Parkrun virginity finally lost - with nowhere to hide!

[linda9389]

I registered with Parkrun 13 months ago and today I finally ran one!

I'm away in Canada at the moment and the nearest Parkrun (Penticton, BC) only started up last November - it's new and very small! Just 34 runners today (our two local home Parkruns get 450-550 runners every week).

There are so few people, they rarely have a tail runner. Of the 34 today, myself and a group of 7 were all visiting from the UK; often there are even fewer runners!

So there was quite literally no hiding. But it was a beautiful and absolutely flat run alongside the lake, really well organised and I finally did it! A great start to the day for sure. Came 20th out of the 34 runners so not too shameful (we don't need to mention that many of the runners were with children, one guy was pushing a buggy with two kids in it, another was with a lurcher who she actually carried for part of the run ....)

Hopefully I won't wait another 13 months before trying my home Parkruns

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10]

Yay! Well done and welcome to Canada! Park runs are slowly making their way to more Canadian cities. There is now one 2 1/2 hours away from me. Someday maybe. It’s nice to see from the pictures that it’s no longer too smokey there from all the forest fires in the province. You can see and experience all the beauty. Enjoy your holiday!

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to SaskAlliecat]

The smoke is much better than it was here in the Okanagan. I'm staying with my parents. They were actually evacuated last month for several days with the fire just metres from the house. They were lucky and the wind changed direction. Scary though.

Maybe you should start a local parkrun one day? 😀

[SaskAlliecat Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

So scary! I’m glad the wind changed direction and their property is ok. I can’t get over some of the videos I watched.

I’ve thought about it but my job keeps me way too busy so it won’t be in the cards for a while. Maybe some day.... perhaps a retirement project?

[Lavender1962 Graduate10]

Congrats on your 1st parkrun! I’m a regular volunteer at a parkrun in Montreal Canada. It looks like a beautiful course in Penticton. There are currently 17 parkrun’s in Canada with 8 more on the way. Our attendance is slowly building, Tourists often make up a considerable percentage of participants. I hope you have a great rest of your vacation!

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Lavender1962]

Well done to you - it must be so much harder to find enough volunteers from such a small base. I was really impressed with the energy and cheeriness of everyone involved in Penticton. Sadly I'm not here long enough to volunteer here this year, maybe on another visit.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

Lovely.. 34 folk...bliss! What a beautiful place to run...it poured here in the UK yesterday!

You did wonderfully... Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Oldfloss]

Thanks. I will definitely try my two home events now but now but am sure they will feel very, very different. This was an out and back, two lap course - if it had been a straight run it would have felt as if it was a solo run as there was so much space both in front and behind me within about five minutes of starting 😀

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

My fear..is too many folks!

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Oldfloss]

I've seen a few people say that here - I wouldn't want to run with lots of people too often for sure, the solo runs are so therspeutic, but once in a while seems to add a bit of buzz (albeit nervy buzz 😀) and variety for me

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

I think I am a lone snail😉

[Hidden]

Yay, well done. I was a parkrun virgin too till recently.

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

Did you find a nice course?

[Hidden in reply to linda9389]

It was flat which made a change for me 😊

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Hidden]

Ooh sounds good to me 🤣

[Crawlhome Graduate10]

Well done on your first parkrun and what a beautiful course it it😁.

I'm sure it will grow and grow..

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Crawlhome]

I hope so. The regular team obviously put in loads of effort to set it up and are clearly very enthusiastic about it too.

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

What a beautiful place to do your first Parkrun londa9389. Hopefully you will try it again when you get back home.

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

I hope so too. Only issue will be that it makes sense to do longer runs at the weekend rather than mid week so I will try to plan some weeks into my schedule where I do parkrun instead. I'm sure it's good to mix it up for all all sorts of reasons 🙂

[ArthurJG Graduate10]

Parkrun is less of a thing in North America. The one in San Francisco is hundreds of miles from the next parkrun and has views of the Golden Gate Bridge but still attracts fewer than a hundred runners! The potential is clearly massive over there although the free-of-charge not-for-profit model may be contentious for some - more so in the US than Canada I suspect.

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to ArthurJG]

Wow, hard to imagine that parkrun in such an amazing location hasn't grown bigger, but great for those who do take part 😀 I just assumed it was the newness of this one that made it small, but maybe there's more to it than that

[ArthurJG Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

I’m sure that’s a factor but there’s also the thing about critical mass, enough people doing it for others to hear about it by word of mouth. Parkrun huge in Australia now so you’d think Canada especially but also the US would have the same potential. One factor - I’m speculating here, I don’t know - might be free access to land. I’m told my regular parkrun in Montrose took longer to establish because of the number of different landowners they had to keep happy. And a popular one in England was discontinued because the local Council tried to levy a fee for use of the park. So local laws about land use might come into it but I think it’s mainly about enough people grasping the concept so it gets momentum in a country or area. Ive heard some new parkruns have been set up to take runners away from others nearby that had far too many!

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to ArthurJG]

Lots of factors. The guy running Penticton did say they hadn't done any advertising so your word of mouth critical mass point will definitely be a factor in this one. There was an aussie parkrunner there yesterday too 😀

[ArthurJG Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

May have been intentional not to advertise ie they may have wanted to start small while they learned the ropes?

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to ArthurJG]

That would seem like a sensible approach. He certainly didn't sound worried 😀

[Fabulous450 Graduate10]

Wooh Linda! Lovely place for your first parkrun!! Well done you!! ❤️

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Fabulous450]

It certainly was and I was blessed with near perfect weather conditions too. For some reason Penticton is an 8am start which was great - any later would've been too warm for me!

[ArthurJG Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

Parkrun start times vary by country (and by state in Australia). Scotland and Northern Ireland start at 9.30, England and Wales start at 9. If Scotland started at 9 then places like Orkney and Shetland would be setting up in the dark for large chunks of the year.

[David_G]

Congratulations Linda, and what a lovely place for a Parkrun! It’s amazing where you can find them. For some reason I thought it was a peculiarly British thing 😳🙂

I understand the comment about the lurcher - my mum used to keep ex-racing greyhounds. They would run around like mad for a bit then suddenly lie down and no kind of cajoling or encouragement would get them to move again. They’re lovely natured though 🐶

Enjoy your holiday! 😀🙂👍

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to David_G]

Oh really? I love lurchers too, very sweet nature. We have an english pointer and I struggle to lift her, let alone run with her!!! By the time they crossed the finish line the lurcher was back on four paws and looked to be pulling its owner along - great team work I guess 😂

[David_G in reply to linda9389]

Yes, the greyhounds just wanted to rest on their own terms then they were ready for action all over again. They were very gentle and sweet natured and had fantastic personalities. 🙂🙂

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

Well done! I have only done one Parkrun myself - my local one is a few minutes walk away so I really have no excuse!🙂

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Sandraj39]

Thanks, it's been quite a successful couple of days 😀

You definitely have no excuse for not doing parkrun - well, apart from needing the weekend for long run training!

[Sandraj39 Graduate10 in reply to linda9389]

..and my local one is very small - I prefer to lose myself in larger crowds (or run on my own)! But yes, I should go, it is a great (and quite challenging) course and my husband goes from time to time already.☺

[linda9389 Graduate10 in reply to Sandraj39]

Aah. You lost me at challenging 😂