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.
Written by
damienair
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As you and I have discussed in the past Damien - we're both big advocates for Parkrun for all of the reasons you share above. I shall be off to my own one in 10 minutes or so.
You mention (not)Parkrun and I remember this from lockdown, where there was a page to enter your data, created by Parkrun themselves. Do you know if this still exists in some form? Thanks. I hope you're back to (yep, this is the real thing) Parkrun again very soon; that all-Ireland tick off list won't tick itself😅.
Cheers. Yes (not)parkrun was a thing during lock down. I kept it a thing here as not everyone is able to get to a parkrun and some prefer to run on their own. I’m not sure if you can still log (not)parkruns on their website. AlMorr used to log a lot of them. I hope you had a fantastic parkrun yourself today.
I wasn’t expecting it as it’s a slightly undulating course.
Bexley parkrun is set in a lovely park with a great community feel and lot’s of friendly and helpful volunteers, including Woo Hoo lady, who was at the bottom of a hill cheering runners on. Her encouragement was very much appreciated as her hill was the toughest part of the course.
This morning I was planning on doing some parkrun tourism. However my wife’s car is on the blink and one of our boys had a rugby match today so I stayed local and ran at my home parkrun in Navan. We usually get between 80-100 runners and walkers, but today it was very busy and we had 211 runners and walkers which was fantastic. Great atmosphere. I did my parkrun as part of a Garmin Tempo training run. I had to run easy for 2 mins, then run for 13 mins at a 5:30 min/km pace followed by 12 mins at 5:10 min/km pace which brought me to the finish line in a time of 27:10 and 57th place. After scanning my barcodes I had a 2 minute cool down run to do and I was finished. I was happy with that and felt strong. I had a quick mingle in the crowd and then had to rush home to hand the car over.
Thanks Jonathan. I’m following a training plan on my Garmin watch. It’s to try and break my PB and get a sub 25 minute parkrun time. I’m currently 9 weeks into a 17 week training block. 8K easy run tonight.
Good afternoon Damien and other parkruners, this morning at Drumpellier parkrun I ran in dry but cloudy weather temperature 8C my 131st parkrun in a time of 31:33 with another +60%age grading of 63:66% which I am very happy with, it was the 30th time I have ran at Drumpellier, it's mainly flat with a mixture of tar mac and trails, it's the parkrun I ran in 2021 and got a PB time 30:09, not today 😢
Age grading is my main metric at Parkrun, but I've never reached the dizzy heights of 63%+ so I tip my hat to you and your impressive result! I've been bobbling around 48-49% for ages now but can't seem to crack the magic 50%.
I am in the 75/79 male age grade group Pugwash, I notice a man in the 35/39 age group at the same parkrun I was at with a age grading of also 63% but his time was 21 minutes, for us older runners age grading is nice, it makes up for our slower running times, there is a man in his 80's at one of the parkruns I go to who runs consistently around 23 minutes, I have seen his age grading+90 %
I am the 1st of several runners who did Stratford upon Avon parkrun this morning in honour of Shake-and-run ’s 100th parkrun. Given the black T-shirt milestone, we dressed as black cats , much to the anusement of volunteers and runners. Last time I ran here in November 2019 I had a wardrobe malfunction with my front loading zip up bra! The less said about that, the better, but I was hoping to beat that time of 36:59 today.
After photoshoot and RD briefing, we were off and I was glad I had my trail shoes on (thanks TailChaser ) for the brief spells on grass and slippery paths. I was really chuffed to get a time of 35:11 considering there was a bit of jeffing there and age grade score of 60.3%. 2nd of 3 in my age group. cheekychipmunks and UpTheStanley were running. Oldgirlruns on freezing finish tokens and TailChaser and Shakes were tail walking. Katnap was photographer as part of his running club takeover. A good time was had by all and breakfast at Wetherspoons followed.
Me and UTS are making a weekend of it with theatre thrown in on two nights.
Yes it would have been nice to be able to show off my 100 volunteer T-shirt Dexy, but common sense made me add a jumper and thick coat! But it was good to get the cat’s ears out and help ShakeandRun celebrate her 100th run wasn’t it!
Super well done to you all. I seem to outfits on Strava. Congratulations Shake-and-run on your fantastic achievement and have a great weekend Dexy and UpTheStanley
Yay, VRB meet up! I haven’t posted here for a while damienair because I haven’t done much, apart from a bit of volunteering. But today’s volunteering was a bit special because it was ShakeandRun’s 100th parkrun so it was time for a meet up at Stratford upon Avon. I decided to visit family in the area, Dexy5 and UpTheStanley took lodgings in the town and Cheekychipmunks drove up from the southwest to join up with Shakes, Tailchaser and Katnap on a very gloomy and cold morning. I lost all feeling in my fingers on finish tokens and the 454 runners and walkers didn’t look much warmer as they finished! Off for breakfast afterwards and another lovely meet-up completed! Well done ShakeandRun and thank you for inviting us to help you celebrate!
My cat paws helped keep my fingers warm whilst running Oldgirlruns , and it’s unheard of me to run 5k in my hoodie. I did today, and I can’t even imagine how chilly you heroes would have been. ❤️
A damp and very chilly (close to freezing temps) morning at Chadderton today. Busier than normal for this time of year (about double the numbers).
Today's also my 17th RED January run (I missed out on one due to the snow two Sundays ago).
I arrived just in the nick of time. My parking position was equidistant from the two entrances, and the start point is about the same. No sooner had I arrived and found a spot at the back of the group, than people started running (the RD was inaudible).
After a few hundred metres, I got little opportunities to put on a little spurt and work my way up the ranks. I eventually worked towards a pair who were both holding a band about 20cm flattened. It didn't take me long to work out that one of them was blind.
We entered the rose garden section and her companion explained that and called out the corners for her. I chipped in that there were no actual roses there, and there hadn't been for at least five years.
I got lapped about 1⅓ laps in, by a long legged guy in his early 20s who went on to do a sub 20 minute finish time.
Later on that lap I caught up with a man with a dog who asked me about my shoes. He was wearing some from the Merrell barefoot range and was curious about my Vibram Fivefingers. The conversation was cut short by his dog encountering another dog and wanting to do doggie greetings rather than continue the run.
On the only downward slope on lap 3 (of 4) I briefly chatted with a guy who was impressed I could still chat.
A little more effort towards the end, and then it was complete.
There was a bit of a bottleneck at giving out the tokens as the timekeepers had got themselves in a bit of a tizzy (which led to the official results being very late coming in).
Afterwards I hung around chatting just a little too long and I started to feel a chill which I didn't recover from until I was able to get out of my damp kit after doing a bit of shopping.
Official time: 32:28, better than the last time here, when there were 168 runners instead of today's 143.
Next week probably Pwllheli again, and then hopefully Fountains Abbey on Feb 1st.
The start of the parkrun, the back view of lots of eager runners.
Same as the parkrun I attended this morning, far more than normal, probably because of the cancellations over the last few weeks, making up for lost time
I got the dreaded photo upload error message for the first time, and my post froze. I had no choice but to delete it. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
Sooooo (deep breath):
Another report from Stratford-upon-Avon and Shake-and-run ’s 100th celebration with Dexy5 , UpTheStanley , Oldgirlruns , TailChaser and Katnap . I decided to drive up this morning; it’s less than 2 hours and I’m an early bird so leaving at 6:15am was no great shakes. I parked up bang on 8:15am and gradually my catty chums emerged! We were a source of great amusement! 🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛ It was a very chilly morning and I ran in my ninja black hoodie (normally run in a vest!) and my cat paws helped keep my hands toasty. 🙏
My time was ok for my new normal at 39:32. I’ve lost a good 4-5 minutes off my old normal, and my PB of 33 something is long gone. It’s been a shocking winter running-wise for me, plus recently I’ve been being a buggy warrior with my daughter, pushing an ever growing 6 month old! 😅
It was a lovely run today and the atmosphere was very jolly. We all enjoyed brekkie at the local Wetherspoons. Home by 3pm, then out for a belated birthday meal with the family this evening. Tomorrow morning is Junior PR. What a fun weekend! 👏👏👏
Caught an early train and went east along the coast to Lancing Beach Green parkrun, the former stomping ground of my lovely friend SueAppleRun . It was freezing cold but a great location with colourful beach huts lining much of the route. We started on grass then along the promenade for an out and back. I walked with the official parkwalker who was a very chatty local chap. He advised me of the best place to get a coffee en route back to the train station. Just over 53 minutes was my official time. It’s taken me 8 hours to write this as I had to defrost slowly 🤣🤣. Would like to do this one again one day as it seemed a very friendly place.
At Lakeside this morning for my usual fix. It was an early start as I was volunteering for the first time this year - car park marshal, which allows you to run too. As there was an extra volunteer, he and I were able to swap running stories for 40 mins, while directing traffic and acknowledging thanks from fellow parkrunners, making the time pass more quickly.
Given the weather and the early start, I wore leggings for the first time this year, but after a quick stop to dispense with a coat, we were off. It was another large turnout with 411 finishers and an RD request to start on the path for safety reasons, rather than spreading onto the surrounding grass, so we were jostling for position over the first km. Continuing to take things a bit easy, so happy to come in at 32.13. Total of 194 parkruns and 39 volunteers so far - aiming for definitely 200 of the former and hopefully 50 of the latter this year!
Very well done Jonathan. You are not too far behind me. I’m on 212 parkruns and 33 volunteers. I plan to hit 250 parkruns this year and 50 volunteers next year. I’ll get a few more volunteers in this year as well. I missed a volunteer credit recently due to cancellation of my local parkrun due to ice.
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