Hello Everyone. 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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Hello everyone. Sorry late posting today. One of our parkrun friends celebrated her 250th parkrun this morning and we all went out for a lovely post parkrun breakfast.
I stayed local this morning and ran at Navan parkrun to help Doreen celebrate her 250th. I ran at a nice comfortable pace without pushing myself too hard and finished in a time of 26:41 according to my Garmin watch. Still awaiting the official parkrun result. Official parkrun result just landed, 26:41. Really enjoyed that. Hope you all had a great parkrun morning.
A lovely run today at Marple.Geoff was Timekeeping for his 100th volunteer so I decided to be Tailwalker as I would have to stay to the end.
We split the Event Set Up and I also did the First Timers Welcome.
I was with someone doing her second parkrun, the first was flat and on tarmac paths so this was a little bit harder for her although at least it wasn't muddy today.
She was jogging a little way then running so I suggested we try 90 seconds running, 90 seconds walking (because that was the setting on my GymBoss timer which was still attached to my bumbag from Wednesday).
She really enjoyed it, occasionally asked how many seconds to run, which spurred her on. On her weekday run she had struggled to run for 45 seconds so she was really pleased, especially as we carried on running an extra 30 seconds to the finish. So that was a 2 minute segment.
She was nearly 2 minutes faster than last week, so she will be pleased when she sees her result. And that was with a stop to take a photo of the river!
So now I am officially a coach as well as Tailwalker
Fantastic work RunaroundSue for your volunteering and coaching as tailwalker. So nice to help spur someone on and help them smash their PB. Congratulations to Geoff too on his 100th parkrun volunteering stint.
Finally well enough to run after a chest infection so today was all about recovery.
We’ve had a couple of new events spring up locally and decided to wait a while before heading to them and give the new ParkRun team time to bed in.
So today we headed to Wakehurst Place which is the sister gardens to Kew and also where the Millennium seed bank is. It’s not too far from where we used to live and have been round the gardens a few times many years ago.
A stunning venue which detracts from the undulations that this course had to offer.
Husband being his usual speedy self headed to the front and finished 21:57. I treated mine as a training recovery run and finished 36.00.
Cafe was busy so we didn’t stop for tea but we will go back to run it again as it’s such a lovely venue and would be nice to see the change in the garden’s throughout the seasons.
Glad you are feeling better Beth. My niece who lives in nearby East Grinstead described Wakehurst as the most beautiful parkrun she had done, although a little undulating. 😉
Appley parkrun for me today, only the 2nd one there this year, similar pace to last time, just under 30secs slower today. Humid with touch of rain, managed to run all the way which I was pleased with , my 229th one today . Only my 2nd run post covid so not so bad, luckily I wasn't too bad with it overall!
449 finishers today as lots of visitors from the mainland! 😊
So pleased that you are putting Covid behind you aliboo. Being a party pooper is only one of its less than endearing qualities! Sounds as though you are on the mend now. Frustrating to get well into your training/ fitness building and then have some microscopic bug pop up and ruin, or at least set back progress. Nice run today 👍🙂
I was again one of the tail walkers at my local parkrun.
It was quiet today, with only 58 participants.
There were a few first time parkrunners today, and I suggested a strategy to one of them and suggested that if he wanted a PB he was probably best going to one of the much flatter South Manchester parkruns.
A lady lost one of her airpods and my tail walking partner went back with her to search whilst I continued on and kept an eye on the lady who was walking her first parkrun.
Once again we had a speedy guy go round (probably sub 20 minutes) but not have a barcode.
At the entrance to the rose garden (with no roses) one of the marshals had brought a Bluetooth speaker and was playing Lynn Anderson's 1971 hit Rose Garden on repeat.
The lady with the airpods seemed to have given up and gone home.
The first timer who was walking gave up at the end of lap three (of four).
We combined to clear up the signage and cones at the end.
The run director tried to make me compete against my fellow tail walker at the finish, but I called back the motto of tail walkers, "Proud to finish last."
Tiny Grandson is 5 weeks old on Monday and has clocked up two PRs already - this week we chose Severn Bridge. Jenny and I walked it all and our times were 55:45 and 55:48 I believe. Seven minutes quicker than Eastville last week and Jen is itching to get running again! We’ll probably start walk/running in 2 weekend’s time (when she’s past 6 weeks post C-Section). She had no ill effects after last week, but is playing by the book and not rushing things. 😇
It was also lovely to walk SB and admire the views for once!
We went to bed last night thinking we were heading east to Littlehampton, but this morning it became clear that rain was moving from west to east, and the coast was gusting 27mph. Next door Worthing was cancelled so many would head there too.
So a complete change of plan and headed west to Lymington Woodside in the New Forest. This was a mixture of running on grass around sports fields , and on tarmac paths around a park and gardens with som gentle inclines. We may have avoided the rain but it was 20°C and very humid. I found it tough going and I ended up run/walking it. But as usual it was friendly and fun. Lots of holiday makers visiting this beautiful part of the country took part today.
A slow 38:26 for me but it was a tick in the box for a new location making it 33 events now.
A big plus point for me was the infinitely wide start line, so a clear run off the start for everyone. Which of course meant I started too fast and paid for it in the 4th K. But pretty happy with 26’30” and 68% age grade. Well worth the trip 😀
Good afternoon Damien and other park runners, this morning at Palacerigg Country parkrun I ran my 120th parkrun in a time of 33:09, just can't get a sub 33 run there, a lot of hills, however, happy with my 60.58% age grading, there were 81 runners competing. I was #56, weather was partly cloudy with some sunshine, temperature 12C.
I got a lift home in one of the barcode scanners car and ate a Swirl immediately I got into the house.Yesterday I bought a bran new Smartphone, that barcode scanner showed me how to be a barcode scanner, who knows with my new Smartphone I might give barcode scanning a try one of those days.
Well done on your parkrun, went to Lister Park parkrun and ran one second quicker than last week, 30.16 and I'm getting closer to breaking the 30 minutes mark again. I really want this course to be my pb and not the hilly course that holds it. Away next week in Alnwick but will be doing a parkrun near Whitley Bay hopefully I don't put on to much weight in that time 😅. 8 to go then I hit 50 for parkruns
It's definitely coming the 30 minute barrier again. I broke it two weeks in succession I think April or May and then I got struck down with a virus and it slowed me down
It’s a while since I used the snakes and ladders metaphor for running, but it remains true. Trouble is if you try to climb too far too fast you just hit another snake! One day you soon will just breeze through it.
I set my phone alarm for 7am so that I could make another visit to a Park Run on Teesside. The alarm went off, loud and strong…..in the kitchen 🙄!! So I ended up running in the woods again. 5.01k in 30.06 minutes. A fraction slower than last week, but I am happy with that, as was V02 max which gave me an extra point. A really warm morning with a welcome cooling breeze; perfect conditions. Everybody seemed chilled out and happy to chat for some reason; nice start to the day🙂
Ouch 😂. I did make an effort, just not a very effective one……I had a good morning as it happens. Nice chat after my run. Why does 30 mins and below suddenly seem so much easier? Not even breathing hard, average heart rate 139…..maybe the result of an extended period without an injury break(🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞) 🤷♂️…just hope it continues.
Absolutely! My average heart rate was a little higher than usual this morning at 142 - think it was probably the warmer than expected weather coupled with a determination to reach that sub 31 - careful now JP!
I think it takes a while to come back after a long lay off, and that bit of extra pace on 5ks is probably the last piece of the jigsaw. Certainly with me it was lots of slow runs, long and short, then the long runs slowly speeded up, intervals and tempo runs came next and finally a sub 30 appeared last week; it came as a surprise. Safer to just let it happen; you are too experienced to push too hard (Dexy5 will sort you out if you do!🙂).👍
I avoided intervals until I started the NRC app. I found that being told when to start and stop, and what effort to give made things so much easier. Being able to look at the pace of each interval after the run was useful too.
I was thinking that next time I marshal at "big parkrun" I might take my ukulele and subject the runners to a few tunes. What do you think? Would it be too annoying for those not fast enough to pass me quickly?I don't marshal there very often as I am usually at junior parkrun on the Sunday and I wouldn't subject them to it.
Ha ha! You haven't heard me sing :)Although when the group played on the bandstand for the Race for Life some runners stopped to sing and dance so they were not chasing pbs
I will miss spectating in October at the Great Scottish Run, I am running the 10K version, over the last few years I have stood opposite a rock choir singing as the runners passed in both the 10K and half marathon version, so this year I'll run slowly past that choir.
That sounds good, hope it goes well.There is usually a rock choir singing in another part of the park for Race for Life but we never hear them because we are playing at the same time.
We will be heading up to Aberdeenshire in August so I am planning a stop on the way. Last year we stayed at Strathclyde Country Park which conveniently has a campsite and a parkrun. I notice a lot of Scottish parkruns are in country parks so I am researching to find which have campsites as well. It is great to be able to walk to the Start.
I think I will, although I don't know when I will next marshal. Apart from juniors and first timers I usually fo Event Set up whenever we don't have time to run due to ukulele gigs. I am well in credit for the year, although the 250 volunteer shirt beckons - nearly a year to go though
I have been known to marshal with a tambourine - much easier than finding 400 ways of saying “you’ve got this”. And the runners seem to like it - haven’t asked the residents 😀
Good afternoon Damien and all, nice to say I was running at home today. First time in a while.
Due to the weather my training plan has had to be quite flexible this week, so I decided to do my interval session as part of parkrun, a) because it was cooler today, and b) because it’s so much easier running at tempo pace when you have the distraction of other people. So a 10 minute warm up prior to parkrun then straight into two lots of 12 minute tempo pace followed by 3 minute recovery. This worked pretty well but I didn’t take into account that we’d have so many today: 442! So the first 1km was very clogged up and I had to do some ‘interesting’ manoeuvres to get past.
I must have made up the time well because I was just over 28 minutes in the end, which I’m very pleased about. I then had to drag myself round for another 10 minutes to cool down, so ended up going past Katnap 5 times on our 3 lap course 😅. Good thing is I ticked that one off and I now have a good plan for my 20 minute tempo run that would have been on Friday - I shall move it to parkrun again.
Ended up being a 5 mile run. If you’d had said to me a few years ago that I’d find a 1 mile warm up and cool down either side of a 3 mile, fastish paced run fairly easy, I have said you were bonkers 😂
Besides that, our ED had fun with our RD today. She will be appearing on Mastermind on Monday night, so basically our briefing was done with her in the hot seat and being asked questions that created the briefing. Certainly kept all our runners quiet for the duration!
Next week we’re hoping to do Tooting Bec Common. A bit of a nostalgia trip for me, going back ‘home’ and showing the boys some family history. It’s one I’ve been wanting to tick off for a long time.
Very well done TC. Yes you have come a long way and I’m always in awe of anyone who trains for Half Marathons or full Marathons. Takes real dedication. My sister lived in Tooting Broadway many years ago. She used to be a Nurse in St. Georges Hospital. I’ve fond memories of visiting her and experiencing the nightlife. Enjoy next week.
Power for Tooting! ✊ Yep, been to St George’s many times Damien, bet she had a busy time there, big, big hospital these days. Should be a good one next week. It’ll be strange running there , the last time was probably when I did school cross country 😖 Thank you, I just love a plan, I don’t have to be too dedicated really.
TC, we are all bonkers …..it’s in the job description! I wonder how many of your fellow runners are nursing slightly bruised ribs this afternoon….🤣 hooliganism!!
I use Saturday 5ks for tempo runs or, as today, intervals where I just omit the between interval slow downs…..so I suppose it ends up as a tempo run.
I haven't been able to post on here, old phone, but been reading and enjoying accounts of Parkrun around the country. I'm a year in now. And something Parkrun has done for me is help to get to my BMI range. I'm officially no longer overweight. That saturday morning discipline.
So today I was at my local, a course that the legend that is triathlete Alex Yee set a 15.44 in 2014 at the age of 16 a record that still stands. I managed a 30.30. I will break 30 there one day, Im sure. Next run will be my 50th.
50th would be a good day to crack the 30 minute mark; I won’t call it a barrier…it just needs a tiny shove ….6 seconds per K plus a tiny bit and it is done. Seriously…..just do it in your own time 🙂
Fantastic running Adie and very well done for your 30:30 finish time. Congratulations to you also for getting to a healthy BMI range. I achieved that myself just 3 weeks ago and know exactly what it takes to get there. It’s a great feeling. I’m sure you’ll break the 30 minute barrier soon. Happy running.
Well done Adie on both your time and your weight loss achievement!
We actually advertised that Alex Yee was a parkrunner as our volunteer promotion for Junior PR this week. What an amazing athlete he is! It’s a shame they don’t show the record holders any more. I can understand why but someone like Alex is such an inspiration.
Back to chasing that sub 31 today at Portsmouth Lakeside after last week's 33 mins dead. It was an enjoyable run, if a little warmer than I expected, but I was quite happy with 31.33 - only 6 seconds slower than this year's best time. Next week perhaps.......?
Jonathan you are doing so well. I know from my own experience many times that it takes some time to build up that base in the 31-33 minute range. But once you break through 31 mins you’ll smash 30 mins shortly afterwards.
After some time threatening a new PB it happened yesterday, not a small gain either but nearly a minute shaved off my previous giving me an age grade of 43.7%. At 72 next month to say I’m chuffed is perhaps a little mild ,,,
That’s 31 runs now in total all done since open heart surgery in June 23. I can add a couple of not a run to that as well.
That new PB is nearly 10 minutes faster than my first attempt. What's even better is the cardiac rehab unit I'm in touch with have now removed all restrictions on how hard I work in the gym sessions they run, I can exercise in line with normal age parameters!
Well yesterday was my first parkrun for 3 weeks due to having issues with my asthma, which had got a bit out of control the last few weeks and messed up all of my training, I'm now on a short course of prednisolone and everything is getting back to normal. Anyway I finished my run in 29:47, 2 or 3 minutes off my usual time but just happy to be back running (and breathing) 👍
I might be doing a parkrun in Ireland later this month, it just depends on when my daughter has her baby, hopefully everything will line up nicely👩🍼🏃🛬😁
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
