The Ashton Court Park Run course description states: “From the start to the turning point there is an ascent of around 100m. This is mostly a steady climb, although two short stretches are quite steep. Nobody should be put off by this. There is no shame in walking the steep bits - they’re always followed by some respite and at the turning point you’re rewarded with fantastic views over Bristol and the surrounding countryside, and the promise of 2.5km downhill to the finish.”
I did suggest to the other half that running 2.5km uphill might be quite hard going for a first-timer and a sporadic runner with a bad knee, but he wanted to go ‘for the views’. We had gone easy on the booze the night before; there was only enough for one and a half gin and tonics each and we walked away from the second half of a bottle of wine.
The alarm roused us at an unwelcome hour and we pushed each other out of bed, groaning a bit. He made coffee and I drank it while he faffed about with his outfit, finally emerging in a pair of swim shorts, a cotton t-shirt and a pair of trainers that were half a size too small. Then a dash across town into a parking spot just outside the Ashton Court grounds with 9 minutes until the 9am start.
I had suggested we jog very slowly to the start to warm up - what I hadn’t realised was it was almost 2km to the start line. Oops. Bless him, he didn’t talk much, but manfully strode on and I felt very proud of him. I’m not sure if I would have been so sanguine had the boot been on the other foot.
A nice Marshall told us they didn’t start until 9:10am after ‘the talk’, so we had time to pee behind a tree and get to the start with a few minutes to spare. Then we were off!
Get this, everyone. The first 2.5km are UPHILL. 100m of UPHILL. Good Lord. We were going pretty darn slow, but the sun was up and body temperatures were rising. Had it been colder I’m sure we could have created our own weather system from the steam rising from our 451 collective bodies. All about me I could hear heavy, laboured breathing. We walked several times and actually, I don’t think we were overtaken much at walking pace. That’s how steep the bugger was.
My Garmin wouldn’t start, which was really annoying. I restarted it later and it works again now, but I was hoping to use it to help with pace, know how far we had gone - and how high! As it happened, our bodies dictated the pace more than adequately. Tony was amazing. I encouraged him to walk several times but I’m not sure who needed to walk more! We got chatting to a man running at a similar pace - I’m quite impressed that we were able to converse whilst running uphill.
Goodness knows how long it took to get to the halfway point at the top of the hill but it was a wonderful moment, knowing it was downhill the whole way back. I reckon I did the last 2.5k in a record time, I felt like I was flying. I paused a few times to make sure Tony was still going but then couldn’t resist just freewheeling down the long hill. It felt amazing, creating that cool breeze and the views were indeed wonderful.
I chatted to another lady for a minute or so near the finish, paused to see Tony appear alive around the corner and then sprinted for the line to finish in 35:29. He came in at a smiling 36:35.
It was great. We agreed a once-a-month Park Run would be a very good thing to do. Then we walked back up the bloody hill.
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