Race report for people who wanted to know how I got on - Bazza1234 , Millsie-J , and also for poppypug because I owed her a Park Run from waaayy back. (My next one will be for Curlygurly2 ).
Got to the park nice and early and walked the dog as I knew I wasn't going to run her.
We finished our walk and I managed to get her back in the van and still beat the rush to the ladies.
Spoke to a very nice lady volunteer in a pink bib who explained everything very clearly. Hung around for the proper, official newbie talk and then walked up to the start - there were A LOT of people. Most of the other newbies seemed to be with friends, so I confined my pre race greetings to people who looked like they'd been before and were there with their dogs. (It's common ground so that works for me. π)
As we set off I picked out a couple of ladies who looked like they might be around my sort of pace to run behind - on the basis that if they turned out to be super speedy I could pick some new people... As luck would have it I chose right and finished right behind one of them (after she'd slowed down to a brisk walk about halfway round) \o/.
TLDR:
I did my first Park Run today, and finished in 34:53 without stopping or walking at all, I even managed a 'sprint' at the very end.