Doing the double.

My New Year's resolution is not to run while hungover or drunk in 2017.  There is a subsidiary resolution, that might not be practical, and that is that I will not enter races while under the influence of alcohol.  Not sure how long these resolutions will last, but so far at 7.10pm on 1st January everything is going well!  I've do two parkruns without even a wiff of a hangover.  

I did have tired legs.... legs that were so tired (after yesterday's Gutbuster 10miles) that I was really quite happy with our decision to stay in, plans for an early night were scuppered by teenage children phoning to say 'Happy New Year' and 'Can you send me some cash?' at midnight!   

Husbando and I had been plotting which two parkruns we'd run.  At first we thought Basingstoke and Alice Holt, but Basingstoke quite often start a little after 9am, which meant that we could be cutting it fine to get to Alice Holt, so we decided to go to Rushmoor instead.  As we drove over I complained that we wouldn't know anyone, only to park our car, walk to the start and bump into a parkrun friend from Abingdon who I hadn't seen for ages.  He was there with a group from Abingdon and Didcot who were planning to go on to Frimley Lodge, but we persuaded them to come with us instead!  

So, to the running part of parkrun.... my legs felt heavy, and I couldn't be bothered to warm up as I had no great expectations, Husbando and I were aiming to 'just get round.'  Turned out that my tired legs wanted to move a bit faster than I'd anticipated.  Husbando and I jogged around chatting away until I realised that I was on for a PB - which happened as we got to the finish straight - I was thrilled to go home with a 45second PB!  

Then it was into the car and off to Alice Holt.  Whereas Rushmoor is flat and fast, Alice Holt most definitely is not!  We arrived in plenty of time, which was lovely as it meant we got to see loads of people I hadn't expected to see.  There was a huge contingent from Basingstoke and more from Guildford, including my ex head of department - who I hadn't seen for ages.   Alice Holt is a lovely run, but it is not one that you can do quickly on tired legs, so I was happy to plod around.

parkrun is really all about the people, the volunteers, the other runners - the whole community aspect is why parkrun is so successful, so it was wonderful to sit in the cafe drinking coffee, eating bacon rolls and chatting with friends.  I'm looking forward to many more in 2017!  

I hope you all have a fantastic 2017 and that I'll see some of you in parkrun land soon.  In the meantime, if anyone fees like sponsoring me for the London Marathon, which I am running for a local charity, Treloars, please click on THIS LINK! 

Wot? No parkrun?

It is a very rare Saturday that doesn't involve a parkrun for me whether as a runner or volunteer.  Until this weekend I think I have missed two so far this year.  One was to take my middle son to a school entrance exam and the other was because I was running a marathon that started at 9am.  This week I couldn't parkrun, or volunteer at parkrun, because I had to travel up to Glasgow and timings of flights meant that I wouldn't get my weekly fix.

Why this madcap day trip to Glasgow on one of the hottest days of the year?  Well, I was attending an interview to be a volunteer at the Commonwealth Games next year.  The journey up there was uneventful, although it entailed a stupidly early start for a weekend and I arrived in Glasgow with plenty of time to have a walk around the city before my interview at 1 o'clock.  I'd never been to Glasgow before and it felt as though I had stepped back in time.  A bit like Portmouth of 20 years ago.  The fact that some areas of the city are having a huge facelift in preparation for the upcoming Games seems to highlight the dichotomy.

My interview was at the shiny new volunteer centre, and the process was very slick and well organised.    We arrived in batches of 10 and were checked in, had our ID checked and then had a brief presentation about the role we were being selected for.  Now I don't know about you, but when I first thought about volunteering I thought I'd get given a big foam hand and a megaphone and be pointed in the direction of streams of members of the public and tasked with getting them in and out of venues in a relatively orderly fashion.  The role I was interviewed for was a bit more complicated than that.  'Sports Services' involves several different areas, but could include checking accreditation, liaising with athletes and teams about training venues/times, checking entries for events and much more.  I have no idea if I will get selected.  Over 50,000 people applied to be volunteered and 25,000 will be interviewed.  This will take some time and they are not planning to let people know until 'November at the earliest.'

In other news, Husbando took our 9 year old to our nearest parkrun, Alice Holt, which is somewhat hilly, and knocked 3 whole minutes off his PB.  It was a rare treat for Husbando to parkrun as he is normally stuck in his shop.  This is only his third parkrun, and his first away from Basingstoke, but I think he finally 'gets' why I love parkrun so much.  Thank you to the Alice Holt people for making him feel welcome.  We'll try and get back again soon.