Fine 9.4k. Someone suggested to me today that that’s to account for the elevations 🤪 they could well be right.
As many of you know I wasn’t actually really looking forward to this, and had no expectations regarding a finish time - there’s a poorly dog at home and I’ve been feeling quite stressed - but the weather was perfect, and I’d managed to get her meds and some food into poorly dog before I left, so I didn’t have to worry that daughter wasn’t going to be able to. And in fact my hind brain? kicked in about halfway up the first hill, and pretty much all I could think about was putting one foot in front of the other. If you don’t know the route, go and google it now as the start is straight up the hill and it is a *doozy*, and I am not ashamed to admit that I ran/walked it.
The weather was perfect in that there was sunshine and no rain, but oh my goodness the Wind! And of course it was blowing towards us for the whole first 5k. At one point we actually ran behind a tall stack of baled hay, and the man beside me said, ‘that’s a relief’ but even though the respite only lasted for a few seconds, I was so hot 🥵
I chatted to a few people as I went along: a couple of ladies in Halloween appropriate leggings - spider webs, and blood spatter? - the lady in the Lonely Goat running gear; a couple of canicrossers; random friendly people as I over took them, and cheerfully told them they’d be overtaking me again soon. And made sure to thank the marshals.
Having run this route a couple of years ago I recognised the field on the approach to the refreshment point at the halfway mark and reckoned that as long as I could reach there without stopping that I would take a walk break in the field beyond, run to the coastal section, then walk the uphills, and aeroplane down the downhills, as my fingers were doing that slightly tingly thing they do when I’m working hard on a run. Brief pause for water at the refreshment station turned into a slightly longer pause for two drinks of water (my first one was only 2 gulps big) a chunk of Mars bar, and a jelly baby.
There were a lot of people walking up the hills, and for once the wind had deigned to actually stay behind us now we’d turned for ‘home’. I was even blown along by it at one point! First time for everything😁
I had a few more brief chats with various people - ‘blood spatter’ leggings lady included - and dutifully remembered to tell people to look behind them to see how far they’d come and enjoy the view of the lighthouse.
No-one else was playing aeroplanes down the hills though, so I was alone on that one, though I did try and get people to join in (obviously I am far too used to running with small children).
We’d not long passed the place where I’d had to use the support of a finger post to try and stretch out my calves a couple of years ago, when one of the marshals called out to us that it was all down hill from here, and I realised that Yes, she wasn’t lying. I was kind of flagging at that point, but there was a lady in a “50” Parkrun t-shirt just ahead of me, who’d spoken to a short while before, who looked like she was still going strong, and I asked if I could chat with her for a bit. Rather wonderfully she said yes, so I picked up my pace and ran with her while we chatted: her broken shoulder, my broken wrist, our recoveries, which Parkruns she does, how we both run with friends who have asthma, oh look that’s the finish coming up, do you think we’ll make 1hr 6 minutes?
Wait—
What???
I’d hardly even looked at my Garmin. I’d had walk breaks. I was thinking at the start that I was too far forward with the ‘proper’ runners, and was thinking that dogless I’d be happy with 11/2hours, but hoping for 10 minutes faster than that.
And then there we were running down that hill toward the finish. She even joined me in doing ‘aeroplanes’ before we opted for the slightly safer option of taking the steps to the bottom rather than stay on the slope. I let a guy go onto the steps ahead of me as he looked like he would have more trouble braking than I would, so she finished ahead of me. But I finished ahead of him as I ran him down on the approach to the finish. I do love a sprint finish.
1 hour 8 minutes and some seconds by my Garmin \o/
Lovely Parkrun lady’s name is Lynda, and we high fived after the finish, before I queued up to have my pacing chip cut off my laces - I don’t remember them having this two years ago, and I rather embarrassedly had to ask a marshal to do it for me in case my blood pressure tanked.
Had a walk around, congratulated other finishers. Ran into ‘blood spatter’ lady again, we congratulated each other.
Then I headed off to grab my bag which had my water and my salty crisps.
I couldn’t find the massage people, which was a bit of a disappointment, so I walked some more before risking a sit down so I could swap my socks for compression ones, and change my shoes.
Recognise ‘blood spatter’ lady who was now changed into street clothes, so had a chat with her and the dogs who were with her, while her friend was in the portaloo.
Finally had to head home, but treated myself to a hot chocolate for my walk back to the car.
Daughter now having packed up and gone home, I am currently enjoying a cuddle on the sofa with both dogs.
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
