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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No parkrun for me today because of the Worcester 10k. I’ll go on a nice, chilled 5k walk around the city later when collecting my race number. MrU went to Ashton Court for the first time and set a big PB. Both of us are faster when we’re not running together!
Apparently there was a stag do there with the groom to be dressed as an actual stag. Very apt for a run with a deer park alongside! 🦌
Happy parkrun day parkrunners, walkers and volunteers!
I was visiting my parents yesterday evening and stayed overnight. This morning I went with my brother to run at Grand Canal parkrun. It was a lovely autumn morning and I just took it nice and easy as I’d had a cold earlier in the week. My finish time today was 27:35 and I’m happy with that. It was a PB for this course which I have run a few times before. Happy running everyone.
No PR for me today. Just an almost (not) PR walk whilst cutting the grass which was way overdue and my last chance before next weekend when it would have been out of control!
Grandsons’ joint 3rd and 5th birthday party shortly (huge workout predicted!!) 🥵, friend’s choir bbq later - lots of singing to be had - and choir event tomorrow. That’s my weekend in a nutshell.
Good afternoon Damien, volunteer #20 for me this morning at parkrun, once again I was a marshall at Palacerigg Country parkrun where 57 ran, jogged or walked the 5K trail course, that's 4 weeks in a row I've been there, parkwalker, 2 runs and today a marshall, tomorrow I am running a 10K as part of my local community running festival, this morning the weather was cloudy with a little light rain.
I hope to, the run starts at 11 o'clock, I will get there around 10.35 and get my registration BIB number, I thought it would come by post but hasn't, I have been told to get it near the start line..
you’re racking up those volunteer credits now Al, well done you! Our runners today were very appreciative of the volunteers which was nice to hear! Enjoy your 10k tomorrow!
Thanks Oldgirlruns, yes number 20, I am sure I will enjoy my 54th 10K tomorrow, the weather forecast is for mainly dry conditions with sunny intervals, a light south west wind and a temperature of around 12C.
Back at my home parkrun again. (Slight oversleep, tummy troubles, etc.)
Arrived with 5 minutes to spare. The first timers' briefing was underway.
Just a couple of the regulars around (apart from the volunteers), but the usual turnout of just over 70.
I did a few dynamic stretches whilst waiting for the RD to shout "Go!"
We eventually started about 9.02am, and I did my usual trick of doing the first couple of hundred metres at a slow plod, just to warm up. If I was organised I'd probably do a little warm up run before the start, but that would of course require me to organise myself.
One of the regulars paced slowly alongside another, much slower, lady. He said he was doing a longer run tomorrow and didn't want to spoil that.
About 15 metres ahead is a lady all in black with a long high ponytail which is swishing around like a real horse's tail. (I'm reminded of that viral video from during lockdown of a couple who make it look like it's someone riding a horse.) She slows and walks. As I'm passing I notice she has her phone in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. I decide not to offer the obvious but unsolicited and probably unwelcome advice of "ditch the weights".
At the "rose garden with no roses" the marshal has his little Bluetooth speaker out and is playing Lynn Anderson's Rose Garden again. (On the subsequent laps it was playing the Chariots of Fire theme.)
On the next lap a lady asked her companions, "Do we keep to the left or the right here?" I suggested it was the right, and she explained that she'd been to a different venue and they'd said to run on the left as there were bikes in their park.
This got me musing. On a four lap course like this, how much shorter could it be to hug the corners as you go round? There's a simple solution that's related to the question, "You have a rope that exactly goes round the equator of the Earth at ground level. How much more rope length do you have to splice in to allow the rope to be evenly one metre above ground level all the way round?
The counter-intuitive answer is just 6.3 metres (2π metres). So, if the average width of the path is one metre, on four laps the difference between hugging the corners and running all the corners wide will be 4×2π metres = 25.1 m.
It's odd how one's mind works. Anyway, it distracted me from the running.
And shortly after that one of the faster runners lapped past and I called out to the well-spread-out bunch in front "fast runner coming through", and they organised themselves to make a gap for him.
By my fourth lap the field had spread out so much that I had nobody visible in front of me and the person behind was a good 25m away. She must have put on a final sprint as she almost caught up with me at the finish.
As I was getting scanned in somebody reported that she'd seen a dropped barcode at one of the early corners but she'd not had the presence of mind to stop and pick it up. I walked off to see if I could spot it, but couldn't see anything. I presume the tail walkers must have picked it up.
It's early autumn and some immature conkers (soft and not red inside) were falling from the horse chestnuts. The Run Director's little lad was running round trying to find some.
Things went quiet, and nobody was chatting, so I decided to wander off and continue my day.
My official time test message came in whilst I was towelling myself down at my car, possibly the earliest that's happened.
Official time: 33:03, slightly slower than the previous time.
I know now why I'm slower than before. I weighed myself yesterday. Over the last year I've been much less active and seem to have gradually put back on a few kilos that I thought I'd lost. Let's see if I can fix that!
I've never done parkrun. I've never run with anybody else at all, ever. But today I kind of bit the bullet and volunteered to marshal at my local parkrun (Hockley Woods) which is less than 10 minutes uphill walk away through the woods.I was a bit apprehensive but I know the route well and I have to say it was a really rewarding, joyful experience. All the parkrunners were so lovely and thanked me as they passed.
I'm glad I did it and I would volunteer again but I'm still not convinced I would participate.
Volunteering is a good way of getting to know what it's all about, and I love the way runners say thank you Marshall as they run past to you clapping 😁
Well done birdlady. A parkrun survey showed that people got more pleasure out of volunteering than running , and like you say , it’s a positive friendly place to be. Check out the results though, I’m sure you would fit it perfectly.
Actually running parkrun today, first time in over a month. Maranoia lurgy tried to stop me but I moved my Friday run to today and parkrun was the middle of it. It was a beautiful morning, there was no way I wasn’t going to do it. Thankfully a fairly gentle 50 minutes at different paces, I got a nice 30 minute 5km in there.
This is our last parkrun run until Unity Day on 3rd October. We have extended our stay in Berlin to include it. Next week Katnap and I are run directing then shooting off to London to volunteer at the Vitality 10k on Sunday. If anyone is up there, please come and say hello, I know I’m on t-shirts.
The most annoying thing today is knowing that I’ve broken my 10k a day step challenge. It was 576 days and I missed it by 3 steps because I spent too long on the sofa trying to rest my cold 😭 See?! This is why I don’t rest 😂
I always take step count with a pinch of salt anyway TC - particularly when I'm peeling the spuds in the evening and it suddenly tells me I’ve hit my daily target!
It was very welcome to have Dexy5 and UpTheStanley join me at Lakeside this morning. We missed each other beforehand so first sight was during the run - their new yellow New Forest 10k tops really stood out!
After a 13k run on Thursday, I'd noticed an ankle twinge yesterday, so didn't go 'all out' just in case I made it worse. So I was quite surprised when the outcome was 30.49, 2 seconds faster than last week!😀 Unfortunately the on-site Starbucks was closed so after a very quick catch-up I hit the road, leaving Dexy & UTS to find coffee elsewhere.
Ha ha , those T-shirts are bright aren’t they? I later found out the village hotel has also got a Starbucks, so we could have gone there. Hopefully we will get more time to chat next weekend.
Today I came to South Norwood parkrun. Some reviews described it as a “raw” parkrun, meaning no facilities nearby such as a toilet or café. It’s set in a country park with gravel and trail paths and no buildings in sight, which is great especially considering you’re still within London.
It’s not a PB course, due to the uneven surfaces and narrow paths, but I noticed my pace overall had improved. Happy about that
Hello Damienair and fellow parkrunners. A lovely autumnal day in the south and we headed for Portsmouth Lakeside this morning. After queuing for the loo, we were too late to search out JonathanP before the run , but he spotted me on route and we waved. He probably heard me puffing like a train as I set off far too fast, and with the NFM 10k still in my legs I soon slowed down to run/walking with resulting positive splits for the 1st 4k. I had a few targets on the last 500m and managed to overtake a lady who I later found was in my age group. The gent put a sprint on and was determined I wouldn’t get in front of him! 😂. So with a time of 36:34, I was 2nd in my age group.
We managed to catch JP at the end but Starbucks was closed as the staff couldn’t get in. So no VRB chat over a coffee! 😱. Me and UpTheStanley headed to the Wake Park on the other side of the Motorway for coffee, toasted sandwiches, and a cool down walk.
Hello everyone from Ireland 🇮🇪 Mr S and I arrived at Larne on Thursday and, after a morning cycling to and walking round the Giant’s Causeway and an afternoon tour of the Old Bushmills Distillery yesterday, this morning I headed off to Portrush parkrun. This was the first parkrun to ever be run entirely on sand (so they say anyway), the morning was very windy but dry and thankfully the tide was far enough out that the course, an out and back along the beach, was firm underfoot. Goodness knows how hard it must be at high tide on soft sand 😬 255 runners and I managed 36.12 which was 9 seconds faster than last week in the New Forest and I ended up with sand instead of mud on my shoes 😂😂 Irish potato bread stack and a cappuccino for brekkie and I’m set up for the next leg of our tour around the West Coast.
The Causeway Coast 10k/HM/FM/Ultra is also taking place today as I discovered from the chap camped next to us last night and I really don’t envy the runners battling against the wind, especially along narrow cliff tracks. Eek!
I’m glad the tide was out for you Sandie1961 ! This is one of those iconic parkruns that people try to tick off. You’ve done England , Scotland and Ireland now - is Wales next on your motor home tours?
This morning I went to Ventnor Sloggers NAPR for its 4th birthday, as it was established in lockdown. It's on St Boniface Downs, the highest point on the island! Perfect weather, around 15 of us and 1 dog, great views! Everyone had brought celebration cakes so and the portable urn "Ernie" so we enjoyed our refreshments. Then I headed into Ventnor and did a seafront walk too. 😍 👌
Hi damienair . Perfect weather this morning for Southampton parkrun. I took it fairly easy as I have a 10k tomorrow which I just found out is rather hilly 🫣😬🤣. I was 876th out of 989 runners and walkers in a time of 36:53. Hope the weather is the same next week for the VRB meet 🤞🏼
Oldgirlruns and I paired up to do finish tokens at our home event today. With various challenges to our dexterity, we did wonder whether this would be wise. However, all passed without incident. It was a lovely, still, PB sort of day and Mr C managed to post his season’s best parkrun, despite grilling about backache all week. We retired to one of our favourite local cafes afterwards for their excellent banana loaf.
I tail walked for the first time at my parkrun. I enjoyed the role, felt no pressure to finish as I knew I'd be coming in last. Came in at just under an hour, so I was happy.
Lister Park for my parkrun yesterday not a pb or a brilliant time but it was my 47th parkrun so 3 to go to the big 50 do we celebrate it or treat it as something special? Now what I'm wanting to do is go to Fountains Abbey for my 50th.love to know what others have done for milestones?.Well done Damienair and everyone on your parkrun also a quickie my son in law has passed his driving test picked his car up yesterday so he'll be doing most of the driving now yippee
Ah brilliant. Yes just 3 more to go until your 50th parkrun. That’s great. Yes it’s a big milestone parkrun so celebrate it in style. Afterwards you can get the red 50 milestone T-Shirt and you can wear it with pride.
At last, I managed to do my parkrun yesterday, not as big as usual around 70 runners, there is a 10k run taking place in Swansea today (Sunday) quite a few regulars taking part in that. The weather was good, not as cold as it looked but I did have my merino top under my running vest, probably didn't need it but???
This weekend was the 13th anniversary of the Gleision mining disaster where 4 miners lost their lives after the drift mine they were working in flooded, so we held a minutes silence and flowers were laid at the memorial
That's about it, I did manage to get out on my bike with my son in the afternoon and was planning to do a ride today, but typical Welsh weather it's raining 🌧️🌧️
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