What can I say?......Aggggh what’s going on?! I missed the start of Parkrun! No parking again. 😕 Looks like parking in the usual field area is going to be out of bounds for the foreseeable. I thought last week was due to an upcoming event (doh!) 🔨 . Yes, I know I can aim to get there even earlier, but I’d rather run on my own and have a much needed littlish lie in on a Saturday morning.
I’d given up on trying to find somewhere to squeeze the car in and was heading home. Mindful that all these people doing the same is a recipe for returning to a damage car. Luckily, I discovered a parking spot on my journey back. Close enough, I thought, that will do 😉. I started the NRC App and joined the Parkrun when they were on the second circuit!
I could have got a cheating time at Parkrun, the lady was quite insistent that I take a tag, but I stood my ground. It’s still my run! 😂 I had to carry on to finish the 35 minutes guided run. By the end, I had done 4.6k and thought about carrying on for the last 400, but the last stretch was uphill on grass and I felt that I was on the tipping point to the run not being enjoyable, so I decided that was enough. No big elation, but I avoided running in a torrential downpour which came not too long after. Though I’m still getting used to it, I don’t think I’m a winter running girl. Short and regular may work better to get me through the winter. 🤷🏽♀️
But, considering I was on my way home at one point, I won’t complain! I did it! 👍🏽
Happy running Runners!! ❤️
Written by
Fabulous450
Graduate10
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Commitment to the cause I’d say! Well done. I’m off to football today with a lunch with friends before it so no parkrun for me. Shame, it was a glorious morning here. No excuse not to get out tomorrow though. 🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♀️🏃🏼♀️
The lady was right: you absolutely must take a finish token if you cross the finish line even if you are not going to have your barcode scanned. Otherwise everyone behind you will get the wrong time. The only alternative is to turn off before the finish line and not cross it. But the easiest thing is just to accept the token then hand it to the scanners and say you don’t have a barcode to scan. Then you won’t get a time but you won’t have messed up the system for everyone else.
Probably they will have been quick witted enough to set the token aside and not issue it to someone else. Otherwise the run director will notice later that the number of tokens is one less than the number of times and will be ready for emails complaining about wrong times, from which he/she will hope to work out which time corresponds to the missing token.
I did the same once by mistake - did a sprint finish because I was close to a PB and was so light headed I waked right past the token master! Stupidly tried to fix it myself, collecting a token and swapping with the runner behibd me, not realisinf I already had the right token because the token master was paying attention even if I wasn’t and had kept mine aside. It got sorted later after the results came out.
That’s ok Fabulous, when I did tokens we put that number in our pockets if it was refused, so if they were switched on it shouldn’t effect anyone else.
Guess I'm really lucky in the fact that I can walk to my local parkrun. So my warm up and cool down is walk there n back. U can feel better now tho, knowing u ran 👍
Well... the person on tokens just needed to put that one in her pocket, and problem solved... doesn’t look like she did that and maybe that’s why your parkrun’s results aren’t up yet?!
The thing to do is either take a token and don’t give them your barcode, or even better, don’t enter the finish funnel, we have a fair few people running during ours who aren’t in the run, I still clap them if I’m marshalling though, heck I clap dog walkers, footballers, anybody not still in bed!
They’ll fix it... if the token person remembers when it happened it just takes a while... token person should have just put the token to one side and then given it the run director at the end... we do it all the time at juniors, takes seconds to fix then.
Well done Fab!! I did only my 2nd Parkrun this morning and although I’ve pushed myself to do this, I have felt really nervous before each run so can appreciate how easy it would have been to just carry on home, so well done on sticking with it 💕
Short and regular for winter, I'm with you there. Are there any other Park Runs you could try? I'm lucky there are 3 or 4 within driving distance from me.
👍🏽 That one is a already a little drive away not excessive, but takes around 15-20 minutes. The next closest is about 30 minutes. Have to allow time for parking of course. ❤️
Oh Fab, two bonkers parkrun experiences in a row! 😅 But you got a run in both times. 👏👏👏
I did get drenched this morning. I was volunteering (barcode scanning, my fave!) giving my 10k legs a little extra rest, and stayed dry for that, but it absolutely chucked it down walking back to the car. My dog and I squelched along together! And now the car smells of Wet Dog! Didn’t mind though. Oh well! 😅🐕
Thanks Cheeky! I think I’ll give it a miss for a while! I don’t want to experience a hat trick! 😊 Sounds like you were just caught by it. What a downpour it was though. I can imagine you would be squelching. Hope you’re both dry and warm now!! ❤️
No idea Cheeky! I don’t know why it’s closed off at the moment. I’m not a regular, but they have fairly close to 500 runners every week. It is causing a bit of chaos. ❤️
Ah thanks Flara! I was on my way home and then a parking space. Other side of the Park, but a space all the same. Not a great start and now I realise nor finish. I think I’ll stick to running on my own for a while! 😊❤️
Thank you! 😍 No Dexy! It’s just there has been a large grassy field to park on inside the park, signposted specifically for Parkrun but it has been closed off. 🤷🏽♀️❤️
Alternative parking spot first, next time I think Dexy! There’s such a lot of propped up and squeezed in cars. There’ll be quite a few doing the get there earlier bit! 😯❤️
Sorry I missed seeing you Fabulous! I did wait a bit to see if you'd joined us but had some errands to run and needed to get moving after. Glad you did it anyway and hope it was enjoyable with everyone else for a while? They announced today the field parking area would be closed now for the winter. Did you get in on the Hay Lane entrance road - to the church? Last week I managed to park on the grass, next to the tarmac drive, at the very last minute. We were really lucky to miss the cloud-bursts, weren't we?! It was very nice weather for running! XX
Aah I see. Thank you!! 🤗 They probably don’t want the grass ruining with the cars in the wetter weather. I parked at Lydiard House in the end. There were still one or two spots there. ❤️
Oh, just read about the timings etc - what happened this morning was one of the barcode scanners was misplaced after the run - probably packed away or taken by mistake - hence the delay for the results - don't worry Fab, it wasn't you! I cocked up the scanning one week and bleeped a finish token before the runner barcode and took out a scanner for the rest of the run. Another week they had the issues with scanners being accidentally cleared by the results co-ordinator before they'd been downloaded, so these things happen!
Thank goodness! I’ve felt bad all day! A whole Parkrun ruined by me! Not exactly uplifting. I’m glad it wasn’t me. Though I have learned a big lesson!! 🤭🤭🤭🤗❤️
Hey Equi... technically if you scan finish token first all you have to do is give it back to the runner and send them to the run director so they can edit the file at submission time.
Thanks ju-ju! 😍 That was what I was doing and then.....😲 a space on my way home 👀! 😂 Trying my best not to be put off by the obstacles. Stubbornness I guess! 😂❤️
Well done Fabulous450 , there was no going home for you was there?! I’ve done it before where I’ve set off home for some reason but ended up driving somewhere else to run because when you’ve got your running head on, it’s on & not coming off until the deed is done! You did it...and dodged a downpour too...I didn’t think I’d like running in winter but I don’t mind it at all, I wasn’t put off last year so it must be ok coz I’m a ‘curl up in front of the fire’ girl but now I’m a runner, somethings changed!! Embrace the weather & you might surprise yourself x
Well soon on your determination. Autumn/Winter running had different challenges to Summer. I watch the weather forecast much more closely than I ever did before running.
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