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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First Park run ever! Just 2 weeks before moving house, I found a park run near my place(40 min walk to get there). My usual route includes a bit of hill and looong downhill so I wasn't sure of my record. Park run was dead flat and I got my PB!!! I really appreciate all volunteers but I couldn't stay for coffee, I had to hurry back to get my place ready for inspection. 😢 I hope I can do one more park run and hope to find one in new place. Volunteers rock!
Ah fantastic running and very well done on your first parkrun. I’m sure you will have one very close to your new home. It is such an amazing way to kick off your weekend. Wishing you all the best wishes with your house move.
Good morning and greetings from Blanes on the Costa Brava. 10 miles walking round Barcelona yesterday and a blister on my little toe weren’t going to stop my first run in Spain. Our campsite is right on the seafront, so 2.5k along the prom and back again in 33.25. Quite cool and overcast but that suits me fine. Have a great weekend!
Ah lovely Sandie. Well done and have a lovely time in Spain. We have gone to a lovely campsite before between Salou and Cambrils. Looking forward to going back there again in July.
It’s lovely. We’ve never been to this part of Spain, in fact we’ve only ever been to mainland Spain once before. Off to near Benidorm tomorrow before the Costa del Sol on Tuesday 😃
Good morning Damien and all. Cold, windy day today, really biting wind, so full winter running gear on we got in the car to do a bit of touristing before visiting my mum.
Corby parkrun is a small parkrun but I found it very enjoyable because of its mixed surfaces and different types of ascents (they recommended trail shoes for the winter but it wasn’t too bad as it’s not rained much). It’s also very friendly. Just misses a cafe really (there were a couple of vending machines in the pavilion). Unofficially, just under 29 minutes but it did seem to come up a bit short.
We had a little walk around afterwards too as youngest kitten found a model railway society right next to the park. I think we will be back!
Have a great week everyone, I’ll be back to volunteering next week to keep my legs good for the final Winter Series race (yayyy!).
Parkrun #4 for me today. Really windy and I ended up getting caught in some traffic during the run. Our parkrun is in a country park with the route being a lap round one lake followed by 2 laps round the second. I was just finishing my first lap round the second lake and I was overtaken by someone completing his second lap. Turn out he was super speedy finishing in 16:06! My time was 23:15 which was fine. Altogether a good morning to help wake me up.
Wow, fantastic time, well done. I'd love to do under 26 but think I'm a long way off that. Blimey how on earth does someone do it in less than 17 mins??!!😵💫🏃♀️
Good morning all, I was a timekeeper at Lowestoft today. Very windy and bitterly cold but enjoyable all the same. 337 through the finish line. I did a not parkrun last night and did a more urban route than I’m used to. A few welcome breathers waiting at traffic lights but didn’t always remember to pause my watch 🤦🏻♀️. Finished in 38.29. Running past several takeaways with all their smells wasn’t ideal! 🤢 Happy Saturday everyone!
You could check the settings on your watch to see if you can put autopause on. It’s great for stopping to cross the road etc. no need to physically pause your run.
Thank you for your suggestion Dexy. I used to have this on but it was a pain for parkrun because of the slow start (bottle neck of people), it would pause when I didn’t want it to, so I turned it off. If I do more routes involving traffic lights then I’ll have to try and remember to turn it back on.
Just back home. This morning I went with my Son Oisin and friend Petula to do some parkrun tourism in Dublin. We ran Bushy parkrun in Dublin. It was a lovely run, rain stayed away and for the 3rd time in a row it was a very windy parkrun. I wanted to do better this week and was aiming for a sub 31 minute parkrun. I started out a little too fast for the first Kilometre and couldn’t maintain it for the 3rd and 4th kilometre but with 1K to go I pushed myself hard again. I was delighted as I crossed the finish line to realise that I was close to a 30 minute parkrun. My official parkrun finish time was 30:01. I’ll take that thank you very much. Sub 30 minute parkrun next. parkrun was followed by a coffee and a Scone in a cafe in the local shopping centre. Celebration coffee.
Good morning Damien, it was a case of me getting the key to Pittencrief Dunfermline Parkrun this morning I ran my 21st Parkrun there, the weather was dry but a bit blustery, at times I thought my running baseball cap would blow away but I managed to hold onto it during higher wind gusts, my time this morning was 33.21 considering the conditions, there is this steep hill, when I got to the top of that hill the runners then turn left into a flatter part but straight into the headwind, phew, I enjoyed the run this morning but of course, I miss Keith who died two weeks ago, as you know he took me there by car, I now go there by bus so I am a little later in getting home.
That's OK CC, strangely enough I have another friend on another Website called Kevin, this Kevin is always asking me how I am doing at parkruns and wishes me good luck on a Saturday morning
Thanks Doris8, yes, I dedicate my parkrun, run today to Keith, remember parkrun is not a race, the other parkrun I go to is Drumpellier which is nearer to where I live and have got my PB there, however, Dunfermline, although further is my "home parkrun" I know far more people at Dunfermline than at Drumpellier. I was looking at another location for me to go to on a Saturday morning, it's Springburn Parkrun, to get there isn't too far, I could go there by a fast electric train, I might try Springburn Parkrun in May once the new improved train timtable is in operation.
Ha ha GTFC, really, I like to inspire and congratulate runners with their runs, especially when they have graduated from C25K or ran milestone distances such as 10K, 10 miles or more.
Parkrun number 22 for me today. It was raining at 8.40am when I was leaving the house. It was still raining a bit when I parked up on the road outside the park. The weather was raw.
For the first time ever, I jogged rather than walked to the start point because I didn't want to get chilled.
The blind runner was back, and there were two potential guide runners for him.
One lady was doing her 400th parkrun today.
I started Strava recording the run successfully. I use it because it's much more accurate for this course. I then tried to start the watch. I fumbled it and didn't get it recording until after about thirty metres had passed beneath my legs.
As usual, I'm way down the field (deliberately) so that I have to start slower. About half way round the first lap, I start to open the throttle a bit and move up the pack. I do my usual trick of overtaking on the steep hill (something that gets much harder on later laps).
At the end I was naughty. I took my token, then kept going walking and jogging back and forth until my watch had registered the full 5km. I might not get to run tomorrow, and I wasn't going to have run 5km without getting the appropriate Garmin weekend running badge. Once the tech had been satisfied, I presented myself to the barcode scanners.
A few chats after, including someone asking about my shoes. Then it started to rain again and I started to get cold, so I made my goodbyes and disappeared off in the direction of the car.
There were more there today than usual: 85. However, there were fewer of the usual speed demons. The first finisher was a good four minutes slower than last week's.
In my 22nd parkrun, I came 22nd, with a time of 28'33" (my second fastest on this course).
And on the edges of the rose garden (with no roses) there were snowdrops.
That's such a good idea, as often Strava doesn't register it as a full 5km so it falls short for some of the challenges. I may do the same, collect my token and walk a bit to get the full 5km! 😁🏃♀️
Jenny (my daughter) and I went to a new local PR this morning. The 5th running of Marine Parade PR in Weston-super-Mare. It was pretty windy, but dry and almost sunny. It adds to our already large number of PRs within about 30 minutes of home. Result. 😀
It was flat as a pancake, and a 2.5 lap kind of course up and down the prom. Such a friendly atmosphere and we’ll definitely return. It could be PB territory too on a less windy day.
Today both of our watches registered slower times than PR ones. So my official time was 35:42 (Garmin 35:46) and Jen’s was 30:52 (Garmin 31:09). Weird! We’ll take it of course! 😅
I think those Garmin and Smartphone times being different from the official Parkrun time is something to do with Satellite positions, I always go with the official Parkrun time.
I go with the official time for PR too Al. It’s an inexact science with the satellites, as well as the bottleneck on the start line too, and I always start nearer the back than the front.
Thanks JonathanP . I can count 6 that we’ve done regularly, plus there are at least 4 more that we haven’t been to yet within 30 minutes - probably more. 😀
My first PR in over two months. In fact my first 5K in over 2 months. 46 minutes plus, so quicker than my training post Covid and then nother viral infection. Really feeling good on the comeback trail. Weather was OK at the start but during token sorting outside the cafe I felt that bitter wind somewhat. I made sure I walked home briskly after that!Looking forward to progressing next week.
Quite a chilly wind at Portsmouth Lakeside this morning but our adjacent motorway embankment sheltered us from the worst. Went off a bit quick, but soon settled down to a reasonable pace and was delighted to get my best time since the restart - 28.36!😀 Next target is to get back above 60% age-graded - currently 59.1%.
Winnie (my Yorkie) and I did our second PR, along our local seaside Prom. It’s 2 there-and-back laps, and today we had PACERS. I did 36:36 last time so decided to follow the guy with 35 on his back, and despite having to stop a few times to retrieve Winnie’s ball (she likes to run with it in her mouth…) we actually came in at 34:03. Well done to all my fellow parkrunners!
Hi Damien! I wanted to do run 3 of week 4 on my C25K(Revisited) today. The plan was to do the run on the way out and walk/run the home run (gotta love an out and back parkrun!). Coddfish joined me and we trotted our way through the run, joining another walker on the way back - although Coddfish claimed her running a lot of it was just to keep up with my walking speed! We had lots of walkers today which probably helped my placing of 406 out of 426, it’s not often there are 20 people behind me! Parkrun time of 47:12 or Garmin time of 46:28, which shall I choose?! Breakfast was a solo effort as Dexy and UpTheStanley shot off after coffee on family visiting and Mr and Mrs C also had family things on, so I sat there with a delicious breakfast, coffee and today’s Wordle, then home to sort the tokens while watching the Winter Olympics. HappySaturday folks!
Well done Oldgirlruns , so great to see you making your way back to greatness again! 🎉🎉🎉
Arghh Wordle. Don’t. I do Wordle, and both Nerdles (mini and big) daily. Something else to add to my morning routine. Although today’s 8 square Nerdle is a tricky one. I’ve had to walk away! 😅😩😨
This week was the return to home at lyme park. 10th time here now! Again I walked the first k up the hill and had the wind in my face all the way up! Really made it tough but at least after the turn at the top to the downhill section it was a nice tailwind to pick up some time. View from the cage inspiring as usual even with the fog over manchester. The last 1200 meters after the turn at the bottom was pure murder. Wind in face all the way up and gusting hard but I was determined to get it under 30 minutes again so pushed perhaps harder than I should have considering I'm trying to keep my HR down on my non racing runs.
Next week I think I shall do macclesfield for the first time as I hope I can get my brother along to one and he lives near South Park there but after that I'm going to be open to suggestions hopefully from you lot on here as to where I could try out. Who was it mentioned on here chadderton was a tough one?
Hi Damien and everyone, a bit of an emotional one yesterday as it was my first Parkrun since 14 March 2020. When Parkrun resumed, I was sporting a broken ankle. I restarted C25K last month and yesterday did W6R3 at Parkrun in a time of 36:50. I may gone back to a slow jog when I was meant to be walking at the end so I could cross the finish running! Very happy 😊
I did my 10th park run yesterday. It always feels like a great achievement and I really like being part of the community too. Everyone is so friendly, a great way to meet people locally.
I managed to knock a full minute off my time from two weeks ago and am now running 80% of the route, nearly at my target of running the whole thing!
Fantastic running and very well done on your 10th parkrun. I did my 90th parkrun yesterday. It is a great community event, I've made such lovely friends through parkrun.
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week 2 begins! 
