Perfect Winter Conditions for today’s parkrun in Tampere, Finland 
We never take parkrun for granted here in Finland, especially in the winter.
Ironically, when it’s really, really cold (minus 15-20 C) and there’s compact snow, conditions underfoot are usually quite ok to run … it’s when the temperature hovers around 0 C (as it was midweek here) that the constant melting/ refreezing can make conditions like an ice-rink, and the Run Director must make the tough call to cancel because it’s just too risky!
The RD (Nina) and I did a pre-run check of the course late yesterday afternoon - as the sun was setting - and tbh I was really, really surprised that the conditions were so good … we were in agreement that we could make the decision NOT to cancel ~ and it turned out to be the right call! Yay! The temperature dropped still further in the night and when we set off at 9:30am it was jolly cold, around minus 10C - our first real winter parkrun in a long, long time (because of the pandemic) and perfect conditions underfoot!
Volunteering in these conditions is quite a challenge of course - so a huge thanks to everyone who stood on the start/ finish line and also the lovely marshal /photographer who cheered everyone on at the U turn. 
The challenge in volunteering in the winter is not only keeping warm enough (especially fingers when timing) but also keeping the phones working. Well done to the RD for keeping her nerve as even with extra power packs one of the timer’s and one of the scanner’s phones gave up the ghost!
Every week we are in need of volunteers to (at the absolute minimum) give out tokens, scan barcodes and take the times, and tbh sometimes we scrabble around getting a team together!Remember WITHOUT ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS THERE IS NO WAY WE CAN HAVE PARKRUN - so if YOU could give up your run occasionally so the event can go ahead we’d all be really grateful. Remember too: after 25 volunteering stints you get a lovely purple T-shirt!
You can sign up to volunteer here https://www.parkrun.fi/tampere/volunteer/
Huge CONGRATULATIONS today to Tuire and Jansku who made it over the line today in spite of Jansku’s wheelchair getting a puncture, which made the 5km a humongous effort for them. Well done for making it back! 
Today there were 56 participants, 8 of whom were first timers and one PB, Kaj RÅSTEDT, who improved his time by 2.5 minutes! Well done!
It was also lovely that TAMPERE TOAST MASTERS joined us today.
You can find the results here https://www.parkrun.fi/tampere/results/latestresults/
As you can see, there were - sadly - quite a few participants who appear as UNKNOWN in the results, because they didn’t present their barcode.
Remember you MUST PRESENT YOUR BARCODE for your time to be registered to you. NO BARCODE = NO RESULT, Please bring a printed copy of your barcode with you (this has your ICE contact number on it - which we really hope we’d never have to use ….but still! …) or you can also show your barcode from your phone nowadays.
I had the joy of running with two friends today ~ we didn’t break any records because we stopped and took loads of photos. Tampere - especially the shoreline - was looking exceptionally beautiful this morning, with frost on the ground, and mist over the water which lifted as the sun rose. It’s parkrun mornings like this I feel most alive! I’m so thankful for parkrun - and especially grateful we didn’t need to cancel today.
We meet again same time, same place next week.
Lorna, your tireless run report writer, from Turku
(One day we will have a parkrun of our own!)