Hi, I used to post here last year and haven’t for ages because I’ve moved to the Falkland Islands and the internet here is both expensive and antediluvian.
I’m in Stanley, and massively enjoying it. It’s like a hybrid village-city: everyone knows everyone and everything we could need is here. Including a parkrun, two HMs, a marathon, a cross country “three peaks challenge” and a triathlon.
The parkrun is a there-and-back run along a peninsula. Setting it up is easy, we just put up the funnel tapes because it’s usually too windy to have a banner or one of those name things on the ground. And someone drives to the lighthouse car park and leaves an orange cone, weighed down with rocks, to show people where to turn round. There are no marshals on the route so it only takes four volunteers to run. My home parkrun in Sussex had a cow warning at the start and an inflatable alligator and rubber ducks on wet days to keep people out of the bog or potholes; here we don’t have livestock or difficult terrain (though there’s plenty of both elsewhere on the islands) but we did once have to cancel because of a land mine found nearby. The mines have been cleared but some still wash in from the sea.
Some mornings I’ve seen pods of dolphins and occasionally a whale. There haven’t been any penguins on the route since I’ve been here but there are a couple of colonies a few minutes walk away so I often pop over after my run. There are elegant Gentoos and scrappy Magellanics who nest there, and frequent visits from the King penguins (chocolate biscuit wrapper penguins) who live a few miles away. Picture taken a few metres from where I parked my car one parkrun day.
A few weeks ago we hit two fun milestones. We had our hundredth event (for which we managed to get well over 100 people which was a record for us) and on the same day we got our 3204th (non-unique) finisher, making us the first country anywhere n the world with a participation:population ratio above 1:1.
The route is gently undulating or flat, but the wind makes it challenging. The only Saturday in the past six months with no wind was my day of volunteering, so my PB here is a good way off my all time PB. It was cancelled last week due to ice on the route.
There is a second parkrun here, at the military base. That one is the most southerly parkrun in the world, but it’s restricted. I have a pass to the base so I plan to do it one day. I only got a car this week so it hasn’t been possible yet. We get parkrun tourists, though we’ve only just opened up since our Covid restrictions so recently they’ve been mostly visiting contractors and occasional military personnel.
Today there were eight runners and sixteen walkers, it’s winter here so numbers are down.
I’m here for three more years, or longer if my contact is extended. I’m expecting to be here when I do my 100th and hopefully my 250th and 500th.
Parkrun volunteering 
