Inuagural runs: Southwick Country parkrun (3 September 2011)

100 miles is too far to travel for a 5km run.

But on Thursday, I got the fidgets and I booked a room at the Polebarn hotel in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, pretty much on impulse. I drove down on Friday evening, into a beautiful sunset and got to see Stonehenge silhouetted against the skyline. Oh, and I got lost. Several times. I really must get satnav.

The hotel guy was perkier than anyone has a right to be (especially compared to the perk-less-ness of me on a Friday night when I've been driving for over two hours). The room was lovely. The windows opened. The bed was comfy. The wifi was free. Perky guy agreed that I could grab breakfast early and check out late so that I could go for my run and then shower afterwards.

I went for a six-mile run round the Southwick Country Park and then chatted to the people who were there for the parkrun and then did the first ever Southwick Country parkrun. It's a great venue (2 3/4 laps, hard gravel course, gently undulating and extremely well organised). It has a statue of the spirit of the parkrunner (he has a name, but I can't remember it) that they unveiled this morning.

Afterwards, at the Squirrels Tearoom cafe , I got chatting to two experienced parkrunners, one of whom knows the wonderful Bedfont Lakes chap who gave me a lift around the longest parkrun and the other of whom used to share my surname. For all that it spans continents, parkrun really does feel like a very small community.

I then went back to the hotel to shower and nearly didn't leave, the shower was sooooooooo lovely. After which I pottered around Trowbridge doing the tourist thing for long enough to justify the journey and then came home. Incidentally, Stonehenge in the daytime with oodles of people around it is a far less impressive sight than Stonehenge deserted at dusk.

Is 100 miles too far to travel for a 5km run? Yes. Is 100 miles too far to travel to meet such wonderful people? No.