1000 miles and Christmas Day Parkrun

At the beginning of the year my goal was to do a virtual Land's End to John O'Groats.  That landmark passed at the beginning of October so I reset the goal aiming to cover 1000 miles this year.  Tuesday's run finished with exactly 1001 miles recorded.

Wednesday was Christmas Day and Christmas Day parkrun.  It was touch and go whether Evesham would be on or not as the course was underwater on Monday.  Tuesday lunchtime they posted a video showing one of the core team sweeping the mud and gravel off the path - Evesham parkrun was on!

It's a few years since I'd done Evesham parkrun and they'd made a few changes.  There's now a winter route which keeps entirely to the riverside path - good job as the course I knew had standing water on it still.  The path is very narrow and with runners going in both directions, plus dog walkers, over-taking is near impossible for the first mile - I think 10:10 must be the slowest mile I've ever done in Parkrun except for the time I was tailwalker.  Miles 2 & 3 were faster as the runners were more spread out and overtaking became possible.  

Another change was they'd tarmaced almost all the riverside path - and I'd worn my trail shoes 😖.  Not the best combination.

Now the next question - where to go for a New Year's Day double?  

Chipping Norton School Parkrun #1

A baptism of fire (or rather rain and sleet) for the first Chipping Norton School Parkrun.  I spotted it as it popped up as a new NENDY* in my Parkrun Challenges.  The photo, taken just before the start, doesn't show how cold, wet and windy it was to become within a few minutes!

Torrential rain had turned to sleet by lap two and marshalls were warning everyone to slow down on the corners.  The narrow and rutted Glyme Lane, linking the two halves of the course was deep puddles and everywhere churned to mud.

Despite the weather there were 149 finishers, most being tourists from elsewhere with just a handful of people for whom it was their first parkrun - who could blame the rest for staying at home in the conditions.

Not the greatest course in my view as there's too much running round the football field and not enough interesting bits to make it one I'd want to keep going back to - though in spring and summer the small woodland loop will be lovely.  But that's not the point of Parkrun - the point is to get people out in the fresh air, taking exercise and talking to each other.  On the latter it will be successful if the conversations at the first event were anything to go by.

Treated myself to some new sealskinz winter gloves this week.  They were certainly tested by the weather today.  As I expected in torrential rain the water gets through the seams if you're out long enough.  They are still warm but extremely difficult to put back on again once you've fished your bar code out of your pocket.

*NENDY - nearest event not done yet

Parkrun Tourism

A pre-Christmas family visit meant a chance for a spot of Parkrun Tourism at Crosby Parkrun.  It's another very flat course being on the beach, but it's not easy going as there is some soft sand and some compacted sand with deep ripples in it which don't make for easy running.  

Starting on the beach and heading east towards Seaforth the route gives a close up look at some of Anthony Gormley's figures in Another Place.  The look is so close up to two of the figures that they are adorned with hi-vis Parkrun jackets so people don't run into them.  One of the figures marks the turning point where you head back to the start before leaving the beach to run along the "promenade" to run as far as the old coastguard station when another 180 degree turn heads you across the car park and onto a very uneven grass path back towards the start.

Another Place, another Parkrun

Overall a good running week having managed to run 6 of the last 7 days with a couple of interval sessions thrown in.  26.36 miles for the week - though only 158 m elevation gained as most of the routes were quite flat (last weeks Winter Series #2 was 186m elevation in just 10k)