A run, a fallen tree and a lot of snow.

So, today I went on my first run in training to climb Mt Toubkal for Parkinsons' UK.  It went...err...well, let me tell you about it, I think that's the best way to do it.

My friend Simon has wonderfully agreed to help me get fit for this humongous climb. After trying to arrange a few runs, but having been stopped due to heavy snowfall and fear of freezing alive, finally, this Sunday morning, we decided to brave the cold and to go for a 5K run. Yes, 5K. You have read that correctly.

The reason for postponed runs. 

It didn't get off to a good start. We were meant to meet at 9. I had told Simon that the way to recognise our house was due to the  MASSIVE TREE outside the front. (If you've ever been, it's really not hard to miss:P). However, at 9, there was no sign of Simon. Glancing out of my window, I watched him sprint past the house without a second glance. Despite finding this incredibly amusing, I was then bemused to open the front door and see no sign. He had vanished, sprinting off like a sprightly gazelle into deepest, darkest Gilesgate. After about 10 minutes of Simon running everywhere but our house, looking at every tree but our tree, he finally found it and we ran off.

And the run itself? Well, the less said the better:P  Let's just say that this is very much what I would have liked to have looked like.

But in reality, I felt much more like this.

I'm the one in the blue jumper. 

However, it's all baby steps!(The official story is, however, that I was super fast and beat Simon home.)

So here's to more runs, to getting fit and to climbing that mountain! :D

Challenge Accepted. 

p.s. A SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to you, you crazy Irish man who was quite happy to get up at 9am on a Sunday to go for a run in the snow. I thank ye.