Cranleigh parkrun

Today is the 10th anniversary of parkrun.  10 years ago the notion that I would get out of bed at 7am on a Saturday morning to go running would have been laughable.  I am still a bit bemused by the transformation that running has wrought in my life, but can only assume that it is generally a good thing to be more active.  Not only has parkrun increased my enjoyment of running, and the number of races I have entered, it has also greatly increased my circle of friends and acquaintances.  It was a bit of a shock last weekend to turn up to a race and not recognise anyone at the start.  In the UK I am more likely than not to bump into someone I have met before, or know online.  These friends have enriched my life more than I would have thought possible when I first, rather nervously, made my way to my first parkrun.

Today I considered going to the birthplace of parkrun - Bushy Park to celebrate with many other parkrun friends.  Then I thought about the numbers of people who would be there.  On an 'average' parkrun day there are about 1000 runners.  Today was looking as though it would be closer to 2000.  I don't like crowds.  I get a bit stressed about going to parties where there will be more than a handful of people - especially if I don't know everyone.  To be fair, I normally go to the party anyway and either have a miserable time not talking to anyone because I get a crippling attack of nerves, or I anaesthetise the inner social nerd with enough alcohol to take out a small village and have an awesome time - or at a least the bits I remember are great!  Alcohol doesn't mix well with a 5k run, especially if you have to drive to the start line, so I started to look for somewhere smaller.

A few weeks ago some running friends had mentioned that there was a parkrun starting near them.  In fact they had organised their holiday flight to ensure that they could make the inaugural Cranleigh parkrun.  Now inaugural parkruns normally attract quite a crowd.  But the canny bods who make parkrun magic happen had planned quite a few for this morning.  This, I assume, was to take some of the pressure off Bushy, but which also had the effect of reducing numbers at all the first time events.  And even a 'bumper turnout' for an inaugural is 'only' about 300 runners.  I can cope with that!

Cranleigh, according to my sat nav, was 55 minutes away from home.  I bundled the running child into the car (resplendent in our anniversary tees), picked up a friend and set off.  It took us 35 minutes (less time than it takes me to get to work most mornings - and we almost drove past my school) and a swear I don't drive that fast!  We found some free parking and some loos.  I had a minor contact lens disaster (had to remove one, decide it was too overcast to wear my prescription sunglasses so the only option was to run with one good eye and one blurry eye) and then we set off across some football pitches and a road to the start.

There were people at the start - but not the masses we get at Basingstoke ever week.  There were familiar faces and new people, there were 100, 50 and 10 t shirts and a smattering of anniversary t shirts too.  We chatted to people we knew (and a few we didn't), had a warm up lap of a field, listened to the run briefing, made our way to the start and then we were off.

Two grassy laps of a fairly convoluted course starting at Bruce McKenzie Memorial Field with some stunning views over the surrounding countryside.   There is one significant climb - which isn't too bad as it is fairly short, at the top of which the most amazing views were to be had, and also some amazing echoes.  I would like to apologise to any residents of Knowle Park Nursing Home who were trying to have a lie in - my booming voice echoed impressively back to me as I encouraged Freddy (and other runners) at the top of the hill and the start of the steep decent!   Freddy was a wee bit too enthusiastic on the downhill, and did an impressive head over heels tumble.  Where is a camera man when you need them?  He cried a bit - through shock more than anything - and on we went, Freddy covered in grass and mud!

We chatted with several other runners as we completed our last lap.  I started singing to encourage Freddy to get a wiggle on, he hates my singing (the boy has taste) and so put on a spurt towards the end.  As ran through the finish funnel and collected our finishing tokens we were congratulated by the Mayor, who, wearing her chain of office, shook hands with every finisher.

There were 111 finishers - a lovely number for this venue.  We got to chat to people and get a feel for what this event will be like over the next few months.  There was coffee and cake at the finish, provided by the local leisure centre and the volunteers.  The sun shone while we ran - although the heavens opened on the way home.  Thank you to everyone involved in this lovely event.  I am sure I'll be back to run with you all again someday soon.

Brackenwood Festival Place 5k

Why are we paying to do a 5k race when we have a perfectly good 5k we can run for free every Saturday?  That was a question a few parkrun regulars were asking as we gathered in Festival Place for the start of this unusual race.  The reason we were prepared to pay was, I reckon the fact that it was a) local, b) reasonably priced and c) a bit of a laugh!

With a maximum of 200 runners, it was only two thirds of the size of Basingstoke parkrun and a larger, wider starting area meant that the start felt much less busy.  We started level with the edge of Pizza Express and ran straight through the double doors into Festival Place shopping centre!  We hared past Debenhams, Fat Race and Waterstones before making a u-turn outside M&S (and passing some lions) to come back past Next, H&M and BHS before leaving Festival Place via the bus station exit.  After that I was, quite frankly, lost.  I just followed the person ahead of me on what seemed to be a predominantly uphill slog.  We went under some roads, and I just followed the excellent directions of the marshals.  It was lovely to see marshals that I knew - and all the marshals were cheerful and encouraging.

It was surprisingly hot out there - for a race that started at 9am!  I was glad of the shade as we came into Eastrop Park (which I know having run 5 laps of it dressed as Santa Claus!  This race only called for one loop of the park and then back under another road and across the finish line near Nandos.  As I did a u-turn under the ring road the marshal there informed me I was 6th lady!  I knew 4 of the 5 ladies ahead of me, I knew exactly where the 5th lady was and knew I had no chance of catching her, but I had no idea where the 7th lady was, and I was not going to let her catch up with me!  I knew by now that I wasn't on for a PB, but I wanted to try to run it in under 24 minutes - I managed this with 4 seconds to spare!  And the 7th lady did not catch up with me!  In fact I was 45th overall.

The goodie bag is excellent!  It includes a voucher for half a chicken at Nandos - which probably means that I have pretty much got my entry fee back in free chicken.  A nice medal, with a lovely purple ribbon (I am easily pleased!), plenty of water and bananas at the finish all made for a rather nice morning out!

Definitely a race I will do again next year.

An unexpected treat!

It is the first morning of the half term holiday, so what happens at MrsBridgewater's house?  Do we all get a well earned lie in followed by a leisurely breakfast?  Of course not!  The alarm was set for 6.45am, which is to be fair 55 minutes later than a week day, and we had a quick breakfast, opened a few birthday presents (my baby girl is 7 today) and then I set off for Brokenhurt's inaugural parkrun.  Just one accompanying child this week, which seems to have become the norm.  He has decided to run with me a couple of times during the week too, and I had great hopes that this would improve his parkrun performance.  We also picked up a passenger on the way, and prepared ourselves mentally for heavy Bank Holiday traffic.

We were pleasantly surprised, the traffic was light and we got there with time to spare.  We weren't the only 'parkrun tourists' making a journey today, there was a knock on my car window before I'd even taken the key out of the ignition and and old friend was standing there.  As I looked around I saw lots of familiar faces from last week at Queen Elizabeth parkrun and overheard the comment that this was becoming a bit of a moveable feast... same faces different venue!  I like this aspect of inaugurals.  I think it must give first time parkrunners a real sense of the type community that their new parkrun will develop into.

Brockenhurst parkrun is held on the sports fields of Brockenhurst College.  The course details told me that it was a 4 lap course and fairly flat.  All of the course is on grass.  I think I may have mentioned once or twice that I don't like grass.  And I really don't like laps.  I am still wondering what on Earth possessed me to enter a 17 lap marathon next weekend....  After the run briefing we set off towards that back of the pack, we could see the field spread out as the speedy runners pulled ahead.  The weather was sunny but the wind was chilly, so it was a case of baking in the sunny bits and feeling rather cold in the shade!

My young companion had been running splendidly during the week, we'd been for two runs together of 2 miles and 2.5 miles, and he'd averaged 10 minute/mile pace.  I had great hopes that he'd pull a new parkrun PB out of the bag this week.  From the outset he was grumpy.  And slow!  I was disappointed. I love running with him, but I miss having a good, speedy parkrun blast on a Saturday morning.  He got increasingly more miserable (and slower) as we carried on.  He started complaining about achey feet, elbows, shoulders, eyeballs, earlobes etc!  I said he could stop, but he didn't want to stop.  I said that if he smiled he'd feel better, he accused me of lying!  I carried on encouraging him, running backwards to cheer him on.

One of the advantages of running at the back is that you often get lapped by the lithe young men, and get a lovely view of their legs as they race past you.  On today's four lap run we got lapped twice - an unexpected pleasure!  My son was more impressed by watching the passing trains, but each to their own!  One of the disadvantages of running on grass is that you often can't hear the faster runners approaching, so we had to work hard to stay out of their way!

On our final lap we were joined by parkrun show presenter Danny Norman who was running his warm down lap.  He and I chatted about all things parkrun and grumpy socks fell further behind.  Luckily my friend came back and ran with him, which meant I could at least put on a bit of a sprint for the last 100m!  I think the grumpiness may be due to not eating a proper breakfast, he is his father's son after all!  If Husbando is grumpy it is because he hasn't eaten, so maybe I need to make sure we all get a 'proper breakfast' before we leave rather than allowing him to just grab a snack.  He certainly perked up after a post run bacon bap!

A good proportion of the 113 runners and the volunteers descended on Brockenhurt College's internet cafe.  It was an inauspicious looking venue housed in a portacabin, but the coffee was surprisingly good.  Good enough to drink two cups anyway!  It has the advantage of being right next to the finish line, and the lady who runs it is apparently open to the idea of getting 'runner friendly' snacks in... that'll be cake then!

The Brockenhurst venue has free parking, right next to the route, and lovely clean toilets!  Nice toilets are always a bonus, especially if you are travelling a long way to get to parkrun.   This is a lovely little addition to the parkrun family, I really hope it goes from strength to strength.

Exceptionally good coffee!

Another Saturday, another parkrun!  Today marked the inaugural running of Queen Elizabeth parkrun just south of Petersfield.  This is about 4 miles further away from home than my regular Basingstoke parkrun, but the A3 is a slightly faster road than the A339 so it took no longer to get there.  I set of with my youngest boy, picked up a friend on the way and we all arrived in good time for the start.

I love an inaugural parkrun as you can guarantee that you'll meet up with people you like and don't get to see often enough as they now run at different parkruns, or you've only met them once or twice 'in real life' but have spent so much time chatting on line that you feel like you have known each other for donkeys' years.  You also get to speak to lots of people who have never been to parkrun before, but more of that later!

It was quite a walk from the car park to the start.  My friend commented that we were lucky it wasn't raining, as we'd have been soaked by the time we got to the start.  We walked up hill to the start.  The first of lots of up hill bits!  Milling around at the start we chatted with people we knew, discussed how hilly this run would be and plotted future parkrun outings.  Kiernan Easton, the event director,  gave an excellent briefing.  He said he was nervous, but it really didn't show.  He thanked all those involved in the set up and all today's volunteers before describing the course.  Apparently it is a net downhill course!

I started near the back, with my boy, and we stayed near the back!  The sharp uphill start spread the field out pretty quickly, but was followed by a lovely long downhill stretch.  As I was running at 9 year old boy pace (and he isn't fast, his PB is 33minutes) I had lots of breath to talk, so talk I did!  Alongside encouraging my 9 year old (shorten you stride, dig in with your toes on the hill, shoulders back, head up, etc. etc.) I chatted with, or maybe at, other runners.  Lots of them were first time parkrunners who were impressed and bemused by the concept in almost equal measure!  The course is beautiful, lots of lovely views and very well marshalled and signposted.  Much of it is on forestry commission hard packed gravel paths with some sections over grass.  Not my favourite running surface, but as I was taking it easy I didn't mind too much.  There is one short lap followed by one longer lap, which meant that it didn't really feel as though one was running laps!  Going up the steep hill for the second time the boy was flagging, as was a Havant parkrunner who was being supported by her friend.  Her friend grabbed one of her hands, my boy grabbed the other and they pulled her up the hill!  Suddenly he could run again, having had a bit of a whinge prior to that point!

Is it hilly?  Well, yes it is!  Look at the elevation profile!  But it is also very pretty.  My son finished it 6 minutes slower than his PB, but that includes a pretty spectacular tumble as he ran down hill.  The sort of tumble that would have put me in hospital, but he just got up, cried a bit, walked a bit and then carried on running!  He may not be fast, he may not always enjoy running, but he is very determined.  If he is struggling and looking miserable I ask him if he wants to stop, he invariably says no, he wants to finish, so on we plod!  I think he likes the big cheer he gets at the finish.

Coffee and a chat is an important part of parkrun for me!  Today we got to sit outside and drink some really lovely coffee.  'Exceptionally good,' as my friend commented.  So good we had to have another cup.  The bacon sandwiches looked pretty good too.  In best parkrun tradition, the event director had organised cakes.  They looked stunning and, I am told, tasted as good as they looked.  I want to know where to get the special cup cake carrying boxes from!

I look forward to coming back to this parkrun in the future and running it without a child.  A bit more hill training might be in order first.  None of the hills are as challenging as my local steep hill, but I run up that one by myself - no one can see if I am running so slowly that it would be faster to walk.  Still, the only way to get good at running hills is to get out there and run up them!