Who could resist guaranteed snow and polar bear hugs?

Race feature: Run247's Supermum Cally has signed up to the Cancer Research UK London Winter Run - Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Cancer Research UK London Winter Run is a snowy themed 10km run which takes in some of the Capital’s most spectacular sights. There are fun snow zones on the course and runners can look forward to a polar bear hug at the finish line. The thought of guaranteed snow and warm hugs was enough to get me signing up in a flash!

In addition to sounding like a unique 10k experience, this race is ideally suited as a warm up to the half marathon that I have planned in March. I’m also hoping that my children will be there to support me and I think in a race with snow zones and polar bears, they might start to see that running is ‘fun’ and possibly even embrace school cross-country lessons as they get older.

With 55% of people living in the Capital considered ‘inactive’ this race was also designed to encourage runners not to give up as the weather gets colder by giving them something to aim for. Now that most of my runs are in the dark and the temperature is dropping closer to zero, having an event to aim for is critical for keeping me on track and away from the mulled wine (some evenings).

I have been lucky enough to persuade two good ‘mummy’ friends of mine that they too would like nothing more than to run TOWIE streets in enough layers to look a little like polar bears ourselves. So this is the first time in my entire running career that I have had regular training partners and whilst my pace has suffered due to the extra ‘effort’ of chatting whilst running, so far my group training runs have flown by and given me that extra confidence that not even a stray snowball will stop me from getting that finish line hug.

For Run247 readers in London who are not lucky enough to have regular running buddies, help is at hand. Runners Need are supporting the Winter Run by offering Londoners support through the winter via their weekly run clubs from Runners Need stores in the capital.

There’s still time to sign up if you want to join me in this frozen run winterrunseries.co.uk. As I persist with my winter training regimen, I must also persist with my new running mantra ‘the cold never bothered me anyway’... I’ll let you know how that turns out.