Christmas Day Aberdare Parkrun

CHRISTMAS 2025 was spent at the bungalow in Hirwaun, South Wales.   It was a chance to get away over the festive period, and spend some time with my wife in a beautiful location.   There was also the opportunity to get out and do some runs building on my knowledge of the local trails.

Christmas day started with a trip over to Aberdare for their Christmas parkrun.   It was a beautiful event with 213 people on the start line.   It was the only event I have done that started with a dance and singalong before the run started.   What a great atmosphere!

Aberdare is a small park and the run is 3 and 3/4 laps of the park, finishing at the boat lake.   There is a real community feel to this run and this was their 299th event since they started (this coming Saturday being their 300th and chance to celebrate).

When I went to Wales my intention was to participate at Pontypridd and do one of my favorite parkruns, but they were not operating on Christmas Day.   New Years Day was being advertised, but I was booked in on a run in West Sussex (Hangover 5 miles, part of the West Sussex Fun Run League) and had to be back in England.

After this is was back to the bungalow for a shower, simple breakfast, opening presents and looking forward to Christmas dinner.

On the Saturday I did attend the Pontypridd parkrun, with the same festive spirit and a lot of runners on the start line.   There is nothing like starting Christmas Day with a community event that unites people and just sets the day up.

Parkrun released that on 25th December 2025 there were 236,000 people over the parkrun finish line at 741 events over 5 countries, we are not alone!