30/11/19 – Down in the Park

It’s fair to say in the four years that have passed since we launched this blog, we have gone from parkrun regulars to complete obsessives.

It’s a rare Saturday Morning, when we aren’t doing a parkrun somewhere in the world. Due to a combination of Palace away games, holidays and touring with Jim Bob, the runs have been spread far and wide this year.

We decided early in 2019 to make this a year of parkrun tourism (yes, it’s a thing). This involves not going back to our home parkrun: Lloyd, also not repeating a run that you’ve already done within the year. We decided to finish off our parkrun alphabet i.e. doing a parkrun started with the letter A through to Z (minus X, there is no X… yet!) and things kinda spiralled from there.

A fellow Lloyd parkrunner put us on to a Chrome extension called Running Challenges and that has been the ruination of us! There’s not room here to explain all the challenges, but suffice to say, we’ve been giving them all fair crack since.

Last Saturday, a Jim Bob gig in Hengelo, Holland (currently a parkrun-less country, although that will change in 2020) saw Marc and I piling into the car at sparrowfart to cross the border into Germany for our parkrun fix. An hour later we pulled up in Rubbenbruchsee, near Osnabruck. Sue was back at home doing our new local parkrun, Bethlem Royal Hospital.

Our fortunes couldn’t have been more different. Sue ploughed her way around an unexpectedly muddy course with road shoes, suffering with a sore foot, accompanied most of the way by the tailwalker. On the other hand, I managed a series of personal parkrun firsts out in Germany: first top 10 finish, first is my age-group and best ever age-grading. It’s fair to say that the smaller attendance, just 24, made all these things possible, but I’m still a very happy bear.

If I’m totally honest, it was the ‘second’ that pleased me the most: it was my second fastest parkrun ever (27:02). Indeed, it was probably my fastest, but for a suspected timing error when I set my record last year at Beckenham Place Park (26.49).

It was one of those runs that make you question why it turned out to be so fast. A number of theories spring to mind. For starters, Marc was running with me – I nearly always run well when Marc with me. Well, I say with me… of course, he was miles ahead and finished third in a time just five seconds shy of his own parkrun record. And he was only beaten to second by the narrowest of margins.

Also, we had to race back to Hengelo to pick up the the rest of the touring crew, so time was very much of the essence. Lastly and probably most importantly, I felt ‘Marathon-Strong’. When Sue did her fastest 10k time of 1:08 (some four minutes under her previous best), it was four weeks after London in 2016. I didn’t really get that until this run. I had no real feeling of pushing myself particularly hard and I was truly surprised at my finish time. It proved to me that despite not really doing much in the way of long distances since York, the Marathon miles and fitness does stay onboard for longer than you might imagine.

This week, saw us all in icy Bradford, Jim having played in Leeds the night before and Sue in the area for Palace’s game at Burnley. At 8.30am, we were sat shivering in the car nervously awaiting news of a parkrun that was on. As nearly all of the local ones fell by the wayside, Horton Park – actually the closest one to where we staying – gave the green light and we were off.

The tarmac path was indeed icy, but not dangerously so. A good call from the Race Director. It’s a lovely little parkrun, but my goodness is it hilly. Three times yomping up a stiff incline, that seemed to go forever. Marc did the firm proud again, with another Top 10 finish – sixth this week. It’s fair to say, Sue and I took it rather more steady! At least Sue’s injury didn’t bother her too much this week.

Next week, Sue and I will be splitting off again. Marc and I will be at the Strathclyde parkrun, whilst Sue will be parkrunning in the Watford area. In the meantime, we’re hoping to fit in a couple of longer training runs over the next fortnight, with an eye on the Staplehurst 10 miler on the last Sunday of the Year.