...do they tell everyone about it anyway?
No?
Good. That’ll save me a bit of embarrassment 😏
(I know I made a sound because I startled some swans so much they flew off with a very audible whirr!)
I’ve grown used to running the top loop of the river and making the distance up to 5k (or 7k) by running around the fields alongside, but to be honest the tracks over there aren’t particularly clear and I really didn’t feel like trying to do them in the dark. So I stuck to the path: up to the bridge at the village - two steps down followed by three steep steps up to get to street level, turn right over the bridge, then two steep steps down again. I don’t think I notice in the daytime, but you can really hear the water slapping against the built up sides of the river on this stretch.
Not having run round the fields, I’d only done about 3.5k by the time I was nearly back to the car, so stayed on the track instead. Down past the horse fields, down past the houses out on the road (rubbish picture is rubbish and was taken during my cool down walk), along the funny narrow bit, round the corner, and then decision time. I actually started off sticking to the path I was on, but had only gone a few yards before changing my mind and turning back. Only to find two cyclists hurtling towards me - I think we all flinched a bit, and then one of them called out a sorry and a thank you as they slowed down and I took a giant step sideways to get off the path.
Onto the rough path alongside the river itself, where I did the ‘thing’ in the subject line. Jumped up, dusted myself off and trundled off again.
As I was aiming to do 7k, it was about now that I had to decide whether I wanted to run back the same way I’d come, or continue down to the nearest gate.
Of course the gate isn’t right beside the path I’m on. That would be too easy. No, to get to the gate you have to run down a bank and across a narrow strip of field.
Several tempting looking side tracks later, I finally found the gate and headed back to the car, my trusty Garmin telling me that I’d done a little over 6k by this point.
Running to 7k left me a slightly longer walk than I thought it was going to, so I walk a bit, jogged a bit while doing dynamic stretches along the way, as well as stopping to take the picture.
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
week 2 begins! 
