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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I did my first Park Run today at Cosmeston Lakes in S Wales. Did it with my younger son and my husband. A bit of a drizzle but rather that than heat. Had to make myself slow down as it was quite intense at the start but I just let everyone pass me so I could concentrate on settling into my own pace.
To be honest, I found the stats they send you a bit off putting. I run very slowly and was pleased to have got round without stopping. I am not competitive about my running but felt there was a bit of an edge to be told where you were in your age group and what place you’ve come in. There were some very fast runners there. Think I will probably just delete the emails when they come.
Yes if you don’t want to get your times etc, you can just ignore them. Keep getting scanned though and it will count for milestone T-shirts. After 25 runs you can apply for a purple one. 💜
Well done! On busy runs with narrow startlines it’s good to try to position yourself among people who run at a similar speed, so you get a smooth start at a steady pace - easier said than done! And of course requires everybody else to be honest about their capabilities ….. 🙄
I knew I was always going to be close to the back. Was a little bit dispiriting when all the buggies and people with relatively young children all streamed past me and I never caught sight of them again 😂. I am used to running on my own and find it easier to stick to the pace that works for me. Once almost everyone was past I could just settle down into my rhythm. Just don’t think I’ll bother to read the stats email they send you as it feels a bit stark to be told you are 159th out of 162.
If you’d run the same time at Southsea on Saturday you’d have finished 412th out of 432, 17 minutes ahead of the last finisher! And don’t worry about the buggies, a few years back someone was regularly our first finisher pushing a double buggy. The times and positions are irrelevant as long as you enjoy yourself and come to feel part of the parkrun family.
Hello to you Damien and other parkrunners, I didn't go to parkrun this morning but instead took the bus to Glasgow and ran 3K along the Clydeside walkway in a time of 19:15, I wore my 25 purple parkrun T shirt 👕, it was a bit like parkrun as there were a lot of other runners running along the side of the river, a bit like the walkway along the side of the Liffy in Dublin.
I got a bran new Smartphone last week, it's working very well Damien, however, when I get the results from the Saturday morning parkruns it only tells me the name and position of the parkrunners, my old phone still works, it tells me apart from the name and position of the parkrunners, how many parkruns he/she has ran, the position of the runner,ie. 4/28, the age catorgary he/she is in, age grading and the club he/she belongs to, C25K in my case, I am not sure why all that information is not on my new Smartphone
Not actually running today but I was a tailwalker. My first time doing this role. Thankfully there were no incidents and I recorded my slowest ever parkrun time!
Hello Damien, Parkrunners, Walkers and Not Parkrunners -
Well today was my 50th Parkrun! Warm muggy day on my 6 hills home course, that has denied me a sub 30 min, for so long.
Thank you to the chap in a green 250 park run shirt who I kept pace with to propel me onto the second and third laps, where there was a leapfrogging situation with a Jeff-er, run/walker. Final hill I managed a fast sprint-like finish to get past the Jeffer once and for all.
Totally exhausted as I handed my finish token over. Gasping for water. Was shocked when results came in to see, that on my 50th run, I got 29.11mins
Yes!! 😀thank you for all the encouragement @Beachcomber66, @TailChaser and DamienAir
Absolutely fantastic. What a way to celebrate. Huge congratulations to you on your 50th milestone parkrun and you smashed that sub 30 minute barrier too. Brilliant performance and effort. I hope you’re celebrating with a post parkrun breakfast.
Still nursing the big toe, so volunteering again this week.
Barcode scanner this time.
Each week the volunteers have a little sweepstake (no prizes) to guess how many people there were there. Once again I overestimated. I guessed 80. There were 69.
Thankfully, no incidents and it stayed dry.
A lady came in near the end. She had been walking for most of the course but jogged across the finish line. Her build was slender and her legs were unusually thin. One of the other marshals guessed correctly that she did a lot of long distance running. She chatted with the marshals, saying she'd done a lot of parkrun tourism, but had chosen to visit us today because she was injured. Normally she completes a parkrun in under 21 minutes!
I traveled this morning solo to run at Lough Key parkrun. It is a trail run through a beautiful forest which a one lap course beside a beautiful lake. Very picturesque and it was a lovely morning too. After first timers briefing we walked the 400 meters to the start line. Soon we were off. I felt good and just ran by feel rather than concentrating on my watch and pace etc. After about 2.5K I was close to a 25 minute pacer and was going to tuck in behind him but then he took off with the two guys on his tail. So I just continued on and with 500 meters to go I picked up the pace and finished strong. My Garmin time matched my official parkrun time perfectly. I matched my previous parkrun PB time of 25:36 and I was delighted with that. Sorry I didn’t make more of an effort to stay on pace with the 25 minute pacer now, but I was comfortable for the full run which is great. I’ll get that sub 25 minute parkrun sometime soon. Afterwards I caught my breath and went for a lovely coffee and banana outside looking over the beautiful lake and marina. Happy running everyone.
Hi Damien. Today I got the train to Bournemouth parkrun - my 50th different venue. Very friendly volunteer crew and not a bad course. A mixture of grass, tarmac and woods. Easy walk from the nearest train station and I bumped into a couple of people I know which was a lovely bonus. I’m still not 100% over a recent dose of Covid but managed to finish in an official time of 33.23.
Glad to hear that you are back to running again Mudita11 . You’ll probably feel a bit breathless for several weeks after Covid. Patience is a virtue, and it’s 4 weeks until NFM. Are you doing 10k or HM?
Hello damienair and parkrunners. UpTheStanley and I headed off to another tourist run this morning. Moors Valley Country Park in Dorset, which is about 50 mins from home. It is a picturesque single lap undulating route in Forestry Commission land, through the pine trees and around a lake. It’s only the 2nd one lapper we have done, the first being Bushy!
There were 583 runners starting from a narrow path so it took a while to get to the start and then until we could run at full speed. Thankfully it was cloudy with a cool breeze, but I was still mopping my face with my buff as I went round, I was lucky to see a red kite (bird) flying above as I ran out of the trees.
UTS was most surprised to be in the company of 9 other 70-74 year old males and only came in at 4th with a time of 26:03. Whereas I was 13th out of 19 in my age group with 36.03. I’m sure we will return to this one to improve on these.
parkrun wouldn’t be parkrun without breakfast and I had delicious New Forest mushrooms on sourdough toast and a cappuccino afterwards which we just managed to finish in time to get out of the car park before the parkrun discount was removed.
Very well done to you both. Great running. One lap parkrun courses are very rare, I did a one lapper through a forest this morning too. Well done also on completing another tourist parkrun.
I love Moors Valley. I’ve only done it once but will go back one day. There were some really fast runners when I did it. Maybe former Olympians retire there 😉
I think there is an old athletes’ retirement home somewhere nearby 😀. There were 7 O-75s there too - all with 250+ runs and most with 100+ volunteer credits!
Greetings running friends. 👋 No prizes guessing where I went with Jenny and baby this morning. It was Severn Bridge’s 6th birthday, which is almost exactly the same time as I graduated C25K in 2018. I knew there was a reason I love it so much! The briefing was held by the actual founder of SB PR and there was a larger turnout than usual. Always a jolly crowd there, always a large proportion of them tourists.
It was surprisingly windy and whoever was pushing the buggy needed the wrist strap! 💨 We walked it 2.5 minutes quicker than last weekend (53:39), and next week we’re going to run/walk with the buggy, taking it in turns. Neither of us have run with a buggy before, so it’ll be interesting! 😅
I know Dexy5 . We’re going to test drive it in the garden to see how stable he is - ie no moving around whatsoever is our benchmark. I saw a lady running with a very tiny baby in a front carrier - way too tiny for that.
SB’s path is lovely and even and the running buggy has great suspension - plus the speed we’ll be jogging will be no faster than our walk today!
We’re on our way home after a couple of days in London. We were there to scatter my mum and stepdad’s ashes in Croydon. As part of this we also did my ‘home’ parkrun of Tooting Common, which is five minutes from where I was brought up. It’s been an emotional and nostalgic weekend but it’s been an amazing experience.
Have a great runny week everyone 😍
Four runners in front of the Tooting Common parkrun sign
Ah very well done to you all. I have very fond memories of Tooting Broadway from when my Sister lived there. So glad that you had a great nostalgic experience.
Car park arrangements had changed at Lakeside this morning, which fooled a lot of people. They’re erecting solar panels over the car parking spaces, which is a great idea, but have now reached 'our' spaces, so we were diverted elsewhere - however we still managed to start on time. Thankfully it was cloudy, which I'm sure contributed to my pace - still not sub 31, but 31.14 was my best parkrun time since my hernia 'incident' February last year. Onwards and upwards! 😀
No Park Run this morning Damien. Our first football match of the season kicked off at 12.30 so that it could be screened live on Sky. With Molly to walk etc and an hour to drive and park up/ walk to the ground, it just didn’t work out. So the run had to wait until this afternoon. 6k at 6:08 pace with the last 5k at 30 mins 30 seconds, it worked out fine; fewer folk about ..but more midges!! Away from home next week!
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week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
