My son's parkrun debut

First of all I should say that he has been to parkrun a few times before. So it wasn't really his debut in that since. He has "helped" me Marshall and he has done a half parkrun (the first of the two laps) on 4 occasions.

But this time he was determined to do a full parkrun. Even before the run he was talking about his next 9 runs to get to his 10 t-shirt.

Time really wasn't on the agenda, but I had an idea that it would take around 45 minutes if he could manage it.

We placed ourselves (my son Ollie, my brother Andy and me) about two thirds of the way back in the field of runners.

We started at a steady pace that Ollie thought he could keep going and just aimed to run until he needed to walk.

The First kilometre took almost exactly 7 minutes. Faster than expected, but he was talking the whole time so it obviously wasn't too fast for him. And we knew the walking would come soon.

Another km passed, just over 7 minutes taken and still he kept running. We reached the half way point at 18 minutes and he had now run further than ever before without stopping.

Kilometres 3 and 4 passed and still he kept running. He was so determined to run the whole way by this stage, that I was convinced he would do it.

A fast last kilometre (6:50 ish) saw him beat me and Andy to the finish line in a staggering first-timer PB of 35:21 and finishing in 298th place out of about 329.

He had beaten my expectations by 10 minutes and incredibly he had run the whole way!

Within minutes he was talking about the 10 t-shirt again, and going next week. I may have to forego my own parkrun ambitions for a while if he stays this keen.

For my sake and his, I may try to convince him that once every few weeks is a better idea, but if he is adamant I can only really to encourage him, can't I!

I was totally blown away but what Ollie achieved today. He was so proud of himself and I was and am incredibly proud of him too.