Chris Worfolk's Blog

It rained all day. So much for Dry January.

This made things really muddy. There was no escape from the mud. Every time I put my bag down to get something out of it, there was mud all over the floor. My beautiful new changing robe is now covered in mud. There is supposed to be mud on the course – it’s cross country. But it would be nice if there was a safe space somewhere.

The course was nice enough. Not brutally hilly, just regular Temple Newsam hilly. There were several water crossings. The deepest was well above me knee and on some of the shorter people, up to their waist. It is a good job I had my phone in a waterproof bag. I managed to get around without falling over, so that was nice. Might need some specific soft mud shoes for next year, though.

Lots of lovely baked goods at the end. Thank you to everyone who baked and th team captains for organising.

A beautiful misty morning for Roundhay’s 700th event. This ticked a box for me, too: it was my 7th Roundhay parkrun which takes my p-index to 7. Not bad given I only reached 6 earlier this month.

We recently moved house. Wouldn’t recommend it.

A day out at a service station? What a great idea. Skelton Lakes offers a track around the lakes and you get to see plenty of birds. But it is muddy, though. The most muddy you can be without officially being a bog, I think. Might have ben a better idea to take the tarmac path over to the canal. Lesson learnt. The service station offers toilets, food, and three hours of free parking.

I was delighted to wake up on the morning of the race and see the ground covered in snow. Then the race emailed to say it was still on.

First, it was really cold. I put four layers on and it still took me 30 minutes to warm up enough to strip down to 2-3. The snow wasn’t the issue, though. It was the ice. All of the hills were icy. Mostly going up hill but there was still at least one descent that was icy. A lot of people fell over. Thankfully, I did a slow potter around, and stayed upright. It was cold enough to trigger a nose bleed, though.

Otherwise, it was a lovely race. Would do it again if it was warmer.

I rented a van last week and when I turned up, they said the van I had booked has just been written off and would I please take an EV van with an automatic gearbox. It was a fun drive. I did briefly drive an automatic in Iceland and it is easier. And it felt like a quiet ride that still had plenty of power. I didn’t have to mess around charging it, so I didn’t get the full experience, but it seems like a good way to go. Range was 180 miles on a full charge.

PECO is Leeds’s cross country league. When I took part in 2021, I only managed two races, so I’m hoping for three this year. Wst Park is the third one in the series and it is a nice course. Not too hilly (some hills) and because it was so cold the ground was forzen over so no mud. Like other races, it is often single track so difficult to overtake. Very well marshalled and a fun day out.

A great way to start the year as it took my p-index to six.

The p-index is number of different parkruns times the number of times you have done them. So, if you have done at least four different parkruns at least four times, you would have a p-index of four. I only started paying attention to it last year, around all of the touristing, but this year I’m hoping to give it some focus.

Not yet having managed to establish some solid roots, we celebrated New Year’s Eve on Sandy Cove. To be fair, Tom Nook did a great job with the fireworks.

The winning team at the 2025 DUHAC 24-hour run.

Venla’s 50th junior parkrun.

DUCC takes on TriLaois. My first triathlon in 20 months.

The winning relay team at Skerries triathlon.

The annual Teddy’s ice cream run.

Dublin Mountain Trail Festival.

Giant’s Causeway.

One of the many sandcastles we built on our northern coast road trip.

Westport triathlon.

Killarney national park.

Djouce summit.

Dublin Marathon 2025.

TCD graduation.