Dexter and parkrun fame

Over the last 2 weeks Dexter has had a great deal of excitement surrounding parkrun. About 11 days ago whilst watching 'The One Show' SJ sent in a photo of Dexter and I running at parkrun on his 10th run. She did this because they were announcing the final 10 for Sports personality of the Year and asked the viewers to send in photos of people in their household who should be recognised for their achievements.

SJ sent this photo in with the tag line, this is Dexter running with his Daddy completing 10 5k parkruns and we thought no more of it. We went off doing some tidying and forgot about it but about 20 mins later we heard Dexters' name on the TV and we came running to rewind it to see if we heard right. We had, so we rewound it again and shouted Dexter to come watch TV, he had no idea what was about to happen. We pressed play and this happened,
 

So when parkrunday came and he was crossing the finish line he was greeted by it's Dexter off the TV. He was then approached by Jude who thanked him for getting her on TV too! This puzzled Dexter as he's still at that age where the rest of the world doesn't really exist and he doesn't get why other people saw him on TV, and that other people can watch the same thing as him. 

All week at school he was asked at about it by various parents and still he was a little shocked at the attention he was getting. Plus SJ and I were getting the strangest of questions from people like "did The One Show ask you for a photo of Dexter?" "Did you get any money for it?" And "Will he be on again?" to which our reply was NO it was just a bit of fun.

Then this past parkrunday eve we got a message on Facebook that Dexters 10 club T-Shirt was ready for us to pick up at the next parkrun. So on parkrunday when we picked it up the lovely attention Dexter got for his T-Shirt was great and it made him feel great. So thank you to everyone that made a fuss of him and made his parkrunday even more special.

If that wasn't enough we then joined in the annual Huddersfield Santa Dash where Dexter, Clark and Flynn were star attractions in their reindeer outfits. Plus some star apperences from last years  and current Santa Dash champion parkrun ED Simon and this years runner up and Co parkrun ED Mark, well done guys on your efforts today.

Plus the Santa Dash got a small section on the local news program where the boys, SJ and I can be seen running/walking in our various costumes and Tinsel. 

And to top off a great day we went to see the Coca-Cola lorry mainly for SJ and I as the boys had no concept of what it stands for, but that didn't stop Dexter loving it.

What a great weekend, and don't forget to keep running everyone.

Huddersfield Santa Dash and a PB distance!!!

This past Sunday Dexter and I had our first proper run together, it was the annual Huddersfield Santa Dash. We were running for Kirkwood hospice, I was in a Santa suit and Dexter got antlers and a red nose. We knew this prior to the run so we dug out an old reindeer outfit, which was for 2-3 year olds not 4 year olds. It still fit him sort of, he could get in it comfortably but his arms and legs were sticking out by about 6 inches. So to keep him warm we put his thermals on underneath and being white they actually added to the outfit. There was a really good turn out and atmosphere at the start as we waited to be set off, there were lots of photos taken by various people and lots of smiles too. Sarah-Jane and Clark were there to watch and to cheer us on, but Clarks Nemesis was there so the cheers turned to screams of fear. The Kirkwood Hospice mascot (Kirk Wood) is gonna haunt Clarks nightmares for a few years I think, he has never been so scared of anything as he is of Kirk Wood.



The Santa Dash was only a mile long round some of the street in the town centre but I was gonna be the furthest that Dexter had ever run before. He did really well he kept going all the way round didn't winge once and at 1 point even let go of my hand and ran off ahead, so I had to speed up to catch him. He was totally focused and even the shouts of come on Rudolph didn't make him take his eyes of the run. We had great fun and at the finish we met up with Sarah-Jane and Clark and Grandma and Peter turned up too. We collected our certificates and then went for a bite to eat, before going home for a sit down.

After a couple of different runs over the weekend it was nice to get back to my usual route yesterday. I was debating weather to go yesterday or tonight but as it was only gonna get colder I was glad I went when I did. It was still cold and the floor was covered in frost so I had to watch my step as I ran, more than usual anyway. Even thou I was taking it steady on the slippery roads and pavements I still managed to keep a low 5 min pace. I could only put this down to eating a big meal an hour before and having extra energy. The cold wasn't getting to me either as there wasn't any wind to chill my bits. I did get a few more looks of "what are you crazy running in this weather in SHORTS!!!" but I was nice and warm and was flying round the route. I knew I was doing well when I reached lap 3 and hadn't slowed much and was still running within the 5 min/km where as I would be into the 6 minutes by now. I even managed to dip under 5 minutes on a couple of km, and when I started lap 4 was considering lap 5. At the end of lap 4 I was nearly at 11km in 58 mins so I decided to do 1 more km and reach 12km and a new PB distance in 1hr03mins. I did the 12km in less time than it took me and Feebee to run 11.2km on Saturday. I was 'not to sound like a teenager but' buzzing and if it wasn't so late and nearly Clarks bedtime I would have done more and maybe even completed 5 laps. I hope to do another few of these before Christmas Day, as I won't get time for running over the holiday and visiting family.

On the fun run front we are at last ready to put out the flyers and next week will give a few out to people I know are up for it. Then after Christmas and new year when the kids are back at school we will give out the rest to take home to their parents etc. This way the fun run could be part of their New Years resolutions and shedding the extra Christmas pounds.

Things are going well but remember keep running everyone.