1/1/16 – Double Bubble

New Year’s Day sees the one chance in a year to run two recognised parkrun’s in one day, as start times of ajacent runs are staggered. I really fancied the novelty factor of a bit of double bubble, not least because I was unlikely to get a long run on Sunday due to the Palace game being televised at 1.30pm.

My concern was that being at the slower end of the pack, I wouldn’t have time to complete Lloyd, register my time and get across to Roundshaw around 2 miles away, for the 10am start there. I had canvassed opinion on Boxing Day of those who had done this before and was directed to a lovely chap, who told me it was easiest to run between the two venues! It’s so nice to be mistaken for a proper runner occasionally.

As it turned out I need not have worried. The race was predictably slow, although the course had firmed a little bit since Boxing Day, allowing me to scalp over a minute off that time coming in at 34:30.

Thanks to Mel, a one-time Lloyd parkrun running buddy (until she got too fast!), who kindly agreed to scan my barcode I was able to avoid the queue and dash off to Roundshaw and I made it with a good 10 minutes to spare and joined at least 40 other Lloyd regulars.

I’d not run here before, but have many memories of the locale. It’s just across the road from where my Sunday Football team played their home games in the mid-eighties.

Known less-than-affectionately as ‘The North Face of the Purley Way’, pitch number one (of 20 or so) was the one right at the top of the hill, with the biggest slope. When the wind was blowing a gale (and it was ALWAYS blowing a gale up there), teams used to celebrate if they had kicked uphill against the wind and were only losing 3-0 at half time. Going with the wind and slope, it wasn’t unusual to rattle in five or more. Thus if you kept the score down in the first half, the other side would have to battle up the hill with rapidly tiring legs in the second half. Effectively, the game would be won or lost on the toss.  Sadly, the record books show we didn’t win very many tosses…

Thus it was with some trepidation that I lined up on the site of the old Croydon airstrip, the two-lap course was very boggy in places, but with a more gradual incline than Lloyd and a truly spectacular view. No picture this time, as I was concentrating on keeping my footing, but again, I was almost stopped in my tracks by a vista that spanned the whole of London. Definitely worth running here just for the view, oh and the glorious long descent to the finish line.

I could barely believe that my time was within 7 seconds my Lloyds time an hour ago! I find it a little difficult when running a new course to judge where I can effectively push successfully and looking at my splits, the second lap was a fair quicker than first, when in theory, I should have been getting tired. Heartening that my pace is quickening towards the later part of my 10k runs.

And the best thing about running two parkruns in a morning? The huge fried breakfast and warm bath that awaited me when I got home. I could really get used to Sue being too ill to run…. apparently, it wasn’t the done thing to mention this, though.