How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?

[damienair]

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.

[damienair Administrator]

No parkrun for me today. Instead I am taking part in a 10K Trail Run event. Wish me luck. 🍀

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate in reply to damienair]

Good luck 🤞 😁

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Good luck Damien with your 10K Trail run, I wasn't at parkrun either but ran 3K along the River Clyde Walkway in Glasgow in a time of 18:37, my pace per kilometre was 6:12 minutes which was a little faster than last weeks 6;24 minutes a kilometre at Drumpellier parkrun

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Enjoy your 10k Damien! Hardcore on the trails, but you’ll smash it! 👊

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Oh you weren’t on the pom-poms post! Good luck damienair !

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Good luck 👍

[TailChaser Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Good luck Damien, enjoy! 🤩

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Good luck!!! Hope it’s a great event for you and you have a super time 🍀

[RunaroundSue Graduate10]

Barcode Scanner at Burnage for me. I had a cold and cough, much better now but I was worried about only managing half a parkrun! (I only did 2.5k on Wednesday) But I met my friends in the clubhouse for a bacon butty 😀

[damienair Administrator in reply to RunaroundSue]

Well done for volunteering and I hope you are feeling much better now.

[Shake-and-run Graduate10]

today was my 5th Parkrun-anniversary so although I’m carrying an injury I was not going to miss out on an opportunity to take part. It was a walk with a little running for me, enough to raise the heart rate but not aggravate the sore legs. TailChaser and I both had birthdays this week so we claimed birthday bibs, so lovely to collect so many best wishes as I made my way around the course. A great reminder of how friendly and kind parkrunners are.

Birthday bibs at parkrun

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Happy Birthday to you both this week. Sounds like you had a lovely time even if you couldn’t run it all this week. Well done for holding back.

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Happy Birthday totally agree with you about the friendliness of parkrun runners

[TailChaser Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Completely agree! It was lovely, especially when we collected our bibs. You can have the full one next year if there are lots of us again!!

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Lovely happy photo of the birthday girls Shake-and-run ! 🥰 I’m glad your niggle didn’t prevent that important occasion. Hope it keeps improving. 🤞🤞🤞

[damienair Administrator in reply to Shake-and-run]

Belated happy birthday to you and congratulations too on your 5th year parkrun anniversary.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10]

Hello friends. 👋 Today was the day Jenny and I bit the bullet and decided to ditch the run/walk with the buggy. Severn Bridge it was, as the weather was kind, and I set my watch for 5:5, except rather than walk the interval we swapped over with the buggy, whilst still running.

We took it at a steady sustainable pace and didn’t struggle at all. In fact I surprised myself as I hadn’t run a step, or even dog walked (Flossie still convalescing) all week. Isn’t it wonderful how muscle memory takes over? Even more impressive was Jenny’s first continuous 5k for months. We felt chuffed to bits after, and our next one will be the same 5:5, but we’ll pick up the pace during the last minute of each interval before swapping.

Time was 41:40 Garmin, 42:07 official. We’re buzzing because we’re turning into buggy runners, slowly but surely! 😅

Baby in buggy

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

How brilliant cheekychipmunks and Jenny. That is a good time with sharing the buggy push too. Your little man looks very happy to be there, and doesn’t he look like his cousins? 🩵

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

Thanks Dexy5 , it’s a lot of fun. We were eyeing up various running buggies today. The one Jenny has is 2nd hand and won’t be useable until he’s 6 months old. We saw a gorgeous one, and surreptitiously made a note of the brand. Let’s just say it’s on Jenny’s combined birthday (next Tuesday) and Christmas list! Suitable for tiny ones too! 😅

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

💰 Christmas is coming 😂

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

Meant to also say Dexy5 , yes he looks just like his cousins, to the point where if I’m shown a baby photo I’m not sure who I’m looking at! 😳

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

😂

[Shake-and-run Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Sounds wonderful, I’d love to see the handover, bet you have it super slick by now! Buggy relay, how exciting 👏👏

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Thanks Shake-and-run , oh yes the handovers are getting slicker each time! I do a 10 second countdown and we prepare for “the move”! 😅

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

That is one cute baby!!! Nice run too by the sounds of it!!

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

Thanks MissUnderstanding , he’s a jolly little fellow. Today’s milestone was learning how to blow raspberries! 😅

[Week7 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Well run . Oh he is so cute!!!!!! Another Cheekyrunner in the making.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Week7]

Thanks Week7 , he’s very smiley and loves attention. 🩵

[damienair Administrator in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Oh wow, what a beautiful picture and beautiful baby. Very well done to you and Jenny for running it at and doing it together. Great job.

[Bruch1]

A bit of a grey morning at Trentham but over 800 participants. My treadmill stamina runs must be working as I got a new PB! Not in the 30 minute league yet but so proud 🎊🏃‍♀️

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to Bruch1]

Keep at and you will soon smash 30 minutes

[damienair Administrator in reply to Bruch1]

Fantastic and huge congratulations to you for your new PB.

[Tessie66 Graduate10]

Went to Heaton Park parkrun this morning, out the door before 7.30 to get there it's the biggest parkrun in the north I believe with over 800 runners/walkers. It's a fairly tough course with one really long hill. My times was 29.42 a bit disappointed but shouldn't be because I've gone under 30 minutes again. It was my 12th different parkrun and my 55th and my first over the border in Lancashire Manchester

[damienair Administrator in reply to Tessie66]

Fantastic running and any day anyone can run a sub 30 minute parkrun is a very good day.

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Thank you 😊

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

Oh what a dank and grey day, but perfect for a Southsea parkrun. I wore a light top under my cotton poppy run T-shirt and did get a bit warm while running. It took a while to get to the start line and then took off at pace . I am still having problems with my breathing since the last cold but only walked briefly to catch my breath on the return leg. 33:36 Garmin and 34:15 parkrun time, but best of all an age grade score of 61.95% and 2nd in our age group of 5.

Breakfast followed with    Coddfish (timekeeper)    Oldgirlruns (tailwalker) , Mr C and    UpTheStanley who were running.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

I was running in just my 100 vest Dexy5 ! No surprise there. 😅 Well done, sounds like you’re getting back some stamina after a rotten cold. Great news. 🥰

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

Excellent run for you today Dexy5 yes you are getting your stamina back, any sub 35 minute 5K run is very good, so is that +60% age grading of 61,95% ✔️✔️

[damienair Administrator in reply to Dexy5]

Brilliant. Very well done Dexy and sounds like it was another fantastic parkrun morning.

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

chasing!

Dexy’s Poppy Run

[Shake-and-run Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

Lovely T-shirt, well done.

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

Thanks, a shame it’s cotton though. 🌺

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Dexy5]

Did you catch? 😅

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

I don’t think I did, but no one caught me either!

[TailChaser Graduate10]

Good afternoon Damien and all! I think Shake-and-run has said most of it but I’d like to mention how resilient she is. Considering Shakes could barely walk the other day, she went out on her bike yesterday and today it’s a 5k run/walk. I’ve no doubt we’ll be running together again very soon.

I was going to take it easy but…well…the red mist descends and I can’t have people I normally pass, passing me. So 29:29 today. I like the symmetry. It was my 180th today and I’d saved it up so that I could do it my birthday weekend. Next week is the first of 5 weeks of races so I won’t be doing much parkrunning. 200 parkruns is going to take ages at this rate!

Have a great runny week all 👍

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to TailChaser]

Happy birthday  TailChaser ! A Scorpio like my daughters! 🦂 🎉

Well done on another speedy one. Not bad weather for it today was it? 🙏

[TailChaser Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

It was good cheeky - I hear the men’s record was broken in Belfast today too.

(Scorpios are the best btw 😁)

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to TailChaser]

The first female at SB came in 3rd place; 17:44! She holds the record there which is 16:50. Not sure what the British record is, but can’t be far off. 💥 Edited: just looked it up - 15:13. Wowsers. 😳

[Shake-and-run Graduate10 in reply to TailChaser]

What are you like 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[TailChaser Graduate10 in reply to Shake-and-run]

We are as stubborn as each other 🤣🤣🤣

[damienair Administrator in reply to TailChaser]

Well done TC and belated happy birthday to you. Nice sub 30. Best of luck with all your upcoming races.

[Survivor1952]

Went out today with the aim of just enjoying myself and being satisfied with volunteering with token sorting post run. In fact staying in a warm bed after a late night was attractive too.

Well that didn't quite go to plan, my leisurely potter round turned into a new PB, not a world shattering time (mine never will be) at 39:21 and I wonder what my cardiac team would say about what I'm doing to myself. At 72 I'm beginning to threaten an age grade of 50%, something I'd never have thought I'd achieve especially with a replacement heart valve!

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to Survivor1952]

Excellent Survivor1952 , I’m sure you’ll be surviving a bit longer as a result of your parkruns.

[damienair Administrator in reply to Survivor1952]

Amazing effort and very well done to you for your new PB. I used to sell Heart Valves for the company I work for, used to work with Cardiac Surgery teams a lot for a few years. Great to see you doing so well.

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10]

No parkrun here-I’ve tweaked a muscle in my neck. Stretchy yoga and a walk instead! Next week hopefully it’ll be back on.

Happy parkrun to those who made it!

[damienair Administrator in reply to MissUnderstanding]

Ah no. I hope you feel better soon.

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Thank you! Luckily it was short lived and I ran 5km with MrU at 9am on Sunday! Just a day later than actual parkrun 🤣

[damienair Administrator]

Hey everyone. So sorry for not responding sooner. I was hoping to run my 10K mountain trail run in under 1 hour and 15 minutes but I actually managed to finish it in a time of 57:36

So happy with this result.

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Wow! That’s amazing-congratulations!! I bet you’re buzzing with that time.l!!!

[Oldgirlruns Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Well done damienair, you must be thrilled with that!

[Week7 Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

You're just getting faster and faster! Seems not long ago you were working towards getting 5k under 30 mins. Now you're running 10K TRAIL quicker than that - congratulatuons !

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Wowowowow damienair how amazing is that? Bet you’re over the moon with that epic result. 👏👏👏👏👏

[Tessie66 Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Well done what a fantastic time

[Oldgirlruns Graduate10]

A double header for me today damienair as I did a stint as TailWalker for my 95th ‘run’. We set off at a rattling good speed behind the pack, my co-Tailwalker with his hip and me with my knee, both hoping we wouldn’t have to keep up the same pace all the way! We had nice walkers for heaven’s sake, this should be painless! Fortunately, a reasonable walking speed prevailed after a while and while it was yet another gloomy morning on the south coast it was warm enough for me to be glad I hadn’t worn a hat after all. A good coffee and breakfast afterwards with the usual crew of Dexy5, UpTheStanley, Coddfish and MrC. All in all a good day for volunteering and one step closer to my 100th parkrun.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Oldgirlruns]

Well done Oldgirlruns ! 100th is creeping ever closer. Exciting times. ❤️

[Oldgirlruns Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

It is cheeky - I guess at some point I shall have to think how/if I’m going to mark it, won’t I?!

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to Oldgirlruns]

Of course you will. You can’t let such a momentous occasion pass unnoticed can you? 😀

[damienair Administrator in reply to Oldgirlruns]

Fantastic work, not long to go now until the 100th. Sounds like another perfect parkrun morning.

[Stentrunner]

I did my first Junior Parkrun with my 8-year-old granddaughter. I managed 2k in just over 14 minutes but 66 years advantage put her 30 seconds ahead. Both really pleased!

[damienair Administrator in reply to Stentrunner]

Ah great. What a lovely healthy way to spend a morning together.

[Fasterthanshizu]

No running for me this week (laid low by some sort of bug) but last week's was interesting.

We were in Singapore for a few days, on the way home from visiting family in Australia. I took the opportunity to join the Bay East Garden Parkrun before we left.

Singapore is close to the equator, and consistently hot (around 30C) and humid (>80%). Parkrun starts at 7:30 to take advantage of slightly cooler conditions but it was still sweltering. The Parkrun start is on a smooth paved area under an elevated highway, popular with people doing yoga, rollerblading, or sitting in the shade with panting dogs. Just before the briefing a family of about a dozen Asian smooth-coated otters ran twittering past on their way to their daytime hide-out.

Out of 82 runners, 61 were first-timers at this run. It must make it difficult to recruit and organise volunteers when there's such a transient running population, but it all went smoothly.

Singapore is pretty crowded, and there aren't many traffic-free places to exercise. We headed out onto the water-side track into a mass of red-shirted people doing an organised fitness walk, plus cyclists, roller-bladers and other runners, so it wasn't easy to make progress. Many of the passing runners looked completely sodden as if they'd been swimming. Two volunteers with a big sign made themselves conspicuous at the turn-around point so we didn't have to rely on following the person in front through the crowds. The view across the river to the Marina Bay Sands Resort, the city towers and the Supertree Grove looked like something that had been computer generated for a sci-fi film.

The conditions were well outside my previous experience so I set off at a very cautious pace. Fortunately the sky was cloudy, as sun-block would certainly have ended up in my socks. I sped up a bit as I gained confidence that I really could survive the distance. I was pleased to have done it and happy with my time.

Full of admiration for those (generally south Asian guest-workers) who do hard physical work outdoors in this part of the world. Half an hour was plenty for me, then back into the air conditioning and a shower.

[damienair Administrator in reply to Fasterthanshizu]

Very well done and what an amazing experience. Nice to have an Asian parkrun ticked off.