run ReNcE run: 20th of Janathon/@virtual10k

Last Sundays run route was chosen as my Sister in law & her new hubbie came visiting and said they'd seen some signs saying the roads were going to be closed this weekend for some event, so I went out to investigate. Turns out it was for the Les Witton 10km hosted by the Dartford roadrunners ( a local club which I will join one day, its only been 6months since I first said that). So this Sundays run was to be the Les Witton 10km, as I've never run a local race and with the start line being only 1km from my house I figured it wasn't going to get much more local. Now during the week @GrahamCarterGC tweeted me about an event that he'd come up with - @virtual10k where you run a 10km by yourself wherever you want, so I figured I'd sign up for that as it tied in with everything else.

A final check last night to see when the start time was, and see if they'd put a route up yet, showed that the race had been postponed until Feb due to the weather conditions, initially I was a bit gutted but figured it meant I could run where & when I wanted, and now @virtual10k was even more fitting as the whole idea came about from a last minute cancelled race in the first place.

The weather forecast said that it would be snowing from 4am today, so I though I would wake to a fresh covering, but when I was woken at 630 (by my dog evicting the neighbour's cat), I saw that there was no fresh snow, which was a shame ( it didn't start snowing until around 8ish) , so I had a light brekkie and then procrastinated a bit by sorting out my running box - an old trainer box where all my medals, running numbers head phones, garmin, arm bands etc etc get ~~thrown~~ carefully stored so I ~~don't leave it all laying around the house annoying the wife~~ know they are secure, and set about taking bling pics

Then the rest of the house got up, so my run was postponed as now it was time to walk the dog and get 2 teenage boys moving & ready for church. Once back from church the wife asked if I was running anywhere near South Darenth as we needed to deliver a birthday card. I knew the field near the birthday boys house was 5km away so figure there and back would tick all the boxes for today.

So after lunch I got my kit on and headed out, it was still snowing which got in your eyes a bit but other than that its was a really pleasant run. As long as I stuck to the deeper snow my TR4's did a great job of gripping well, only when I went on to the roads and driven on snow did it get slippy. Once on the footpath I had to keep an eye on lumps in the snow as many were raised roots, and be aware of where the rutted muddy bits were before (glad of some local knowledge) as some were frozen solid so very uneven and some were still soggy and slippery - not what you want when running along the river bank!

I delivered the card, had a little chat on the doorstep, didn't want to go in as I'd get even sweatier and then would freeze on the way home. Turned round and headed back, though walked the first bit as met some other friends and so strolled with them until I picked up the footpath again.

I took a few pictures on the way back, they all look black & white but that was the natural colour scheme of the day