or two after that, the ground was whitening; by the time we got to the end of the road, I was anxiously checking my phone every couple of minutes to see if Jesmond Dene (who had already declared themselves on at 8:10am, five minutes before the snow arrived) had changed their minds!
Thankfully, we arrived to find the briefing in full swing (with lots of safety warnings, naturally) and I got a birthday shoutout! The Dene was so beautiful in the snow. Geth and I took it super easy for a 34ish minute finish on a special day.
Days like this make me so, so grateful to the volunteers who put events on in these conditions and make the tough decisions about whether to go ahead or not. Lots of local parkruns had to cancel at the last minute today.
Next week is unplanned as the winter weather is forecast to continue – so it’ll depend on which ones are on.