Celebrating the new year with a run, starting out on a running journey - or home nursing a sore head? As always, everyone come and share your weeknd exploits below the line

Happy new year runners! I hope your 2018s are all off to a flyer already. Or at least that the hangovers aren’t too painful. I started the year in the same way I did 2017, with a parkrun double, bringing my parkrun count up to a whopping, err, 15. Though I reckon I’d be well on my way to a big milestone if I was allowed to count junior parkrun pacing duties.

My local two today were Wimbledon Common, which was more like a flat XC course (mud, mud, glorious mud) and Fulham Palace, offering smooth paved paths. Funnily enough the second one was just a bit quicker than the first. Finishing that then jumping on the tube to the office, I prompted a small boy to ask his mum if “that lady has been jumping in muddy puddles?”. To which the answer was obviously yes, but trying to get out of them again as quickly as possible ...

So who else has been out chalking up parkruns, or starting the new year with a race? I was told today about a marathon in Zurich that starts on the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, which is now on my bucket list. It would be very satisfying to be able to tick off a PB goal only a few hours into the new year, no? Plus also, the chance to be VERY high up the “world’s leading times list” for a few days at least ...