How the London Ontario Trail Runners celebrate Christmas - with cookies!

December afforded me lots of time to get used to running in the snow. It’s amazing how the forests and woods are lit up at night with the white stuff, silhouettes of trees and a strange calm, sounds muffled. 

I don’t know if it was the promise of cookies after almost every run during December that made us run further and arguably faster, or just that it was so damn cold at times that you couldn’t stop for too long! One thing’s for sure though: the trails do not disappoint in winter. The early morning runs on fresh snowfall at Medway Valley are breath taking; the night runs at Kains even more so. 

If you happened to walk into the car park at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology a few Saturday mornings ago, you would have seen a bunch of very cold, but very colourful athletes around a table filled with baked goods and cookies - much deserved post run fuel in our opinion. After a snowy, sometimes slippery, but very animated run through the trails, this was how we were celebrating the upcoming holidays!



Night running at Kains Woods in the snow

It’s been a couple of weeks since I managed to get out for one of the weekly night runs and boy have I missed it! The run always starts out with lots of conversation, catch ups within the first couple of kilometres with people you maybe haven’t seen in a while. But I’ve noticed that after that, a silence descends. Not for long, but long enough that you know everyone (well me definitely!) is concentrating on their footing, the sound of snow crunching underfoot, breath getting heavier as we meander through the undulating woods. The view of headlamps weaving through is just spectacular, and on occasion we’ve been lucky enough to spot deer on the higher ground, standing still, their bright eyes just watching us. 



For me, night runs in the snow are a highlight of my time in London so far. And if you’re reading this, and haven’t yet experienced such a thing, I recommend you get yourself out there, with whatever sort of head lamp or torch you may have, and hit those trails! 


Checkout more trail stories on my Instagram page: theamateurtrailrunner