I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day. Mine was lovely. Couldn't have asked for a better time. Christmas morning saw me tackle my first ever Parkrun, and wow, that was intense (like camping, lol). Definitely prefer my comfort zone of running halves or marathons or relaxed trail runs, but I guess these 5km runs are great for challenging yourself and practising some speed-work. So, now I have my time (20:59) this means I have to try and beat this the next time I run it, when I'm back in February. (Sidenote: no leaving Newy for the Goldy in Feb as previously planned - changed my mind and now I'm stoked that I'll be sticking around a bit longer. Novocastrians - you are stuck with me a little bit longer!)
Christmas lunch was with my best friend and her family - such a delicious time! Oh wow, the food was so good. As was the wonderful company. Thanks for making me feel part of the family, this was so lovely.
Then Christmas night was spent with some excellent friends, having a chilled front lawn party with a few tunes and too much home-brewed gin. Hmmm... Yep, seems I've temporarily replaced turmeric drinks with booze, damn this silly season.
In no particular order, a couple of Christmas shots:
So, short and sweet and possibly my last post here for a while as for the next 6 weeks I'll be doing my favourite pastime (after running of course!) of travelling again!! Starting the trip with a couple of days in Sydney with family and friends and then fly out to London (via Hong Kong) to arrive there just before New Year's eve. I am so excited!! I will get to catch up with friends and family who I haven't seen in person for far too long, and have a belated Christmas celebration with my mum, bro, sis-in-law, and nephew too. Hopefully will get lots of running in whilst overseas as am now keen to run the Orange Marathon (http://www.orangecolourcityrunningfestival.com.au/) in late Feb, so really should have started marathon training by now. Need to get a few more long runs in, but should be ok.
Hope you all enjoy your New Years' celebrations and your time spent with family and friends. And as ever: happy running!!