Inaugural runs: Newbury parkrun (11 February 2012)

My marathon is nine weeks tomorrow. Take off the taper, and that leaves six weeks to train. So what training have I done since last Saturday's parkrun?

Nothing. Zip. Diddly.

But Saturday is parkrun day, and parkrun trumps sloth, so at 9am I joined 316(!) other freezing runners for the inaugural Newbury parkrun.

Yes. Despite snow and sub-zero temperatures, 317 people took advantage of the generosity of the volunteers and ran* around the flat, single-lap, hard-packed gravel** course with stunning views***.

And in the throng were plenty of familiar names and faces, including:

• the race photographer that I first met at Southwick parkrun


• a parkrun tourist who I've watched vanish into the distance at Ally Pally, Wanstead Flats, Hampstead Heath, Valentines and Wormwood Scrubs


• the parkrunner who gave me lifts between the longest parkrun's seven venues


• the chirunning coach from a great workshop I went to last March


• a posse of Basingstoke parkrunners I recognised from Eastbourne's inaugural run


• two of the touring party of Burnham Joggers


• and Chris and Linda Cowell, who are at 1st and 5th place on the most events table and who have clocked up a remarkable 77 and 63 different venues respectively.

*jogged gingerly. At least in my case.

**allegedly. Underneath the snow.

***so I'm told. I was too busy watching my step to look up.

Easter bunnies!

Basingstoke parkrun received a visit from the Easter bunnies this weekend!  Two unnamed individuals donated eggs, large and small, to turn the 203rd B'stoke parkrun into a very fast Easter Egg Hunt!    I have to admit that I was neither fast enough nor observant enough to find any eggs today.  It took all my concentration just to keep on going.  And really I should have stopped, would have stopped had not my oldest child (volunteering today) hurled abuse at me as a passed the finish point after completing the first one and a half laps.  Somehow I forgot to stop, and by the time I remembered I was nearly at the end!  I did stop briefly to see if a lady who had tripped badly was OK, but help had already been summoned, so I ploughed on.

It had not been a good run.  After my nasty fall on Mothering Sunday I've had various niggles that I've been trying to ignore.  I come from a generation that were told to 'run through' the pain at school.   I am competitive by nature, so when a friend caught up with me on Tennis Court Hill pushing his 3 year old son in a buggy I was mortified!  I did put on a bit of speed and pulled ahead for a few seconds, but I was to pay for it later.  My right hamstring was screaming at me.  It continued to shout at me for the rest of the run.  I finished in a disappointing 24mins 57 seconds.   As always, after picking myself slowly up from the ground, I jogged back to meet my youngest son and encourage him over the final half mile.  He is only 7 years old, and although he runs all the way around, I think he loses concentration.  Certainly when I meet up with him at the end of the race he has bags of energy left and we see how many people we can overtake.  There is always a lovely cheer for Freddy as he comes to the finish and he always has a huge smile on his face!  This week he got a new PB too!  He took 1 second off his previous time to finish in 35mis 05 secs.

Maybe it is because we get such a great deal from parkrun that a lot of us are more than happy to give something back.  The generosity of parkrunners never ceases to amaze me!  We've had medals donated for our Christmas day run, and one very kind runner who waited at the finish line for a younger runner (aged 7) to finish on that day and give him his medal (100 medals had been donated, but 130 runners had turned up on the day). Parkrun certainly fosters a great feeling of community and camaraderie.  The support and encouragement shown to runners at all levels is exceptional.  It seems incredible that I have been doing parkrun for less than a year, it has become such an important part of my life.  What on Earth did I do on Saturday mornings before?

Now, is some generous soul could please donate a new pair of fully functioning legs to me, I'd be a very happy lady!

Inaugural runs: Mile End parkrun (4 February 2012)

Another brand new parkrun today, this time in Mile End. It starts at the south end of Mile End park, and is twice around a lollipop. The design of the course gives you plenty of opportunity to see the other runners, to shout encouragement at your friends and to monitor the progress of your rivals. It's all tarmac, undulating and kicked off with a (male) course record of 15:23.

It is also situated right next to Regent's Canal, making it a perfect venue if you fancy extending your parkrun into a long run. I know this because I was meeting a couple of virtual running buddies and was in charge of finding a route. South along Regent's Canal, West along the Thames Path and then North into Hyde Park. Job done.