How it feels to finish and not be at the back!

[Anonymous36]

This Sunday just gone was the day for The Longest Parkrun. There were 2 in London and 1 in Yorkshire, I went to the Yorkshire one. The Longest Parkrun is 7 consecutive parkruns in one day, So, a total of 35k. You could run all of them, 1 of them or even a lap of each of them, the choice was yours and as it was a parkrun it was free and there was no need to register.

My husband was taking part in all 7, as was a girl we go to running club with and I planned to plan my strategy when I saw the parks I'm not daft so, I had no intention of commiting to something I won't enjoy doing

I spent much of the time cheering the runners on as most runs were laps of 3/4 and the looks on their faces as they passed me 'again' said they needed support.

We left home at 7am and arrived back at 7pm so it was a very long day and much of it was spent in the car travelling to the next park but, it was such a fun day and the runners were all very supportive and sociable, but, by the final run the 25 runners that had run all 6 so far were knackered (to put it politely) so, I saw this as an opportunity for me to not come in last!! My husband was limping with a sore knee, the girl we went with was also limping with a sore IT band, these 2 normally come in first and leave me standing! My husband offered to run with me so off we went, 100m in an I left the hubby hobbling and by the end of the first lap I had caught up to the girl we were with. I stuck with her pretty much for most of the run. On the final lap I left her behind, got dug in and got my Pb of 35 minutes dead on (with the support of hubby and our friend). It felt amazing to not be at the back and the whole group were so encouraging, probably realising I'd not run the whole 7 because I wasn't yet up to it and therefore needed encouraging

The best part was being at the finish line to applaud the rest of the runners as I normally miss this at our parkrun with being such a slow plodder. I even ran back to drive hubby to the finish line and the photographer took a lovely photo of this which was fantastic.

[pingle Graduate]

Wow ! So fantastic! Well done to you all. Really want to do a parkrun now (tho probably not 7 in a row!)

[AliB1 Graduate in reply to pingle]

go for it they are fun and from someone that comes in towards the back they are fun and very supportive.

[RhonaL]

Wonderful blog! Well done.

[Anonymous36 Graduate]

I only ran 1 full Parkrun and 1 lap at York. Next year I hope to be able to do all 7!

The entire group were fantastic support to each other. I'd recommend a Parkrun to anyone after meeting this bunch of people

[AliB1 Graduate in reply to Anonymous36]

wow that is something to aim for!

when i started reading your blog i initially thought you'd done all 7 and i was MEGA impressed!

well done on your PB

[Anonymous36 Graduate in reply to AliB1]

I wish I had the stamina to do all 7! Next year maybe

Thanks