UpTheStanley and I tried to run the Severn Bridge parkrun with cheekychipmunks this month, but we both got the lurgy and had to cancel twice. So we were not going to cancel our planned trip to the iconic Bushy Park today, heatwave or not.
We got up at crack sparrow to allow for problems en route but we had a perfect drive from Southsea and ended up at Bushy Park at 7.30! Talk about keen, but we weren’t the only ones pulling up in the car park, and checking out the public loos. Parking was free but we gave a donation to Royal Parks.
There was a buzz in the air as tourists chatted and talked about their own parkruns and we met lots of other core team members excited to see how it was organised at the Mecca of parkrun. There were runners from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at the welcome brief so we didn’t bother to mention our 75 minute journey from the south coast.
The start line was very wide so you didn’t waste precious time getting to the start as a slower runner. As almost 1000 people ran on dried grass and dirt track, the air filled with dust. It was like a buffalo stampede in the prairies! There were pacers in attendance but I was way behind the 35 min pacer, although my watch showed I was close to that pace. Being mainly flat, we could see the fast runners well ahead. It was a figure of 8 course so there was no keeping to the left to allow returning runners to fly past like our home run. Volunteer marshals were brilliant as always.
I chatted to a girl from Southend and we agreed that a sea breeze would have been nice. We took turns in overtaking each other. It was 18C at the start but soon heated up, and the air was so dry. I was glad of my flipbelt bottle of water to wet my whistle and liked the shady bits under the ancient trees, while looking out for roots ready to trip me up. I wasn’t surprised that I had to take a few walking breaks, no shame on a day like today. As I got towards Southend Girl again in the last 200m, she was being egged on by her team member. “Head up, punch those arms, chest up….” I followed all his instructions and picked up speed too. Then UTS started cheering me on and I raced for the line. I was the last in my group , then they switched funnels. After a while they opened my funnel again and a little boy carried a card to show he was in the next batch. It’s so clever how they organise the number of runners there. Lots of marshals were present to prevent funnnel ducking and move us along in order too.
We queued up for the photo opportunity in the picture frame and then one of the core team wanted a pic of us with Southsea bear for their run report.
A very nice brekkie followed at the Pheasantry Cafe, where we were joined by Bushy runners who grew up in Portsmouth/Southsea. What a friendly parkrun.
34:02 for me (Just under 34 mins on Garmin) and 25:41 for UTS, and lots of parkrunning achievements:
Another tourist run ✅
Another B in the Staying Alive Challenge ✅
A Royal Parks Run ✅
02 in the Stopwatch Bingo ✅
Another Time Trials Run ✅
Bushy Pilgrimage ✅
What a great time we had — going to Bushy Park is a must for anyone passing through the area, or close enough to do it from home.
It has to be said, we were pretty disheveled and sweaty at the end of that, but we walked 20 minutes through the lovely grounds to Hampton Swimming Pool (36m open air) which we had booked online during the week. It was very busy, as you can imagine, but lovely to get a few lengths in and have a shower and change of clothes. It was 30C when we left.
Back to volunteering next week.
More parkrun tourism 
