Home parkrun: Brueton, Solihull
Date of first parkrun: 21/05/2011
Total Number of parkruns: 31
Number of other parkrun locations run: 6 – Cannon Hill, Coventry, Killerton,Bushy, Nonsuch, Riddlesdown
Number of times volunteered: 3 (must do better)
My parkrun history: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/athleteresultshistory?athleteNumber=147284
To the bewilderment of my nearest and dearest, I leftSolihull at 6am on New Year’s Day, with my bike in the back of the car, boundfor Bushy Park and the parkrun “Trifecta”. The only explanation I could offerthem; “It’s calling me”.
Ok, so why not just run 3 times in Brueton park then I was asked? Why goto London? A good question.
I think it’s because I’m a numbers man. A run in the parknow, is just training. It has to count towards something, sort of like adding anothernotch to the bed post. The opportunity to get 3 new notches, at 3 locations, onone day, and not even a Saturday at that, was just too much to resist.
I use to be like this following Birmingham City. I had to doevery game in the season, count the away grounds I had visited etc. If youthink giving it everything you’ve got in a 5k parkrun is punishment, trywatching Blues for a whole season.
So, Bushy park started at 9am, Nonsuch at 10am, andRiddlesdown at 11am. And apparently some people were going to bike it betweenlocations. Wow! Awesome!
Once at Bushy, I did find other cyclists who knew where theywere going, fit triathlete types they were, but not surprisingly they were allgoing to be long gone by the time I had finished the Bushy 5k in 24 minutes.
Reluctantly then I stuck to the car, and it was a good jobtoo. I still got lost and after legging it half a kilometre from the wrong carpark, I missed the start at Nonsuch park. I caught up with the tail runnerafter a couple of minutes though, and eventually finished the run in a recordedtime of 27 minutes.
Then more stress trying to find Riddlesdown, but I made iton time, and dragged myself round the extremely muddy course, in a personalworst time of over 28 minutes. Great fun though!
Amongst my numerical goals for 2012, I want to do each ofthe 9 midland parkruns at least once by bike. No doubt there will be morestrife to report in the weeks ahead then J
