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.
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damienair
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A hot park run for us today in Western Australia ☀️🔥🥵 29th ParkRun for me.
I felt great for the first 2k and it pretty much went downhill from there. Just managed to maintain my sub 30 goal finishing at 29:18 with a bright red face and mascara everywhere but my eyelashes🤣
No 2 son and hubby did much better at 25:07 & 25:15 although they were hoping for sub 25.
Hi damienair and everyone, no run for me today. I decided to join the local athletics club this year (probably stupidly) to see if I could improve on my running and get a few tips etc. Anyway, they are starting an internal 3 event 6k cross country (on sandy beach) tomorrow and I have signed up to that instead, (the coach was looking for numbers and he was disappointed that they were so low). The races will be handicapped so everyone is meant to be running on an even keel. So it will be interesting to see how someone approaching their mid 50s (me) and who has only completed C25K July 21 will fair against a good few senior elite athelites (not me). Hopefully I won't get annihilated too badly ..
Wishing you all the best for your event tomorrow. Enjoy it. Joining the athletic club is a great idea, like minded people running together and opens up a new circle of friends.
Good morning Damien, because of Storm Malik most parkruns in Scotland are cancelled today, however, I did manage to run a short 3K locally near my home in the gale in a time of 20:30, on Wednesday I ran my 85th (not) parkrun in a time of 34:35.
Well done Al on your run today and on your 85th (not)parkrun. It was very windy at the parkrun I went to this morning. Winds were over 45 mph so running into the headwind was tough.
Ha ha Coddfish, I certainly will, I was almost blown away during that short 3K run, especially when I was running against the wind, but was pushed by it when running with the wind, my 3K time was 20.30.
Storm Malik is now over on the other side of the North Sea causing storm force 10 winds along the Danish and North West coast of Germany, this morning Malik caused the cancellation of many parkruns in Scotland, I did manage to run a short 3K in the park near to where I live, it was a bit blowy but the wind didn't knock me off my feet when running.
Tomorrow morning I intend to go a 12K walk before the next storm which has been named Corrie comes later tomorrow afternoon.
Flossie’s and my 26th time volunteering today. She found a stick throwing pal, then we were allotted the excellent marshalling post up by the little cafe. Clearly we needed sustenance on a chilly grey morning in order to bolster our encouraging cheering and clapping skills, so she had a free dog biscuit and a slurp from the dog bowl, and I had a latte and a cinnamon swirl. Just the ticket! 😋
There was an incident on the start by all accounts whereby two dog leads became crossed and a lady had a hard fall. She was taken to hospital with a suspected broken shoulder/arm and I hope she’s ok. 🤞 Incidents are rare, thankfully, but this poor lady was a casualty of bad luck today.
Next time I volunteer, on Feb 26th, it’ll be Flossie’s 10th birthday. She’ll be getting a shout-out! 🐕❤️
Cinnamon swirls are my favourite. Well done Cheeky and Flossie and thanks for volunteering. Oisin has a new friend, meet Ruby, hopefully she will join me on a few parkruns some day. Flossie is almost 10 years old and Ruby is 10 weeks old.
Oh Damien! Ruby!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ She’s beautiful! I wonder if she’ll be a running buddy for Oisin when she’s a bit older? I bet he’s over the moon isn’t he? 🥰
Yes the 2 boys are delighted. She is making herself well at home. We haven’t had a puppy in 18 years. Forgot how much work they are. 😂😂Looking forward to introducing her to parkrun.
You both did very well there didn’t you cheeky - doggy treats and cinnamon swirls ! I hope the lady who fell isn’t too badly injured, what a rotten start to a parkrun for everyone.
Lovely photo of Flossie, sorry about the lady having to be taken to hospital, I hope she recovers quickly.Flossie is always the star attraction at your parkruns CC, especially if you are volunteering at the finishing line, as I mentioned to Damien I didn't go to parkrun today, some parkruns were cancelled because of high winds but I did manage to get a short 3K ran in my local park.
Of the 3 parkruns I go to, two were cancelled, the other went ahead, even some which are fairly close together such as Falkirk, cancelled, the other at Plean, only 5 miles away was not cancelled.
A hard one as usual. I was running for two this morning as we had a belated Burns Night dinner last night. The weight of the haggis made itself felt in the last kilometre. 🏋🏻♂️
Volunteering for me today and I got talked into trying out timekeeping! 😳 It was good fun and it really helped that I was working along side two very experienced, helpful timekeepers. We all managed to stay in sync. The wind was pretty strong and fingers were like icicles by the end. I did my own (not) Parkrun last night which made a nice change as I rarely run at night. Well done to everyone taking part and volunteering today! 👏🏻
I did that job last week. Well done to you and thank you so much for volunteering. It’s such a lovely way to meet people and get to know the core team. Well done too on your (not)parkrun last night.
Well done Newbierunner. I’m too scared to attempt timekeeping, as my PR attracts a lot of people (610 a couple of weekends ago), and I’m sure I’d make an error! The lady doing it this morning said she went to up the volume on her phone, and it recorded several “finishers”! Yikes! That didn’t help ease my fears at all. 😅 Lucky there are 2 timekeepers.
Yes, changing volume puts a click on. It’s designed so when it’s wet you can leave the phone in a pocket and use the volume control on your headphones. Which of course is not a good way to work as you can’t make sure you stay in line with the other time keeper and the finish tokens.
Wow over 600! That’s a lot of people! We had 330 today. It’s tricky when people come through in groups but other than that it was fine. Glad I knowAbout the volume button now!
It was 3rd time lucky for #232 parkrun today. After cancelling for weather and then works on the paths, our alternative course finally got the go ahead. We had three RDs to make sure everything went smoothly, with Katnap supervising RD at the new bit. I generally hung around making sure things didn’t blow away! Despite there being more grass on this course, we still had a few PBs. Let’s hope the works finish soon but at least, in the meantime, we have a course.
Glad to hear you have a course back. Dreading to think what will happen when the sea wall works hit the section of promenade we use for Southsea parkrun. Or indeed how it will affect GSR.
🤣 So are we Dexy, and we have a brand new alternative course that will come in handy occasionally. It was a very close shave though, we were taking bets on what would come first, our thumbs up from HQ or Sue Brady’s report 🤣
I ran my 88th parkrun this morning at Castletown parkrun just outside Dublin. It was a lovely 2 lap course on a beautiful estate. It was raining all the way there and very windy and stormy too. But thankfully just before the parkrun started the rain stopped thanks to the parkrun fairies 🧚♀️. But the wind remained with gusts above 50 mph so running into the headwind was tough going. I ran it all in a time of 32:15 according to my watch, official parkrun time is 32:16 and I was in position 118. I loved the run. I need to start pushing myself harder now.
Parkrun #2 for me so still very much a newcomer. Mild but rather windy. Lots of people here. I managed to avoid most of the bottleneck at the beginning and somehow managed to finish with a time of 23:00. Really pleased because I have been coming back from an injury and if I tried this 3 months ago it would have been twice the time.
Most of the puddles had disappeared at Portsmouth Lakeside this morning, partly due to the lack of rain, but also because someone had filled them in with loose stones - bonus!
I was car park marshalling this morning, so after 40 minutes of a) directing traffic, b) jumping up and down to 'warm up', I was happy with a time of 29.43. Scores on the doors: parkruns - 81, volunteering - 16!
Well done on your carpark duties as well as a nice sub 30 run Jonathan 😀 What a kind soul (or souls) to fill your puddles in too. Results all round! 👏👏👏
Our problem today was a crow dive-bombing runners near the Southsea Beach Cafe. I think it is establishing it’s nest in canoe lake park. I’ll wear a hat next week! 🦅
Oldgirlruns and I did our usual parkwalk as we work our way back into running after our different issues. This time, I got Mr Coddfish to meet us under the arch of the pier to take hold of my walking poles so I could run the last 300m. (Ran a mile without stopping yesterday, so am gradually getting back). He also took OGR’s extremely heavy coat so she could do the same.
The Briny is closed this week for its annual maintenance and we felt the Beach cafe would be oversubscribed, and besides, together with Dexy5 we had the tokens to sort. So we all trouped back to café Coddfish and I did my best effort at replicating the Beach cafe’s French toast with plums and marscapone. I think it went down well. Tokens duly sorted with around 6 missing in action this week.
Probably only another week or two before I ditch the poles and run/walk the event. My surgeon truly did a magnificent job, the new hip is an absolute wonder. Pity my aerobic fitness is shot to pieces after its enforced rest period, but I will get there.
Congratulations Coddfish , that’s brilliant that you are able to start a bit of running again and ditch the poles. Your aerobic fitness will come back as you increase your exercise I’m sure. Shame about the Briny but brekkie chez Coddfish sounds delicious 😋
I can definitely vouch for the breakfast Coddfish - delish! 😋 I’ve really enjoyed our parkwalks but it’s definitely time to get back to running it isn’t it!
Hello everybody! Sorry I am so late reporting. Back to Market Rasen for my 45th parkrun this morning. It was supposed to be 11c (compared with last week’s -2), but there was a cold breeze. Nowhere near as bad as in Scotland and the North West by the sound of it though. I’m still taking it fairly steady, but 33.05 which is nearly a minute faster than last week and my fastest 5k post covid. 95th out of 129!
Hello all, we had another new Run Director today, so I thought I’d give a hand and do the first timers brief and we had over 20 parkrun newbies. The word is getting round.
It was a balmy 10C but that 25mph westerly was a little bit chilly. I can’t complain as I know that all of you oop north have been suffering much worse gales.
My first 3 km went well but then I ran out of energy and decided to take it easy and tag along with Jeff (walk/running). It might not have been my fastest parkrun but I did manage to knock another number off my stopwatch bingo. 51 down, 9 to go.
Mr & Mrs Coddfish very kindly invited me and Oldgirlruns for breakfast at theirs afterwards so we had French toast with plums and mascarpone and coffee, which was followed by a group token sort. Volunteer ✅ for all as well our runs.
I’ve become the keeper of the tokens, so I will replace the missing tokens and ensure that both the first set and the reserve set are complete and in order. 7 went AWOL today, but hopefully people will realise and return them next time.
Yes we have 5 now JP, only 1 left from pre-Covid. At this time of year UpTheStanley plays hockey , so is parkrun volunteering most weeks but I’ll be dragging him away to other parkruns as soon as he has a free Saturday .
Well done Dexy, sounds like you had a lovely morning. I too have the tokens and shall be sorting them shortly again. I’m very envious of your little sorting slots, mine are on adapted metal hangers in increments of 100. They work for the token givers though so I’m not sure I want to change it. Huntingdon have an amazing frame where everyone just hangs up their token, they’d still need sorting to a degree though. I hope we have no gone AWOL but there are usually one or two. We had one posted back that someone found in a garden centre the other week 🤣
We have a plastic box in which we put tokens first with compartments 1-20, 21-40 etc. Then we sort them in order and find if any are missing. Then they go on a long boot lace 1-560. We have 2 volunteers at the end of the tunnel, and one takes them off the lace in batches and passes to the person handing out. I think it’s safer than the old metal long safety pins we used to use.
We do have 2 token sorter slots so people can take them to the cafe to do after their run and I collect them when I want to go home
We have 3 or (possibly more) boxes for 200 tokens with divided compartments for 10 tokens each. They go on screws 50 at a time with wingnuts.I was on finish tokens and after on token sorting.
I did a 4K today - my second run on the comeback trail. Hopefully I'll be running PR in a fortnight (plus more token sorting after.)
I saw a photo of your box on Facebook, Dexy, very impressive. We do a similar thing at the end of the funnel. Our tokens are all sorted now. Only one missing: someone had chucked their small plastic barcode in the pot by mistake and kept the finish token, so I’m hoping we can arrange a swap.
Another walk for me today damienair, along with Coddfish and her walking poles. We had a really good walk (and chat!) for an official time of 51:39 - 11 secs quicker than last week, which is always nice! We both ran the last 250 metres (well me not quite that far!) just to prove we could and it felt great! Happy running folks!
Off work this weekend so able to go further afield again. Decided to visit South manchester at platt fields park as it's a super flat course and I had the stockport 10k today so took it slow. 310 total runners so even in the high winds and super cold it's still super busy. Hope to race it in the summer as I reckon I can get it sub 20 but I expect it'll be even busier in good weather!
Hi there, bit on the windy side yesterday for our Park run In Lincolnshire but yay, I got under 27!! only achieved that 3 times since I started doing Park runs in July. There's someone who beats me every week and this week I was determined I wasn't letting him out of my sight, so I actually finished at the same time, 26.47! absolutely delighted, don't know how I did it, but so chuffed!!
Mine didn't happen at all. All 6 of the park runs in Edinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian were cancellex due to the weather. Waited until the wind had died down around 3pm and went out and did a relaxed 13.5k that took me over my 200k target for January with one run left to do, so on the whole, it was a good day.
I love my local Parkrun so much - Netley Abbey in the UK. It is so lovely running with other people; which, as a serious introvert, I never thought I’d say! I am always inspired by the other runners- the fast ones, the slow ones, the older ones, the young ones and the steadfast ones who turn out week after week. I got a PB this week, which is always exciting. I am moving towards my long term goal of doing it in 30 mins. 32 seconds to go! I definitely push myself more when I run with others.
Brilliant running and congratulations on your new PB. I’m running it in about 32 mins but really want to get those times down. Getting a sub 30 minute 5K is a great achievement. Best of luck, you’ll do it soon.
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