‘First, find your parkrun; it has to be Holyrood!’

The weather suddenly turned colder yesterday evening - it is the end of December, after all - and many of the parkrun courses were affected by ice.

The resulting cancellations, which had started last night, became a steady flow this morning. Amongst these - at a relatively late stage, as we were just about to set off - was our regular one along the promenade at Cramond. Portobello (our traditional New Year's Day venue) had also cancelled, so - at this late stage it meant it would be last Monday’s Christmas Holyrood parkrun again. 

By the time we arrived, the clouds were becoming heavier, and it looked like we would be in for some snow as well! 

After a quick warm-up, I stopped to take a quick photo of some volunteers at the baggage drop-off area with the summit of Arthur’s Seat in the background. It's about 180m above this point, though the road around it, used by parkrun, only goes about halfway up. Still, it's a bit of a climb for the first mile or so, though it is good to get it over with first as the road then levels off for a bit, followed by a rather more gentle descent where, on a good day, you can feel you're positively flying!

Anyway, that is the final parkrun of 2023 done - apparently, I've done a total of 52 this year! (Though my times are slower than ever, thats more than I've ever done since I started Parkrun 14 years ago) 

2024 will be just over 9 hours old when we hope to get the New Year off to a good start at Portobello!