New Contributor: Liz Tideswell

Name: Liz Tideswell
Home parkrun: Hanley
Date of first parkrun: 12/11/2011
Total Number of parkruns: 9 (as at 26th February)
Number of other parkrun locations run: 1 - Glasgow
Number of times volunteered: 2 so far
My parkrun history: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/hanley/results/athletehistory?AthleteNumber=191708

As part of a commitment to lose wieght and get fitter, I started running about a year ago by following the NHS Choices Couch to 5km programme. I'd never run before and even refused to run for a bus on many an occasion - I'd rather wait for the next one! However, over 9 weeks I went from barely managing a minute of jogging to running 30 minutes quite happily. I joined a local women's running group in April 2011 - Potters Trotters - and have since taken part in a 10km race and am now training for my first half marathon - the Stafford Half at the end of March. I run 3-4 times per work and parkrun is an integral part of my running week. I document my training stories and fundraising for Cancer Research on my own blog: Running with Rosedawn Designs.

Hanley parkrun is a relatively new addition to the parkrun family and after missing out on the first few weeks of its existence, I finally made it down to Hanley Park to complete in my first parkrun back in November. Since then I've been hooked on parkrun and summed up by thoughts in a recent post on my own blog. In short:

• I love the challenge of trying to improve my own time each week and am getting closer week by week to my 5km target time of 25 minutes. My current PB is 26:04.
• I love meeting different people from the locality and hearing about their running goals and fundraising targets over a post-parkrun oatcake.
• I love being part of the part of the wider parkrun family, the whole idea of parkrun tourism and meeting people from other parkruns when they come to Hanley.
• I love volunteering at parkrun - it gives you a chance to see the event from a totally different perspective, and its a great way of encouraging other runners too.

So that's my parkrun story. I hope to post a few stories from Hanley parkrun here on the parkrunfans blog and the first post is an A to Z of Hanley parkrun.

LizT