Our friend Andrey told us that his running group meets at 8 am by the statue of Lenin whatever the weather. It poured all night but by 7am had cleared.
I'd put my kit out last night for encouragement but actually felt very good about the prospect of (for me) an early morning run. Forgot that it's a 20 minute walk to the meeting place so had to drive there, oops.
Everyone was already there, about 10 runners, all men. We set off much faster than I'd like, Andrey and another runner kindly saying they'd keep to my pace, so when I asked they slowed down. The others soon disappeared round a corner following a track into the trees.
We ran past the railway to the forest. Despite the rain the ground was almost dry as the soil is sandy.
Andrey and my husband were chatting away so I went slightly ahead and into a world of my own. It was only about 7C when we set off but I was too hot in my jacket. The cold air felt good once I took it off.
Before too long we were back with Lenin. I checked my stats - 40'17" for 5km, a personal best, a minute less than my previous PB!
A great start to the day 😁
PS Poutrun is a play on word for the Russian phrase 'in the morning' and Parkrun. The 'official' Parkrun is in the next town, these guys like running different routes and distances not just 5k. Plus there's some Russian bureaucracy about who can call themselves Parkrun but my language skills don't quite go far enough to understand that...
Cold parkrun and a surprise!
