Starting the New Year with a parkrun and a cold dip!

Last year I meant to get up on New Year's Day and run Lancaster parkrun but in the end decided I wasn't safe to drive there after celebrating the new year... This year my home parkrun at Fell Foot had its first ever New Year special. In order to ensure that I was fit to go I volunteered to tail walk so that I had to make sure I could get there!

Despite the celebrations of the night before there were 150 of us undertaking the 5 km event (and some of them went on to Millom afterwards to do another!). As I was walking I managed to capture many of the runners on camera:

By the time we finished only the volunteers were left but two of us mad mums still went in the water. It was a chance to try out my action camera underwater:

I will have to be brave and go in the water again and improve on my filming!

#CountryKids Fell Foot Halloween Parkrun

Today it was the annual Halloween parkrun at Fell Foot today and my son and I had volunteered to be tail walkers. So we really thought we had better dress for the occasion:

It was good to see that other folks had joined in the spirit of things too:

It was a big turn out with 276 finishers so it was a big briefing:

Then we had the award for parkrunner of the year which went to one of regular volunteers:

#CountryKids All England Stone Skimming Championships

After Parkrun yesterday my son decided he wanted to enter the All England Stone Skimming Championships which were being held in the same park. There was quite a queue to sign up as the competition was open to all ages with no qualification. At £3 for an adult and £1 for an under 11 it was a well priced event too. Our first task was to choose from the selection of skimmers that the South Cumbria Rivers Trust had supplied:

Its all to do with the size of your hand and how they fit when you are preparing to throw them! Then we had to wait to take our turn at skimming and first of all we watched some of the seasoned experts; such as Ron Long The Old Tosser who has written an excellent post explaining how to skim stones.

Next up was Gareth Twamley who with his first stone broke the local record with an awesome 88m!!

The slightly choppy waters (and occasional straying waterfowl) weren't the ideal conditions for stone skimming:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Its Advent #R2BC

Blimey what happened to November it vanished so fast! I can't believe that its December and my turn to take over as host from Michelle. With the season of goodwill fast approaching I am looking forward to reading lots of happy posts from other folks. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week:

1) #ReverseAdvent

I had heard about the great idea to have a Reverse Advent box into which every day in Advent you place an item so that on Christmas Eve you can donate it to a family or individual who would benefit. I was lucky to receive one of the CoOp's Reverse Advent boxes and we are looking forward to filling it with various items over the next 24 days.

2) Photo Fun

With long days at work and dark nights my photography has been limited. With a daily shot needed for my Blipfoto journal I have been having fun doing a mini series of our Funko Pop collection.  This was the latest one with Sven from Frozen:

3) 100 Fell Foot parkruns

This weekend we celebrated both the 100th parkrun at Fell Foot and also the 100th parkrun by our director Ron. We had a marshal takeover by the National Trust, we sang a special song to Ron and I ran the whole way with a regular volunteer and helped him to a new PB! 

4) Proud Mum

My son had his first indoor athletics competition with Kendal Athletics Club, it was down in Blackpool but the travel and an entire day in a sports hall were made worth it by his second place in the chest push:

What are your reasons this week?

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Reasons to be Cheerful: parkrun, Pokemon and roses #R2BC

So glad that Michelle is hosting again this month so we can all share the happy! Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Back to Fell Foot parkrun:

It was far too long since we ran around the park. Such a fun and friendly parkrun even in the rain:

2) Remembrance Day

My school observed a super 2 minute whole school silence on the Friday and then on the Sunday I thought about my ancestors who served and fortunately survived the First World War like my grandfather:

3) Weekend stroll

Love my weekend walks with my children hunting Pokemon. This is my son chilling under the underpass whilst collecting from a Pokestop:

4) Still going

My neighbour's roses are still holding on:

What is making you smile this week?

#CountryKids Fell Foot Christmas Parkrun #FitnessFriday

Thanks to Storm Desmond we were unable to have a Christmas parkrun at Fell Foot Park. However Cumbrians are hardy folk so 6 months on we held a Christmas and half parkrun last weekend. We were asked to combine summer and Christmas for the special event. I managed to attach some ribbons to my trainers to make them more festive:

My daughter was marshalling in a Christmas outfit whilst the Run Director was channeling his Santa on the beach look:

The volunteers had made a fabulous effort at decorating the course:

#CountryKids More Easter Trails with the National Trust

Saturday was such fun we decided to do some more trails on Sunday afternoon. We decided due to lack of time to head to Sizergh Castle. The children did this trail on Friday with gramps but I hadn't been. So many others had had the same idea that we had to queue at the entrance for a car parking space. It was cold and wet so it was probably just as well the trail was a very quick one!

There were some simple clues to follow and some obvious things to spot:

My son shot off ahead and we soon lost him:

#CountryKids On the trail with the National Trust

My son and I decided today to try and do as many Easter trails at local National Trust properties as possible! We were going to be at Fell Foot for parkrun already so it seemed a great opportunity to tackle a few that were close by. It turned out that the Fell Foot one was a Spring trail and not an Easter one but it put us into quest mode:

The series of cryptic clues led us all over the park and some were quite tricky! There were a few other families also trying to find all the bunny rabbits that were hidden in all sorts of places. It took us about 40 minutes to find them all and claim his prize of a mini telescope.

Our plan was then to head over to Claife Station via the ferry to do their trail. Unfortunately when we got to the ferry it was temporarily closed... So we had to do a plan B and head to Wray Castle via Ambleside. It took ages but at least we spotted a couple of Herdwicks on the way:

Lots of other folks had had the same idea as well so we had to wait for a parking space before we could collect a pack for the Easter trail:

#CountryKids at Fell Foot Parkrun

Our local Parkrun at Fell Foot was effected by Storm Desmond so they have had to create a temporary course that just uses the pathways and avoids the temporary bogs and damaging waterlogged grass. It does mean that we get to run along the shore of Windermere 4 times as we go around the course now:

My son helped me warm up before the briefing before the event. Being a regular fell runner he knows how to get our heart rates raised and to do dynamic stretches (especially important on a cold day!). Then I located another regular runner with a similar time to him to run the course with (being under 11 he *has* to be with arms length of an adult for all the race) as I am far too slow... Then is was time for the Run Director to give out course and safety information:

Parkruns are perfect for all ages and today the age range was right from age 4 to over 80 (plus one baby in a back carrier and one toddler in a buggy!). The temporary course makes it a lot more sociable as you loop around several times and pass runners at varying points (or in my case are passed - including by my son!):

It is great to see how all the different ages and abilities support each other and encourage runners who are struggling. I received a shout of "Run Mummy Run" from a lady from my Facebook running group! For some children it is the first time they have ever attempted to run 3 miles but they receive encouragement from their parents, other runners and the perennially cheerful marshals. As an adult its great to be told "you are doing great" as well.

My son helped me on my last lap as he had finished his run in his second fastest ever time! He makes for a fabulous running coach and I even managed a sprint finish up the last hill. It turned out he was 23rd overall and 2nd in his age category (the other boy was 1 year older) whilst I was much further down the field in 74th place (although I was 26th female!). 

When my phone had recovered from the cold I took this snap of us being pleased with our times:

I can certainly recommend Parkruns as a perfect way to combine outdoor fun and fitness together for families!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Cumbria is Open #R2BC

Its the last week of the lovely Ojo's World hosting the linky as its back to me next month! I had better be more organised to have my post ready earlier than this one.. Any way here are my reasons to be cheerful this week with a Cumbrian twist:

1) Fell Foot is open

My son and I were back at the reorganised Fell Foot parkrun which has been back for 2 weeks. Its a lot tougher on the course as you have a lot more climb but it was fabulous to be back in such a beautiful part of Cumbria even if the cafe isn't yet back in action:

2) Grateful for the NHS

With my daughter's scary hospital trip at the weekend I am very pleased that we have a national health service that is free and has such dedicated staff. Its also pleasing that the scare of appendicitis was a false alarm!

3) Close call

The river Kent got very high with the rain this week but it stayed in the river bed:

What is making you smile this week?

Reasons to be Cheerful: a soggy one #R2BC

The hop is being hosted by the lovely Jo at Ojo's World who like me has found that sharing the little happy things makes everything seem better! Here are my reasons this week:

1) Parkrun Photography

As it was my son's birthday I volunteered to be official photographer on what turned out to be a monsoon kind of day! It could have been a reason to be miserable but when regulars like Conrad (who is in his 80s) take the time to smile and wave at the camera it lifts the spirits! (More photos on Facebook)

2) Running in the dark

Birthday boy was dead chuffed that the National Trust laid on a Night Run at Fell Foot on his birthday! He invited a running club friend to come and join him running around the park in the dark. His friend's dad used to work with me so he and I trailed behind the boys in a very much fun event:

3) Proud Mummy

It was my son's first parents' evening at his new school this week. Apparently it is like he has always been in the class as he fits in so well. So glad he is finding friends and continuing to do amazingly well at maths.

4) Clever/Lucky Mummy

I'm a bit of Words with Friends addict and scored my highest ever single word score this week with 144 for this turn:

What is making you happy this week?

#CountryKids Halloween at Fell Foot

With Halloween coinciding with Parkrun our normal 5k at Fell Foot turned into something a bit different today:

My son got in to the spirit of things with the top half of his kit (the zombie trousers were too long for running in!):

The weather wasn't quite as spooky as it has been as the fog had lifted early:

This was the creepiest costume as he just stood there until the run got under way:

The whole atmosphere was a lot of fun with 177 finishers about half of whom wore costumes. This young man did well to complete his first parkrun in an all in one skeleton costume:

My daughter had decided it was too cold to wear a costume whilst marshalling so went for the minimalist Halloween look of a witch's mini hat and veil combo:

After getting our treat from the communal treat bucket we headed along the lakeshore to the cafe for a well earned drink:

They had a roaring fire going in the stove which was very welcome:

There were plenty of Halloween decorations like this National Trust themed pumpkin:

Back outside we decided to make the most of the special Halloween offerings as we had travelled across the county. My son and I opted for the spooky Halloween trail which was a £1. He was given a a map and we set off to solve the cryptic clues:

The clues took us to all areas of the park and we found places we had never been before such as Discovery Cottage:

It was a lovely day for walking around hunting for clues:

The final location was in a creepy graveyard:

He earned himself a sweet treat for solving all the clues! Meanwhile big sister had been spending her birthday money on wand making including peeling the bark off the wood before blinging it up:

Then she assisted with the manufacture of a broom stick:

I think she needs a few flying lessons from Harry Potter though:

All in all a good bit of healthy Halloween family outdoor fun!