Nicola Forwood parkrun Tourist! - part 3

Huddersfield. Event number 34, 19/11/11
I went to Huddersfield with mum to race the Huddersfield Bunny! It’s a great concept; you have no idea if it’ll be a fast or slow bunny so it’s really exciting! Will you, won’t you; I love the idea! This day it was a Barkrun and there were lots of dogs! It’s a hilly course (although they’ve changed the course now, I preferred the old one! It’s a great park though and the new course means you see more of the park and it’s now 2 instead of 3 laps). The team were so friendly and guess what…..I BEAT THE BUNNY! I was most excited! I’d say it’s not a PB course but mum loved it and was really pleased with her time, I came 97/124. There’s a lovely café right at the finish and a real community feel.

Gorleston Cliffs. Event number 136, 26/11/11
We were back in Norwich to run the Norwich Half Marathon and as Steve was staying in Yarmouth we agreed to check out Gorleston (although Steve had car trouble and only JUST made it, a far cry from his usual reccy of the course!). The course was extremely windy and cold along the top of the cliffs, and was pretty warm and protected along the bottom. It was lovely being by the sea and must be amazing in the summer or on a really blustery day; I bet the sea looks amazing. I came 77/111 taking it easy before the half the next day.


King’s Lynn. Event number 17, 31/12/2011
Heading back to Leeds on NYE meant we would be driving through King’s Lynn, I couldn’t resist convincing Ben to leave early and do the parkrun there. It was a great decision; the course was lovely, really flat and a ‘dancing in the rain’ style turn around a lamppost! It was lovely to get to look at everyone as you run back past them. The team were great and SO friendly, apparently they’d all brought cake the week before and this week they had all brought fruit. The thinking was that it’d be good to spend the morning detoxing in preparation for the drinking to come that evening! Love it! A huge table of fruit was laid out (although there were some cakes too and I did go for a big slice of chocolate cake as well!). I came 45/55.

Brockwell. Event number 54, 07/01/2012
I had a choice of a Tuesday or a Friday for a London job interview…..um Friday of course! That way I get to do a London parkrun, I stayed with a friend (Laura) and convinced her to come along. I looked up Laura’s local parkrun, it was 3 miles away and it was Brockwell. Now why did Brockwell sound familiar….I listened to the parkrun show again and yes…Danny Norman was running Brockwell that Saturday too. I thought I better warn him that I’d be there, in case meeting a parkrun celebrity like myself would put him off his game! Ha ha ha! :) The course had some decent downhill sections but also had two horrid hills! I had a parkrun fail when I stopped to pick up a barcode that someone dropped and nearly tripped up the three people running right behind me-oops! The best bit about Brockwell parkrun has to be the café, featured in Vogue it was an amazing little find. Luckily as parkrun royalty was in attendance the lovely race director had booked a big parkrun table. Breakfast was gorgeous and all parkrunners wanting to run here should make sure they book a table as the café is not to be missed. I came 120/154, I NEARLY came first when I swapped my tag with Danny’s without his knowledge but he noticed before I had it scanned so I had to settle for 120!

Saturday saw my first inaugural parkrun; York. A frosty morning, just ‑4 degrees! A victim of it’s own success, Tom was a bit worried as he saw hundreds of us lining up to run. Quite a baptism of fire for a new team of volunteers but they were brilliant. It turned out to be a record turnout for an inaugural event; 215 of us! Parkrun tourism was partly responsible for this so hooray for parkrun tourism :)

Although I joke that I would like to be top of the most events table it will never happen for a few reasons:

• I am a bit of an Eco-Warrior, I am in total agreement with the parkrun philosophy of trying not to drive but using public transport or jogging/cycling to get to parkrun. This puts me at a significant disadvantage compared to people who are prepared to do the miles in the car to get there.
  


• I love my holidays (perhaps this is the reason I worry about my car miles so much‑my carbon footprint from flying is terrible!) and parkrun is not quite global enough yet to enable parkrunning on holiday.
  


• I miss the coffee and chat with the Leeds parkrunners in Opposite café. It’s just can’t be missed too frequently.

Posted on behalf of Nicola Forwood.