Not that a mere two and a half hour drive following a 0515 alarm can make up for the hours that cheekychipmunks has spent on the motorways of Britain recently, but it was a gesture …..
Others have covered the social side of the meet thoroughly, so I'll just caption the collage - TL damienair , me and the Eastville RD, TR Dexy5 , BL me, BR RD and SkiMonday - the absence of Cheeky, Oisin and Flossy is down to the collage creator .
The run was on an alternative course due to flooding around the lake which is apparently the defining feature of the usual run. This means start in the middle of the park, run a flat 150m to the edge, turn right and do 3 full clockwise laps of the upper part of the park, finish by turning right to run 150m back to the middle. The lap is basically triangular, starting downhill from midway along one long side, flat along the short side at the base, uphill on the next leg to the apex, and finishing downhill again. The uphill leg is the killer, just under 700m of steady climbing with, thankfully, the steepest bit fairly early on. The surroundings are very pleasant, with just a hint of the M32 interchange in the background. The temperature was ideal and the intermittent slight drizzle nothing to fuss about. And Tesco very kindly provide a free car park, loos (and changing rooms) and an excellent, great value, post-run breakfast.
Analysing my Garmin stats shows remarkable consistency - the 3 lap times were all within 5 seconds of one another, and the 3 climbs within 3 seconds. The k splits were another story - varying wildly (4'56" to 5'36") depending on how much hill was involved. And very happy to take 26'35" overall and a victory over Oisin, which I very much doubt I'll be able to repeat next time we meet. Oisin v TailChaser 's younger kitten would be an interesting match-up …….
Will have to return to Eastville Park when we can run round the lake (and perhaps take in the views - though I'm not known for that) rather than through it . And given the usual route still includes the steep bit of the hill 3 times, I really must run more hills more often ….. so now it's onwards and upwards, and upwards, and upwards
Written by
UpTheStanley
Graduate10
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Great write up UTS. I think we beat you with the getting up for tourism yesterday - 4am for Great Cornard 😩 - but you are right, nothing beats what cheeky does! I reckon Oisin would have the edge on our kitten as he doesn’t practice enough and only saves it for the odd parkrun. Oh the joys of teenage-hood. We’ll have to do a meet up at Eastville one day (we haven’t got an East yet). 👍
I too would love to have run about the lake. I loved the way that when Oisin and I first arrived there was a very quiet park with just a couple of walkers and volunteers busy doing their pre-parkrun set up duties. We met skimonday and had a lovely chat before he was called to take charge of his scanner. Oisin was busy keeping an eye out for a blonde Labrador eager to play. Then in the distance Oisin spotted a blonde Labrador accompanied by what must be VRB’s and sure enough it was Flossie, Dexy5, Cheeky and UpTheStanley. 😂 we introduced ourselves with our real names and had a lovely pre run chat whilst Oisin and Flossie had a great warm up. All of a sudden we seemed to have been surrounded by 500 people and the pre-run talks began from the run directors. There was great respect shown and everyone listened intently.
The B course was tough, but we really enjoyed the atmosphere and large crowd. What a great day. I feel like a proper parkrun tourist now and the icing on the cake was the VRB meetup and post parkrun breakfasts.
We loved having you all at Eastville Damien! You need to return and sample the “A” course. The flat section round the lake gives runners a welcome breather in between hills! 😀🏃♀️🏃♂️😀
Nice report UTS! I’m so glad you enjoyed yourselves. 👍😀
Yes you must return some time and do the “A” course. The start’s in the same place, but after you’ve run round and up the steep part of the hill, you turn midway up, and pass the start again before heading back down. At the bottom you peel off, run a lovely flat 0.75k ish trot round the lake before heading up a STEEP fairly short hill back onto the main path. Then once around the long lap we did 3 times yesterday before finishing back on the middle path. 😀
I agree, seeing Oisin and Young Kitten running together would be fantastic. 🏃♂️🏃♂️
Glad you enjoyed breakfast too. Tesco’s was most accommodating! 👍😋
Yes usually Dexy. They’re the “fortunate” ones as that little building offers good shelter. I feel sorry for the ones sleeping in shop doorways in town in the depths of winter. ☹️
Glad the meet up was successful. You missed easy PB conditions at Southsea, Mr C actually bagged one, his first one for a while. Must be the GSR training.
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. And given the usual route still includes the steep bit of the hill 3 times, I really must run more hills more often ….. so now it's onwards and upwards, and upwards, and upwards 
VRB Parkrun Tourism
Park Runners - where do you run, what do you like about your run and have you done any really special ‘tourist’ runs. 
