Starting a Park Run Tour

I have now started to do a few more Park Runs now apart from Hyde Park I have done Harrogate, and Roundhay. When I did Harrogate it was on a windy day and I had normal trainers on and 75% of the course is running around the perimeter of the stray on a nice day it would be perfect for a personal best course.

Last month I went across to do the Wythenshaw Park Run with a couple of friends Geoff, Jason Newell and his son Jamie. This course is flat as a pancake but you would need to wear trail shoes as it’s over Grass tarmac small paths and trail. This is one tough course but again finished with a time of 28:53

I did Roundhay last week and I really thought I would get over thirty minutes as three before I went round with my friend and completed in 31:41 but at that time of the day it was at 13:30 and the temperature was 68 degrees. What I found at Roundhay that they had plenty of people pacing and that helped quite a bit. This is supposed to be the third toughest park run and I thought it was when you’re starting on a undulating slope and finishing just a bit further on from the start so it’s a tough start but also a tough finish. What I found when doing the Roundhay park run is that running past the mansion you can push yourself then at the end you take a sharp left turn down hill then at the bottom another sharp left turn around the cricket Pitch then at the end turn right down towards the café then left back up the hill.

I remember on the last lap that I was talking to a nice lady and she went past her daughter  who shouted out you must be on for a PB if you carry on at that pace so I said to the lady in front what’s your PB and from what I can remember she said 31:30 (Ish). So I said I will stop with you and push you up the hill on the last bit of the course. When we both turned for the last time I started to kick in and she said you go on in which I did and finished with a time of 29:03 and I think the lady finished with a 29:30 (Ish) maybe faster.

This week I am supposed to be doing the Pontefract Park Run but there are quite a few from my run club the Pudsey Pacers who are doing the Bradford Park Run so I may go over there instead.

Since doing the Park Runs has got me involved in running 10k road races, this year I have completed two so far the Dewsbury 10k finished in 58:00 and two weeks ago the Bradford 10k finished in 56:01. I am also in training for the Leeds Half Marathon hoping for a sub 2hour 30minute time

Graham

parkrun to 10k (very late post this week mainly because I had to wait to fit some running in in order to have something to write about)

parkrun to 10k Week 4

So to recap…in just two and a half weeks time, I will be attempting to complete a 10k course….please note how I have stopped saying ‘run a 10k’ mainly because that just isn’t going to happen!  There is no way I will be able to run (no walking) the whole 10k.

Monday

Just going back to the bottom wobbling problem….apparently there is an answer to the ‘bottom bra’.  I was taken to one side this weekend and told by a really lovely parkrunner all about Spanx!  And no boys this has nothing to do with spanking paddles!  Apparently this is the answer to all wobbling, a huge pair of Bridget Jones style pants!  I am sorry if this spoils the image you have of most female runners….but apparently a lot of them are turning to these pants for a smooth line and reduction of wobble.

Now I am always game to try something new….so Monday morning, I get the children and dogs out of the house and attempt to try out this new style of running.  First things first….how the hell do you open the packaging on these things….no wonder they reduce wobble, it’s because they have spent the last few months shrink wrapped in industrial strength plastic…..I had to nearly resort to the dog chewing through the plastic to get in to them.

In fact getting into them seemed to be the theme of the morning.  These things are huge…..and I mean huge!  They stretch from shoulder straps (and not sexy ones) right down to the knee…..and they are the colour of sausage skin.   Okay, packaging open…..and which is the front and which is the back…..or doesn’t it matter?  I would look at the packaging for instructions, but is is destroyed in the attempt to get into them!  After looking it on the internet (what would we do without the internet…and top tip….don’t type in Spanx and then press Google images - I know that most of you are going to do that now, aren’t you?), I finally find out that there is a front and a back….so here goes!

Now just for those that don’t know what I look like….I am a size 12 (okay 12-14) and I have bought the correct size…..but these things are near impossible to get into.  It is 10 times worse than getting into a running bra and at one point I couldn’t decide if oiling up or talcing down was the way to go!  All I can say is that they are the colour of sausage skin for one reason….because you really do look like a sausage when you are in them!!  I will not be posting photos…so you can all heave a sigh of relief!   Put on top of them a pair of running tights (who am I kidding….a pair of leggings) and the bunny shirt and I am ready to go.   And guess what…..no wobble!  Couldn’t breath either…but there certainly was no wobble! 

Do you know….you boys have it really easy!!!

So to sum up…….

• 43 minutes of running
• 10 minutes of walking
• listening to Sandi Thorn and Will Young (???)
• carrying all the wobble in a sausage skin
• how do I feel…..squashed!!

Wednesday

It’s very early in the morning and since the clocks have gone back a little bit dark too….but it is the only chance this week that I am going to get another run in….how on earth all you lot doing marathon training fit that kind of running in, I have no idea!

And….to make things worse…..I am going to have to take the dogs with me as it’s the only time I am going to get a long walk/run with them too today!  Now, if you have read my earlier blogs (which you should have!!!) then you will know about the very first parkrun with the ‘bottom biting dogs’….so you would have thought that I would have realised that this wasn’t going to be a good idea! 

We set off across the big black dog field but as it is silly hour in the morning there is just us and a couple of crows (black birds/sparrows??).  Humphrey is pulling me along nicely up the small hill and Lily is trotting alongside me…all going well!  We cross the road, and they both remember to sit and wait….good dogs.  A little bit further and they can be let of the lead….which is a good thing as Humphrey is now pulling so hard that he is restricting his windpipe and quacking like a duck, an entertaining noise but only from a duck, not a dog!  Finally we reach the woods where I can let them off the lead!  And off they go……straight through the woods, straight towards another dog walker, they promptly jump up at him and bite his bottom!! NOOOOO!   (If you are reading this lovely man….I am still really sorry and you were very lovely to not make any kind of fuss about this!)

So…back on the leads, more dog quacking noises, a lot of arm/lead pulling and we reach the canal.  Quick check to make sure there is no one about and I let them off again.  And I start running.  Because of the trauma of another dog biting incident and the fact that I only have a further thirty minutes to get home  before the husband has to leave for work, and because I am feeling slightly lazy, I run down the canal back to the village.  Just a three mile route that I know well and can run all the way.

All in all it was a good run, it felt fine, no twinges like last week.  I am actually enjoying the peace first thing in the morning, the weather is good….I feel great…nothing can spoil this!  You know what is coming now don’t you?   Yup something can spoil this!!!

I turn the corner along the canal, just in time to see both my dogs spotting three ducks on the other side of the canal.  I call them to heal…but the temptation of duck for breakfast is just too great for them!  And it would have been duck for breakfast if the green stuff on top of the water had been grass….not green canal scum…which doesn’t, so I have found out, hold the weight of two small ‘bottom biting’ dogs.   I turn the corner just in time to see them hurtle into the canal and the green scum!!  

The rest of the morning is spent cleaning two green smelly dogs and the bathroom!!  Nice!  Just love this running lark!

So to sum up……

• 28 minutes of running
• 5 minutes of walking
• 8 minutes of rescuing green smelly bottom biting dogs from the canal
• listening to a quacking dog
• carrying….my head in my hands….am I ever going to get a peaceful run
• how do I feel….well how would you feel running back home with two bright green dogs!

Normally there would be another day of running, but it has been a bit mad crazy this week with plans for the Huddersfield parkrun 1st birthday party, darkrun, bit of working and school holidays….so I will have to try to fit in four runs next week to make up for it!

I really am going to have to go….mainly because I need to find a way to get out of these Spanx!  ;-)  

See you all next week…for details about the week before the week before the big day!

Kxx

Ps….Matthew I hope that this is a bit funnier this week, there certainly is less talk about running…although I do feel it is a little short! 

Inaugural runs: Elliðaárdalur parkrun (29 October 2011)

Iceland

I went to Iceland for the weekend. It's the first time I've been. I didn't see the northern lights, but I did lounge around in an outdoor thermal pool, marvel at a waterfall, cross from the north american tectonic plate to the eurasian tectonic plate, go 'ooooh' at a geyser and visit the blue lagoon. And I'm still in shock about the fact that Iceland is larger than Ireland and has a population of 320,000.

320,000. On an island that is larger than Ireland. That's essentially the same as the population of Cardiff. Or Wakefield.

Elliðaárdalur parkrun

Started this week. First in Iceland. It's a lollipop course. The out is downhill along a tarmac path alongside a river with a bundle of mini waterfalls. It's fast, it's pretty and the noise of the river is hypnotic.

The loop is on a gravel path and I think it's through trees. Though I'm doubting that memory, because one thing that Iceland has very little of is trees. I may have hallucinated the trees.

The back, strangely enough is on a tarmac path alongside a river with a bundle of waterfalls. I assume that it is as pretty as the out section and that the sound of the river is as hypnotic, but it's uphill, and I'm afraid that the only thing I was aware of was that.

Oh yes. And afterwards, you get to go next door and lounge around outside in a thermal pool. I very nearly didn't leave.

The parkrunners

I didn't go to Iceland alone. I went as part of a centrally co-ordinated parkrun posse. There were, give-or-take-approximately, thirty-eight of us.

I'd assumed, before we went, that most of the party would be obsessive nomads like me. After all, who else would be mad enough to travel to Iceland for a parkrun?

Turns out, the party was much more interesting than that. By a long, long way.

Kirsty, from Bushy, has only got 10 more runs to go until she joins the 250 club. Tracey, from Hampstead Heath, was clocking up parkrun number 3.

Neil, from Roundshaw Downs, races his parkruns, and was not only the fastest person round, but also clocked up the best performance by age grade.

Carol, one of the seven runners from Cannon Hill (the Cannon Hill mob?) was the first woman home and Mary (from Tiverton) topped the women's age grade table.

Another of the Cannon Hill mob, Lesley, made a perfect pacemaker on the parkrun, and put up with my random babbling for a significant proportion of the course.

Joshua, Helen and Peter were representing Cambridge parkrun. Joshua was the only Junior there, and now has an impressive 51 parkruns to his name.

Ingrid, David and Peter are Kingston parkrun regulars and all members of the Stragglers running club (the drinking club with the running problem). Early this year they all took part in a relay run from John O'Groats to Land's End, along with Paul, who I met at the inaugural Riddlesdown parkrun.

Jamie and Louise have recently set up Aberdeen parkrun, despite having run only 25 parkruns between them. Four weeks in, it has attracted 213 runners from 15 different running clubs, evidence, if any were needed, of the amazing appeal of parkrun.

Peter from Frimley, grilled me about other parkruns in his neck of the woods, and may or may not be checking out Basingstoke, Black Park and Bedfont Lakes in the not-to-distant future.

In return, I grilled Sheila and Melanie about Heaton Park, Karen and Andrew about Leamington, Kathleen and Mel about Ashton Court and Howard about Cardiff.

But I think the most telling comment of all came from Helen. She was part of the group, but has no connection to parkrun at all. Some late drop outs left some places available, and she thought the itinery sounded appealing. As we stood in the baggage reclaim at Gatwick Airport, I asked how she'd found the weekend.

"Brilliant!", she replied. "Everyone was just so friendly."

And finally

Huge, huge thanks to the Elliðaárdalur parkrun team. As usual, the organisation was exquisite, and I'm sure this parkrun will go from strength to strength.

Thanks also to Peter Fordham for co-ordinating the initial set-up, and for Jorunn Jonsdottir and the team at All Iceland for making it happen.

Roll on the next parkrun tour!