Singleton Parkrun is supposidly my ‘home’ parkrun, even if I no longer live in the area, so it was fitting that my first Christmas Day parkrun should be completed here.

My training and motivation has really tanked over the last six months. I separated from my wife of 17 years, moved out, changed jobs, and had every kind of stress you can think off. Safe to say, it’s been a heck of a ride.

Last October, I was supposed to run my first marathon in Melbourne. A failed transmission meant that funds needed to be diverted elsewhere, and the trip down south was swiftly cancelled, five weeks out from raceday. At which point, my motivation for training dropped instantly.

Since then, I have done about 3.6km of running in October, 2.9km in November, before finally pulling my finger our in December with 19.9km to date, including this 5km parkun.

I’ve lost a lot of fitness.

Not that I was a super fast athlete or anything like that beforehand – my 5k PB is 26:47, run at the aptly named Paradise Point parkrun on Queensland’s Gold Coast, where I spent a year in 2023 working for Nike.

But my first 5k since September, only a few days prior to this at Maitland parkrun, was 33:10 – my slowest Parkrun ever, not including those where I had my then-10-year old running with me. Today’s run was an improvement, on a somewhat easier (read: flatter) course, although at 31:50 was still far off my best – nearly three minutes slower than my Singleton parkrun PB.

But today’s run wasn’t about pace. It was about getting the miles in the legs, being out running again, and seeing friends, before heading to my ex-wife’s place to spend Christmas Day with the kids.

It was about proving to myself that I can put another 5k through the legs, only four days after last doing it. It was about backing up, being accountable, and not chosing the easy way out.

It was about experiencing the simple joy of running once more. And on that point, I definitely acheived my ambition.

Which is really what this blog is about – setting a goal and being accountable, backing up, not taking the easy road, and getting back to the basics about running.

My aim is to run one parkrun every week during 2025. I will be running some extra ones (New Year’s Day and Christmas Day) to be used as a ‘bank’ for weeks where it’s hard to go to parkrun, which will undoubtedly happen during the year ahead.

I will be running races during this time as well. First cab off the rank is a 16km trail race in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, on the first weekend in February. Plus a few more planned throughout the year. How parkrun will fit into those weekends is yet to be determined, but the idea of being a bit of a ‘Parkrun Tourist’ is somewhat appealing.

I also have a trip to Japan in the works, so running a parkrun whilst over there is definitely an exciting concept.

At the end of the day, whether or not I get to 52 parkruns in 2025 isn’t the point. This is all about attempting to run 52 parkruns, getting back to why I enjoy running in the first place. It’s about the journey, not the destination.

So, time to hit the road.