On Feb 3rd in the middle of a 10k run I stumbled and fell - entirely my own fault getting carried away going downhill. The result of that was a nasty fracture of the little finger and ring finger of my right hand (would be the right one as I'm right handed wouldn't it?). A week later I was being operated on under general anaesthetic at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Hospital. What a shock! I hadn't though it was that bad as I'd completed the run.
The hospital (whose follow up and physio was excellent) only okayed me to run again after several weeks, and I also wasn't able to cycle to work. Then of course lockdown happened and I've been working from home anyway.
So I re-started running a couple of weeks ago, and have been building up slowly, 2k, 3.5k etc. I decided a spell of slow running might be good for me. Today was the first attempt at 5k - a very slow time of 39:15, though it was just a tad faster than my first Parkrun last August (remember those? something we used to do in the good old days).
Various people on the NextDoor local social media have been complaining about inconsiderate runners bumping into pedestrians, and someone had the nerve to say that "most" runners and cyclists were totally inconsiderate of pedestrians.
This attitude annoyed me as I take extra care to do social distancing, often stopping to let someone past, or running in the empty road to overtake someone. And by and large any interactions with other people you meet are good natured and friendly.
I very much hope it's a small minority of runners who are inconsiderate, because it spoils the image of runners for the rest of us, and makes the public think "bloody runners". This is also true of cyclists, and I see a lot of cyclists who go the wrong way up one way streets, something I cannot bring myself to do.
However, today I had a narrow miss with some dog poo. I mean you really don't expect to find a pile of crap in the middle of the pavement do you? I felt myself slide and thought "oh no, not again!", followed by a disgusting smell coming from my shoes. Surely this is a crime? If your dog does a poo in the street, aren't you supposed to scoop it up?
Anyway - very pleased to have done a 5k, albeit a very slow one, after having been prohibited from running and cycling for weeks on end!
Written by
iain-strachan
Graduate10
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Good to hear from you again Iain, glad that you are getting back to running, interesting what you say about Saturday morning parkruns, the way things are going they could be a distant memory regarding social distancing continuing until some time next year, in the meantime you could do what a lot of people are doing, that is running a virtual 5K parkrun at the time parkruns were ran, 9am in England and Wales and 9.30 am in Ireland and Scotland.
How does the virtual 5k work? Is there any reporting back, or interaction, or is it just the nice feeling that you're all doing it at the same time?
Gosh I hope parkrun is able to return sooner than next year. I have now visited several runs in my short park running career: Abingdon, Didcot, Oxford and Buckingham. I'm really missing it.
We are all missing parkruns, I sincerely hope it won't be that long before they return.
Virtual parkruns are run at the same time as normal ones are, not where they are run but locally in a park or off road routes near to where you live, yes, several people have reported to this site on their times today, it was my 5th, however, for most, today was the first time that they ran a virtual parkrun, it was our friend Damien in Ireland who suggested we do that.
Looks like South Oxhey have got it formalised. Run director counts them down on a live Facebook stream, and afterwards there is a popup coffee via zoom. I wonder if there are any more of these? The beauty is you don't have to live near the parkrun to do it!
No, it works for smartphone or iPad. Only trouble is on smartphone you can only see four people at once and you have to swipe between pages to see everyone. iPad or laptop it just puts them all in a grid. But I think there's a limit of 50 participants unless you have the paid version - not enough to accommodate the typical parkrun attendance.
Wow, that must have been quite a fall Iain, I’m happy you’ve recovered. Lucky it didn’t happen during lockdown .......
Like you. I’m almost too considerate of other people whilst out running, knowing the unjustified poor reputation we’ve been given. I even told a dog owner it was ok when her dog was bouncing round my legs and barking last week. It wasn’t ok, it was flipping annoying - and that’s coming from a huge dog lover/owner. 🙄
And don’t get me started on people not picking up after their dogs. It drives me nuts. 😡 Like with the runners’ situation, a handful of brainless dog owners give the rest of us a bad reputation. 👎
Well done iain-strachan , I too have read things about runners being inconsiderate and ignoring the social distancing rule but I have not witnessed any of this at all and it upsets me to think that we’re all tarred with the same brush...as long as you’re doing it right though eh? As for the dog poo, it winds me right up...I have a dog and I wouldn’t dream of leaving his ooo in the street, or anywhere else for that matter! It is against the law and you can be fined for it
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Sneaky sunny 5k 😊 and the dog didn't get me 😁
Just ran my first 5K😊
First (not)parkrun / Virtual 5K of 2021
A Double First! And a Double 5k 🚶♀️🏃♀️
