Hello Everyone and happy weekend. Today is parkrun day, a free 5K event which takes place every Saturday morning all around the world. It is for everyone, slow, fast, able, disabled, big, small and everyone in between. Oh and don't forget about the super Mum's and Dad's who push their babies in buggies. You can walk, jog, run, run/walk, it's not a race, just a run in the park and loads of us here on Bridge to 10K do it religiously every Saturday morning.
parkrun is back thankfully in most Countries around the World. I am hoping for any Countries still struggling with COVID-19 that it returns to you soon.
Some of us may not be able to do a parkrun at the moment so until parkrun returns fully for everyone some of us will continue to take part on our own in a Virtual parkrun every Saturday morning called a (not)parkrun. Or if you are away on Holidays, prefer to run on your own, or do not have a parkrun close by you a (not)parkrun is perfect, please feel free to join in.
Please post a little run report after your parkrun or (not)parkrun and let everyone know how you got on. The little run report can be done over a post parkrun coffee and treat/cake. (parkrun is all about the after run coffee and cake, and meeting friends old and new).
If you are a new graduate and would like to start, all you have to do is run, walk or jog at a parkrun or a 5K run/jog/walk (not)parkrun anytime today or tomorrow and write a little run report under this post. It's like a little community and it is good fun, sets you up nicely for the weekend. If you want to you can register on the parkrun website and you can log your 5K (not)parkrun. In fact you can log any 5K done during the week as a (not)parkrun.
For anyone whom has not done a real parkrun yet and if it is available to you, give it a try. It is the most wonderful community event. Saturday mornings will never be the same again.
Looking forward to hearing from all of you who ran in real proper parkruns and (not)parkruns. Happy running and have a lovely weekend.
Written by
damienair
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Good morning everyone! Here we have thick fog, -2 and icy, so I’m afraid I’ve chickened out of parkrun this morning. Good luck to all who are running this morning!
Glad I wasn't the only one to chicken out, I took a look out of the window, thick fog, visibility less than 100 yds and thought 'No'. My Mum always told me that fog is bad for the chest and I'm not going to start querying that now!
You’ve got that lovely jet stream in your part of Ireland? Thick fog here now. Lots of runners still ran it anyway so at least they were able to log a freedom or (not)parkrun.
No, it’s a bit disappointing as we can’t even award volunteer credits to those who did help out. We’d probably have got a few tourists from Warwick Racecourse as well as they have horse racing this weekend.
I ran at my local parkrun this morning. It was lovely to see all my friends again. One of the girls in our little tourism group got a PB. I was a long long way behind her. I ran in a time of 33:16. I took it a bit easier today. But it was lovely to be out running again and that was my 87th parkrun. I’m going to volunteer next week as timer for my 21st volunteer day. Happy running everyone.
Well done damienair. Don’t forget a sandwich bag if it rains next week - the app is quite sensitive and a raindrop can record as a finisher - as we discovered last week.
I should have guessed that our lake path would have been icy this morning, but didn’t. So why was I surprised and dismayed to find that we had to run our dreaded B course at Eastville today? 😩 Jenny, my daughter, had come along too, and when she saw my expression she asked what was wrong. Just you wait, I told her!
Anyway, 3 laps, no lake and 3 long hills later we finished. We were both down on our times, but we survived. Wales is opening up again next week, and we’ve already decided we’ll be going to Severn Bridge, which is far nicer than that vile B course! 😅
Well done Cheeky. Thankfully I was a lot fitter when I attempted that B course. It would kill me now. Oh by the way, Oisin was just talking about Flossie during the week, she left a great impression on him. 🐶
Aww, well next time you’re over here damienair , I’ll be sure to bring Flossie if the PR allows dogs. I haven’t taken her recently (only my runs where she can go off lead), but I’ll make an exception so Oisin can see her again! 🥰🐕
I don't know how the Lab we had from 1998 to 2010 would have coped with me running. I doubt I could have run with him on the lead. I'm now running some of the routes the pair of us used to walk of a weekend.
I'd take him out for a seven or more mile walk on a Sunday afternoon, taking three or more hours to do it, and when we got back he'd do zoomies round the house and my dad would tell me I hadn't walked the dog enough.
Good morning Damien, I ran my first parkrun of 2022 this morning at Drumpellier Parkrun, unfortunately my friend Keith who took me there could only complete one lap as he wasn't fully recovered from a recent illness, for me I ran it in a time of 32.10 which I am pleased with, I hope Keith will be 🆗 next week when we intend to run at my home parkrun of Dunfermline.
Thanks TailChaser, I will give Keith your best wishes for next week, sorry that your parkrun was cancelled because of icy conditions, last week Drumpellier Parkrun was cancelled because of the ice on the course, this morning was also its first of 2022, at the end of the run all the runners were offered sweets, do you think I would refuse one?, no, 👍🏃🏾
Of course not Al, that wouldn’t do 😁It’s been a while since we had a cancellation: the last time we were cancelled was 29th February 2020 when we flooded. A lot has happened since then!
First run after joining athletics club where Michael the coach said that I had improved a lot in the 2 weeks I have been there. He also said I would beat my pb in a couple of weeks time, which was a surprise to me as I thought my times were nothing special.
I have had a sore left hip from workouts and stretches to remove me duck feet, it felt quite bad when I got out of the car and started warm ups.
The usual 2 people I try to use as pacemakers were not there today and I didn't want to follow the young ones as I would be spent by 2 k so was on my own. I tried to read the watch now and again, I thought it was saying that my pace was over 5 mins per km. It's a small screen for my eyesight these days as I'm not getting any younger.
I huffed and puffed for last 2km but didn't stop, the man ahead of me said that he could hear me behind him lol, I just tried to say that I couldn't help it, bit I think it came out as a mumbled jumble..
I forgot to stop watch at end and time went to well over 25 mins.
Just got official result now and it was 23:55, 30 seconds faster than last pb. I am happily shocked 😅.
This was my 15th Parkrun and came in 15th place and was 1st from my catagory of 50-54 year old.
Thanks very much TailChaser I'm still kind of running like it is new to me and an enjoying it. But I only push like this on the Parkruns and go at a slower pace when running on my own.
I’ve been running nearly four years now Itchi and it’s only recently that it’s become like something that’s always been there. And parkrun is always my only fast run too, unless I’m running in an organised race somewhere. I don’t think many of us on here actually run fast out of choice, it’s hard work and only for special occasions 🤣
Wow! I hope I'm still running in 4 years. I'm only running 5 months now and it's all still be to me and I guess I'm pushing to see what I can do after my 4.5 stone weight loss. I do enjoy the 10ks more because I find it more relaxing listening to podcasts.
I know what you mean. I used to listen to the Kermode & Mayo film review on a 10k as it was the only time I could fit it in. I lost two stone in my first year, now it’s pretty steady. If you do that you won’t want to stop! Good luck, we know you can do it 👍💪🤞
Thanks TailChaser. I only started running after I lost the weight, I used to walk 2 x 5km per day with a heavy jumper and heavy coat to do that. I gained the weight in the gym doing upper body strength training, I was big, but it wasn't all fat as such. Now I just swapped it for cardio.
Wow! That’s really impressive! I couldn’t have done mine without the running. You’re going to be a really strong runner as upper body strength is usually taken for granted.
Thanks very much. I guess the good thing about the panting was that I carried on pushing and didn't walk. Which is what I had sometimes done in the past.
Hi everyone, I completed my very first park run today, whoop whoop! Whilst I’m not reaching all the impressive times of others, I did manage a PB of 40 mins of my own. It was a hilly course but I ran the whole distance with determination. Looking forward to my next park run and hopefully improving my stamina and time
Thankfully, it is milder down on the south coast and a nice cool morning with a light breeze brought out 522 runners, joggers and walkers this morning, which is more than we really like . But you never know how many will turn up on the day so the team moved into action stations to create a double funnel. Thanks to Goodgym who provided a lot of the volunteers today, one of whom was also volunteering with us at a vaccination centre last evening. The Southsea motley crew all took part today and we’re happy with our times apart from the time it took us to get to the start line after the hooter. Parkrun time 33.37 and Garmin time 32.41 for me . It was my best time this year so no complaints .
A few 100 milestone runs were celebrated today which meant cakes were around . I did feel a bit naughty as I ate it before breakfast in the cafe 🧁
They did brilliantly JP but a huge turnout is just what we didn’t want after complaints to the council last week about aggressive runners taking over the promenade etc.
Excellent run and time for you today at Southsea Parkrun Dexy5, 522 is a lot of runner's, I ran my first parkrun of 2022 along with "only" another 150 runners.
By the way I have found a very good YouTube video of Southsea Parkrun, its
"Southsea Parkrun #252-14.7.2018 " it lasts 14.43 minutes, that course at Southsea that you run is quite a contrast to the parkrun I ran today at Drumpellier Country Park beside a Scottish Loch and through woodland,
PS, just had a look at that New Year's Day video on Facebook, very good, there is a video of the Drumpelliier Parkrun also on YouTube, taken in 2019, its
"Drumpellier Country Parkrun #47 Scottish Parkruns" (8.29)
That is a lot of runners Dexy. I was re-labelling our token holders the other day as I couldn’t read the lower numbers. I didn’t bother with the 5 and 600s as it will be a while until we see that number again I suspect. Were there any cancelled nearby to get that number?Congratulations on your time, steadyily getting your speed and stamina back 👍
No cancellations nearby but perfect conditions so I think a lot headed this way for a PB, or to avoid local muddy courses. We are opening a new parkrun shortly so hope that we lose a few runners soon.
I seem to do quite well on the outward leg and then seem to Jeff after 3k. I think my body has got into a habit. I think I need to get some more longer runs in. I did 7k this week with no walking- it’s just the fast runs where Jeff joins me. 🤣🤣
Great run Dexy5. I can't indigene running with that many people and to take so long just to get to start. There were only 76 at the Sligo one yesterday and I thought the path at the start was a bit congested...
There were nearly ten times that (749) at Heaton Park in Manchester yesterday. (I've never been to that one.) At its peak two years ago there were over a thousand.
A former colleague runs there and could only get a PB this week by pushing early to get away from the main pack and get some clear air round him.
I'd expect some of the London ones would be even busier.
My local venue bumbles around the 50-80 mark most weeks.
That’s great. We’ve just got to find a weekend when UpTheStanley isn't playing hockey or helping the new RDs at parkrun, so maybe in Spring. Just got to be done. 🏃♀️🏃♂️🏃🏻🏃♀️🏃♂️🏃🏻🚶🏻🚶♀️🚶♂️
It was still muddy at Portsmouth Lakeside this morning but nothing like as bad as last week. A good run, my best time since parkrun restarted (29.02) and 113th out of 226 - (just) top half of the field, hooray!
I missed my local park run by the skin of my teeth this morning, so headed for a nearby green area where I managed 5k without having to walk at all - big mental achievement for me! Nice seeing some familiar names on the forum 🦋
Bit of an eye issue (blepharitis) and then an ear infection, so not feeling great and no running this week. Antibiotics starting to do their job, so back on the horse on Monday I hope. I think the so called "mild" omicron before Christmas affected my immune system more than I thought. Bit frustrating but no excuses about niggles next week.
A (not) parkrun today for me. In Wales this weekend. No parkrun locally (and I overslept).
Today was RED January day 15.
I got out at 10.40am. Unlike in a parkrun I had a warm up walk. Not quite 5 minutes.
A slight downhill for about 100m, then a steep climb for 500m, before levelling out a little then climbing again. The road undulated to the 2km point, then I turned and went a little downhill, climbing again out of the dip to almost the same elevation over the next km. A little more up and down for 500m, a sharp right turn and a long (mostly downhill) section back towards the start point (and overshooting it to make up the required distance).
Unusually, negative splits all the way: 5:39, 5:26, 5:18, 5:13 and 4:48.
Also I knocked 3 seconds (Garmin/4s Strava) off the 5km PB I set earlier in the week! Time was 26:25. No way I'd be able to do that at my local parkrun venue!
I did Stamford Parkrun in Stalybridge in Greater Manchester. It’s a great course up through trees and around a lake. Friendly runners and marshals. It’s my home parkrun so i know the course well. I also take a turn to volunteer to scan or marshal and to help put equipment away. I’ve done 29 park runs and volunteered 9 times.
I had a nice Parkrun at Bushy Park but was nearly a minute off my PB, so a little disappointed. It was very foggy and cold, so guess that might not have helped!
I live in South Africa, the tempreture was going to be too high to run over 27 by 08h00 to 09h00, I decided to still go and walk the parkrun, woke to some coastal fog and the temperature was 22, had an awesome run, 33 minutes, 2 minutes faster than previous week, and 4 beats lower heart rate, have been walking or running every day of January, discipline is so good no choice is what I need, seeing lots of improvement, finding it challenging to run at a pace I can keep running day after day.
Had a few members of our running group join me at glossop for my 25th! It's where I did my first on july 24th last year. Having so much fun at these free events. Have only missed 1 Saturday since the english restart due to there not being one on the Isle of mull when I was there for a week last August. Going to push on to 50 now and then I plan on doing a few volunteering roles after that. So the goal for me is to get 100 before the end of 2023 so I can get plenty of volunteer stints in and still make the target.
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