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.
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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Hi damienair & (not) park runners, and park runners,
It was a beautiful day for Park run.
Hubby asked us in the car whether it was a PB day as conditions were perfect. None of us were up for that. Feeling far too lazy. No.2 son did manage to pace his younger park run friend to his first sub 20 coming in behind him @19:57 Hubby got 25:42 & I got 28:20 which was a PB for the year.
I missed the last two weeks of parkrun due to family commitments. And this weekend I am away with family in Killarney in Co. Kerry. The Hotel we are staying in is actually across the road from Killarney House parkrun. So I had no excuse today. I have not been running as much of late so running was tough. I bimbled my way around taking a couple of walking breaks and finishing the 3 lap park course in a time of 32:57. The view coming up along the finish straight was beautiful, mountains and two baby deers at the finish line. Happy running everyone.
Hi folks 🙂 Best 5k since my fall on 12 June and the stuff which followed.
Tuesday’s run felt like run 1 week 1 but I managed 3k. Thursday was 4K and today I managed the magical 5k in a steady 35.55, despite a blustery wind. Not NRC plan starting form, but steps in the right direction. Good to feel my like my abnormal self again !🙂
Caveat: no excuses being given, promise, but I was surprised just how slow my PR was today (42 minutes). It felt amazing, it really did, and that’s with me not looking forward to it one iota this morning. My Eastville streak needed to continue to make up for my lack of time for decent training recently.
So when I was talking to Jenny afterwards she reminded me that I’d been out with friends last night and had had 3 x G&Ts, plus I’ve had a niggly cold all week. It was also 20 degrees at 9am and humid. Those things must have conspired against me, but like I say it felt wonderful! The hills were no problem and my breathing was great.
My conclusion is that I really really enjoy slower running and felt all Forrest Gumpy; I could have gone on and on! 😅
It’s true Dexy. The only reason I was surprised at the time is because the way the run felt. Really smooth and strong, the way running should feel (for me, who hates being uncomfortable anyway!)
Funnily enough my Garmin refused to lock onto GPS so I used Strava on my phone as a precaution. Lucky really as the (insert expletive of choice) watch only ended up measuring 4.53k making my result look even slower! I’m considering it a win though as I enjoyed every step! 😀
Today I came to Raphael ParkRun (pronounced Rayfell). This was my second R which allowed me to complete the ParkRun challenge (do a run for every letter of the word).
It was also my 24th run overall. Next week will be my 25th and I’m planning a special run with friends to mark the occasion.
Thats great. Itll probably take me a long time to do over 100 of the same run as I always move around.
It was really nice. I walked it as I was late and the tail walkers made sure to check I was doing it, as otherwise I’d have been the last to the finish and not got a time 😂
Hello everyone, having not run last week because of sciatica, and doing only a slow 2k during the week, today I thought I’d give it a try . Keeping moving is the best policy and the worst time is after getting out of bed. I had a bit of lower back pain while walking down to the event but this disappeared when running. 26 mph wind behind us until the turning cone, and then in our faces. 35:40 on my watch. There were lots of families there today, which was lovely. We all know that volunteers are superheroes and these two in particular today.
Finally conquered my nerves and did my first Parkrun this morning at Bracknell. The course has pretty much every terrain except for sand - and it’s not flat. Some of it is in the woods, which I loved! I was slow but was so happy to have done it in 45:09.
Good afternoon Damien, for my 92nd parkrun I ran at Drumpellier Parkrun in a time of 33:14, I felt that I could have ran a little quicker as this is the parkrun where I have ran several PB's, 30:09 is my PB there, even last year when I ran at Drumpellier with GTFC and Tasha99 my time was 30:50, perhaps this old boy at age 77 is slowing down a bit, maybe not as I felt that I could have ran a 10K this morning and my age grading was 59:18% which I am happy about,
Next week I'll be at Palacerigg parkrun's first birthday, 🎂 cake I hope then on Saturday 2nd September I am booked down for the tailwalker at Springburn parkrun, on 3rd September I am running my first event race 10K at my local annual Cumbernauld 10k, I am feeling a little nervous about that run, lol.
PS. Update Dexy5 and damienair regarding Palacerigg Country Parkrun's 1st birthday, I just noticed on their Facebook page that they won't be celebrating their 1st birthday this Saturday, instead they are celebrating it on the occasion of Palacerigg parkrun's 50th parkrun on Saturday 9th September when there will be cake and have asked as many runners as possible to wear red or a runners red 50 T Shirt which I certainly will, this could mean I get cake two weeks in a row as I am the tailwalker at Springburn parkrun on the 2nd September on the occasion of Springburn's 400th parkrun.
I am visiting my youngest in Cheshire for the weekend and went to Delamere parkrun. Son in law did his first ever parkrun with me - well when I say with me he was a lot faster and was waiting for me at the end 😂. The course took us through Delamere Forest and passed several Gruffalo characters! Great parkrun in a beautiful place.
Thankfully mostly cloudy at Portsmouth Lakeside today - we even had a return of the puddles after yesterday's rain but they were few and far between. Stuck to the 4 min run, 1 min walk jeffing and came in at 35.36. It was quite humid - I bought a buff in a sale last year but it's been sitting on the coat stand since then until I thought I'd give it a go as a headband last week. Excellent for keeping the sweat out of the eyes - why did I not try it before!
I experimented with Jeffing a while ago. I found surprisingly that 30:30 gave me the best results but felt it would be too distracting to do that at parkrun.
A new look next time we see you then jP. I always wear a buff round my wrist to mop my face while running, but it’s amazing the different ways you can wear them.
Good evening Damien and all! Apologies for the late reply!
Another week of volunteering. I suspect I may not run many parkruns until my marathon plan cuts back on the pesky Sunday long runs, but we’ll see!
Today was RDing with Katnap. We were a little worried what we’d find on the course when we left this morning as there have been some 🤬setting light to the conifers by the tennis club again during the week. The first time they did it was late last year just as we were about to set up and we had to cancel. They did a small patch earlier in the week but a big swathe had gone up yesterday morning just by our start line. We ran by it yesterday lunch time and could feel the warmth of the dying embers. We were half expecting the pavilion next to them to have been burnt down and all our kit with it. Very, very thankfully that wasn’t the case and we were able to get on with setting up but it just seems to be getting too close for comfort. Why do people do these things, it really beggars belief 🤷🏻♀️?
As it was, we’d struggled to get volunteers earlier on in the week and I was worried we’d get a viable number of volunteers, but I sent out an appeal on Thursday morning and we had a wonderful response! We had a lovely full roster in the end, which is amazing at this time of year! We even attracted a couple of people who’d never volunteered before, which is the best part really as we’re forever needing new people to step up 😊 I’m so, so glad we didn’t have to cancel as it may have stopped them volunteering again.
It was busier than expected and we had 376 runners and walkers in total. Had a bit of fun with bar code scanners as the only one who wasn’t running & scanning didn’t turn up, so I had to step in for a short while until the first R&S was ready. And then, when the queues were getting longer, we had others stepping in again to help scan, which was brilliant!
We had a few tricky problems with the results but they went through quite easily in the end and no one has questioned them (so far!). All in all, considering our worries at the start, today was a really super experience and exemplified the spirit of parkrun in so many ways.
I hope this reply gives you all an idea of the trials and tribulations that the average RD has to ponder each week at this time of year!! Thankfully most RDs don’t have to worry so much about arsonists!
We’ve got a week off next weekend, no parkrun running or volunteering, which will be a little odd but I’m looking forward to the lie-in!
Well done, you must have been so worried beforehand. I am glad it went well in the end. People don't realise how much is involved with RD, even without the threat of arson.
I did my first solo RD at juniors last week. On the spur of the moment I asked whether any junior wanted to help with the warm up and a lovely 4 year old joined me. She did really well.
We have been talking for a while about encouraging the juniors to to this and yesterday I saw that a brother and sister did a great job. So maybe we have started a trend.
Oh fab Sue, it’ll give them so much confidence, that’s lovely 😍
Our parkrun turned into a really lovely event with everyone mucking in and it had a great atmosphere. I’m so glad they didn’t spoil it in anyway. I don’t like looking at the photos of the start though, they’re quite upsetting 😔
Yes people really don’t realise how much work goes on between parkruns, and I know that filling volunteer slots is a problem for all events. Thankfully we have a small group who only volunteer, but there’s still around 20 to find each week. If runners have to wait to be scanned it will remind them they need to help out occasionally, whereas manning the funnel and marshal posts is essential.
How awful that people are setting fires in your lovely park. It really does make you wonder what pleasure they get from it
I don’t understand it Dexy, it makes no sense, and it looks awful.
Katnap said exactly the same about the scanning as you, which is one of the reasons he pulled me off and let the queues build. It’s easy enough for others to do and the volunteer credit gets automatically added when you upload your scans, which is handy!
My husband sometimes steps in to help scanning when he has finished. I would do too, but probably not much help by the time I finish 😀But we both do our share of volunteering.
The other day we offered late because we decided we were still not fully fit after covid/probable covid and the RD replied to say they were no longer desperate if we wanted to run and were only offering in response to the second plea. But we filled some "nice if we can have them" roles anyway.
I was barcode scanning once when two people boasted that they had never been to any parkrun more than once. So presumably have never volunteered. Grrr.
On the flip side, on Saturday we met a man on his way to "his" marshal post at the turnaround point, setting out cones and posts on the way. He does that every week, must be great for the RD to have that sorted.
We visited the lovely Bedgebury Pinetum for our parkrun. It’s the third Forestry Commission site we have attended a parkrun at this year, following in the steps of Moors Valley and Queen Elizabeth Country Park. It’s a beautiful location, set around a valley with a lake. The course is an undulating out and back lollipop and involved quite a lot of junctions. It was well marshalled - helpful as my current inability to run (chemotherapy treatment) means I can lose touch with the person in front of me. At one point this went slightly wrong, as the marshal had disappeared into the trees for a call of nature, so I carried straight on when I should have turned right. I found him chasing down the path to bring me back. All in all a good shady, sheltered place to be on a hot and blustery morning.
Hi damienair, OMRdaughter2 is on holiday near Cardigan so we decided to visit and also run the new Tiefi Marshes parkrun. It would involve an overnight stay. Scouted around for cheap accommodation booked it then discovered it was 40 minutes away which then grew to 54 minutes when I woke up in the morning; it is about 1h 50m from home. The weather was horrendous overnight and we drove through heavy rain and winds and also diverted by a fallen tree, my only thought being 'I bet it's cancelled when we get there'.By the time we got to Cardigan we had partial blue skies and no wind nor rain; and yes it was on. Not my fastest time and an uphill finish but the finish was right by the cafe door.
My other thought was 'if I'd looked out my own bedroom window at home and seen the atrocious weather conditions I would have rolled over and returned to the land of nod'. I must make more of an effort for my home parkrun!
We stayed at Strathclyde Country Park campsite for a few days, convenient for the parkrun although it was a 2.5km walk into the wind to get to the start. This was a lovely flat run alongside the loch, not too warm and the wind dropped a bit. 36.23 my best time since York last November (which was 36.22)
After a bacon roll at the Watersports centre we walked back to the campsite for a quick shower just in time to leave before the midday departure time.
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