There's no place like home.

The doctor, bless him, has said that to aid my recovery, I should have a gentle walk outside every day.  Yay!  So starts the long, slow road back to fitness.  I was reminded earlier in the week that today would be my 300th parkrun.  This is most definitely not an official parkrun milestone, but it seems that any opportunity for cake is worth noting, so I baked a cake and decided to head to my home parkrun.

I don't get to run there as often as I used to because there is now a closer to my house parkrun which makes life easier for the rest of the family.  But Basingstoke is where I started my parkrun journey and as such will always hold a special place in my heart.

It was bitterly cold this morning so I decided to leave the small people at home.  Selfishly I wanted to be able to go for a run without having to listen to people complain about how cold they were, could they stop after one lap? How about after two laps? And then demand attention and food while I was trying to catch up on the gossip at coffee.  I don't think they were too upset, but they missed a beautifully clear morning with stunning blue skies!

I was trying to keep a relatively low profile (not sure that the doctor would be too happy if he heard I was running rather than walking) but that was scuppered by being outed at the run briefing and the ever exuberant MrW pointing me out using a giant purple foam finger!  I chatted with friends on the way to the start, looking forward to getting going so that my toes might start to defrost.  Unfortunately one poor lady tripped soon after the start and hurt her ankle, it could have been a much worse situation but several parkrunners stopped to see if she was OK and to warn approaching runners to slow down and move around her.  I hope she is now recovering well.


We ran the winter course - three anticlockwise laps, all on the paths.  My Garmin announced my performance condition was -5!  Not a good omen, but to be honest it didn't feel too much like hard work - I suppose I am used to using only part of my normal lung capacity.  As I ran down Tennis Court Hill  I saw the sign above.  I cannot tell you how wonderful that made me feel!  I had a huge smile on my face as I ran past it - the same thing happened as I ran past a similar sign in the woods.  Thanks must go to SirM of the park for such a thoughtful gesture.  It was also lovely to see so many of my B'stoke parkrun friends.  Somewhere on the last lap I caught up with MrW, who is fast approaching his 500th parkrun.  It has been a while since I have overtaken him as I've usually been running with the small people so I very ungallantly went for it.  I then had to keep my pace up as I suspected that he would want to try to regain the lead.   I couldn't afford to look back and see what he was up to, so I just kept going and hoped for the best!  I crossed the line in 26mins 30 seconds, my best time of 2018 - although that isn't hard given the state of my lungs.

Thank you to all the volunteers who made today's run possible - standing around in the cold must have been miserable today!  Here's to the next 200 parkruns!

Do you think these signatures match?

The signature on the right is taken from a photo of my oldest son's signature from his provisional driving licence.  I am that annoying sort of mother who takes photos of passports and driving licences because she secretly believes that all the children, and quite possibly her husband too - are idiots who would lose their heads if they weren't firmly attached.

Anyway, that licence went missing back in August 2017, Josh reported it missing to the police, along with the rest of his wallet, but as it was reported lost it was not a crime so therefore no crime number.  It has been a real nuisance him not having a licence, but the inertia of a student is hard to battle at a distance of several hundred miles.

A few weeks ago a letter arrived, addressed to Josh, forwarded on from our old address.  The one that appears on the provisional licence.  It claimed that Josh had not paid a fair on a Metrolink tram and had not paid the penalty fair within the time given and that therefore he now had to pay £150 or face appearing at a magistrates court where he would be convicted of a criminal offence.

I phoned my poor son up and gave him a bollocking.  He protested that he never used the Metrolink, I asked him if he was sure, he assured me that he was.  I said I'd phone up and find out what was going on.

This is when I learned that the inspector on the tram had been given a driving licence as ID.  Apparently it was inconceivable that the inspector would accept a licence that did not match with the individual in front of them, therefore Josh must have been on that tram.  I pointed out that the licence had gone missing some months ago, and was asked to send a photocopy of his passport to support my assertion that they had given the ticket to the wrong person.  In return I asked for a copy of the 'penalty fare notice' and a description of the individual they had given the ticket to.  I asked if they had CCTV and I was told that they had CCTV for 'health and safety purposes only' (although they also told Husbando there was no CCTV).  I was told that they could not give me a description of the individual incase any of us recognised the individual and decided to 'take matters into our own hands!'

The copy of the penalty fare notice took some time to materialise.  We were about to pay up on the grounds that we could not prove that Josh was in a pub drinking his way through his student loan when it arrived.  I couldn't believe it.   (I've copied it here with surname and address blurred out).

Josh is dyslexic.  He has always signed his name 'Josh' - nothing more, nothing less.  And yet here was a penalty fare notice with him signing 'Josh Charles'  (Charles is one of his middle names, the only one that fits on his driving licence) in a remarkably fluid hand that bears no resemblance to the signature on his driving licence - which apparently was the document used to identify him, or his passport - which I had copied to send to him.

We phoned up on his behalf and pointed this out.  We were asked to supply more examples of Josh's signature - which we did.  Then we waited.  Confident that anyone could see that the two signatures did not match and that everything would be resolved.

Today we had a letter stating that 'we have reviewed the reasons why you were unable to provide a valid ticket/pass and based on the information you have provided, I can find no reason to reconsider out employee's decision to charge you with the standard fare charge.'    It also states that 'Our appeal procedures only allow for one stage of appeal, therefore we now consider this matter to be closed and would ask that you now settle the amount due on your standard fare charge.'

Hello?  Is it only me who cannot see that the two signatures do not match?  It is at times like this that I wish I had a good friend who was a solicitor who could write a suitably worded letter.  As it is we are at a little bit of a loss as to what to do next.  They maintain that the signatures match, I think that the 'signature' on the penalty fare notice shows far more similarities with the handwriting that completed the rest of the form than it does with Josh's passport and driving licence signature.  If this blog could get to someone with decent eyesight at Metrolink Manchester that would be a bonus!

Enlarged for clarity

Did you miss me?

Did you miss me?  Or were you just glad to have a break from the mad woman blithering on about running? 

The day after the Bovington Half Marathon, which was the first day of my Christmas holiday I could not get out of bed.  It wasn't that I didn't want to get out of bed, I physically couldn't get out of bed.  I put this down to the end of a very long term and thought a day in bed would sort it out.  It didn't.  Eight weeks later I am starting to feel better.  Viral pneumonia made me feel worse than I have ever felt in my life.  Until you have woken up, several times every night, with the sensation that you are drowning you really haven't lived! 

This has obviously had an adverse effect on my running because I didn't do any training at all - but now I am back, taking it easy and hoping to regain some lost fitness.  I've missed running A LOT! 

This week has seen me start running properly again.  I am stunned by how much fitness I have lost, there is only one way to rectify this and that is to get out running again. 

For the last couple of days Husbando and I were in Cambridge for the Cambridge Book Fair, and to watch the very excellent play 'Art' - I never imagined that watching three men eating olives in silence could be so funny. I suppose it helps when those three men are Nigel Havers, Dennis Lawson and Stephen Tompkinson! 

We had some debate about where we would parkrun.  Husbando has only relatively recently become a parkrun devotee - in the past when we have been in Cambridge (or other places) for book fairs he has gone to the fair and I have gone to parkrun.  This means that it is five years since I ran Cambridge parkrun as I have taken the opportunity to visit various parkruns near Cambridge.  Eventually we settled on Cambridge. 

It was really easy to get to Milton Park from our hotel and the parkrun weather fairies were bring very kind to us - beautifully clear skies if ever so slightly chilly!  The run director informed us during the brief, that we listened to quietly, that all the ice on the puddles had been broken, but that the course was quite muddy in places. 

I set off with the 30 minute runners.  Muttering about how grim it was to be chasing down a time from 5 years ago when I could barely breath properly when walking upstairs.  We barely go faster than a walking pace for the first 100 or so metres, but the ground underfoot for the first short lap seemed ok - a few puddles and lots of tight, congested turns, but one could easily avoid the puddles.  The two long laps were a different matter - twisty and turny and with plenty of mud!  I was plodding along quite happily, not worrying about time, but aware that I was steadily passing people. 

I nearly came a cropper a couple of times when trying to pass people.  The people I was trying to pass were wearing headphones and seemed totally unaware of other runners around them.  On a couple of occasions I'd run into a space that suddenly vanished as the runner (who couldn't hear me plodding up behind them) changed direction.  I don't understand why people feel the need to listen to music while a parkrun (or other races - although lots of races have banned them now).  Part of the pleasure of running with a group of people is chatting to them, or just overhearing random snatches of conversations between other runners. 

Towards the end of the second lap we found a sign that surely must have been placed in true White Star Running fashion - it seemed much more than 400m to the end.  Shortly before this sign a man caught me up and said that I had slowed down.  I puffed that I had nothing left, but did manage to pull away from him again.... only to hear him say 'You can't let me beat you!' as we got to 100m from the finish.  I was done... or so I thought until I heard what sounded like a woman closing in on me.  I pushed on a bit faster, overtaking the man who had so kindly encouraged me, only to realise as I crossed the line that it was a child I had so meanly accelerated away from!  Oops!

I finished in 27 mins 8 seconds.  Just under 2 minutes slower than my last run on the same course.  It was much muddier this time, and I am still recovering from being ill, so it was all in all an encouraging result.  Husbando was considerably faster and was waiting for me at the finish ready to buy me a cup of tea.  We got our barcodes scanned, placed our finishing tokens in the correct buckets and retired to the 'Grounds Cafe' for tea and one of us had a cheese and tomato toastie! 

Thank you to all the volunteers who made Cambridge parkrun happen this morning, and thank you to all the runners who chatted to us and made us feel so welcome. 

So that was parkrun 299 for me.  Next weekend will be 300 and, although it isn't an official milestone, I have been told by someone who should know, that cake is acceptable.  I am planning to return to my parkrun home, Basingstoke, to catch up with my parkrun family there.  I just have to factor some cake baking time into an already busy week!

The longest f*cking half marathon in the World.

I've done some silly things in my time, you've met Husbando so you know this to be true!  To be fair today's outing didn't seem like a bad idea when I started planning it.  We need to go back about a year to set this in context.  I won a raffle!  I never, ever, win raffles, so really alarm bells should have started ringing back then, but win a raffle I did.  Andy from White Star Running drew my name out of a hat (or rather his dog, Bryce, snuffled around looking for a piece of cheese in a bucket and my name was the first one to fall to the floor).  My prize was 4 race entries and various other bits and pieces that I don't recall (and haven't yet bothered to collect!)   Now this put me in something of a quandary as I had already entered most of the White Star Races I wanted to do in 2017, so I put my thinking cap on...

I knew that Bovington had not yet opened for entries and I'd thoroughly enjoyed last year's Bovington Marathon so decided that I would use all 4 tickets for the same race, and give the other three places to friends as Christmas presents.  When the race was announced the full marathon was on the Saturday and the half on the Sunday, so that meant an easy choice - Husbando was not going to take a day off work so close to Christmas, we'd all do the half.  Sorted.

In February another friend of mine, TG, started running and idly said that he needed a goal.  I said he should come and run the Bovington half with us - I'd get it for him as a Christmas present.  He seemed enthusiastic but today admitted that it was easier to commit to running a half marathon than to say no to me!   And to complete our merry little gang I decided to buy a place for SW, you'll remember him from blog posts about Tanzania, we no longer work at the same school so I don't see him as often as I'd like.


So, hardly a bad plan.  In fact, I thought, quite a nice plan.  What better way to celebrate the first weekend of the Christmas holiday?  Except that, being the first weekend of the holiday, the lurgy that had been festering away and that I had been holding at bay by sheer force of will and because I was too busy to be ill, decided to take advantage of me relaxing to develop into something more akin to actually being ill.  Having gone to bed at 8pm every night for a week and deciding that I was too ill to run parkrun yesterday I managed to convince myself that I would be fine to run a half marathon, in the mud and rain, on the Sunday.  After all, I've run marathons with the beginnings of whooping cough, a half marathon would be no problem.

The benefit of running the half was that we had a more leisurely start to the day.  We didn't have to leave until 7.30am, five of us travelling down in one car, meeting SW, his lovely fiance and Darwin the dog there.  We arrived, picked up our race numbers, had last minute wees, faffed with hats and gloves and made our way to the start.   After a brief race briefing we were off, I'd managed to get myself separated from everyone else at the start but was sure that I'd find them again soon.  I didn't.  MW, who had started slightly later than me did overtake me within the first few miles - when I was already struggling, we ran together for a while which was nice.  It was muddy and hilly but not too bad, I just couldn't breath properly, and had to stop to cough often.

At 7 miles in I texted my friends 'This was a mistake.  I feel awful.   Wait for me at the end. 7 miles in and I am dying.'  I thought that everyone was ahead of me.  I was already walking more than I was running, but at least I was half way through (WSR events often run a little long, so I'd budgeted for just over 14 miles for this race).  I plodded on, and on.  Just before 11 miles we came to a steep downhill section 'Oh lovely! The ski section!' said a cheerful voice behind me.  Soon after this I heard my name being called, I looked behind me and saw SW!  He'd been running with Husbando, TG and CW and had been behind me not in front of me - when he saw my message he decided to run on and catch me up.

It was great to 'run' with him and catch up on his news, but I could only run for very short sections by now.  We went on, and on, and on!  13.1 miles came and went.  We ran through rivers - as I picked my way carefully through one of them SW decided to act like the child he is and splashed right next to me - soaking me from waist to toe.  I called him a very rude name - the people around us seemed to think it was hilarious.  I, meanwhile, had soaking wet leggings and an uncomfortably moist gusset - SW stated that he often has that effect on the ladies!

At 14.5 miles we decided to 'dig deep' and run to the end.  Just after 15 miles we gave up on that idea.  When would this race ever end?  No time soon it seemed!  Just after 16 miles we crossed the road outside the tank museum - the end was nigh, now was the time to see what we had left and we did manage to run to the finish.  In my mind we looked like Mo Farah and Jo Pavey, but in reality we probably looked more like Richard Briars and Honor Blackman in 'Cockneys Vs Zombies.'  As we approached the finish line SW's fiance and Darwin were there to cheer us in - Darwin was very vocal - and then it was all over.  Thank god!  16.62 miles by my Garmin, 17 by some of the Strava feeds I saw.

MW had finished long before and was near the finish with warm jumpers.  I grabbed a cup of tea and made my way back to the car to wait for the others, SW et al had to go on to get to a football match.  We saw the other three as they approached the finish - but I could not shout - my voice wasn't working at all!  TG did amazingly well.  It was a very long course and, while it did rain towards the end, it wasn't as cold as yesterday - had it been he could well have been in trouble.  I apologised to him, to all of them really, for forcing them to take part in such madness.

Distance aside, I believe some last minute re-routing was required, this was another great WSR event.  And had I been hale and healthy it would have been a very enjoyable day out.  I am now off to bed for about a month to see if I can get over this silly cold.

Festive Frolic

 Today was a reminder that a) the end of November can be really rather chilly, b) running a marathon without training for it is possible, c) running a marathon without training for it is hard work!

We woke up to a beautiful late autumn morning, clear skies and frost.  I de-iced the car, threw a couple of extra layers of clothing and some gloves into my race bag and set out to Staunton Country Park.  It felt odd to be setting off by myself, but I didn't know of anyone else local to me who was taking part in this event.  The day started well with me getting my favourite race number which I pinned onto my t-shirt underneath a couple of long sleeved layers.  I was sure it would warm up as soon as we got running.

After a brief 'Elf & Safety' announcement we were under starters orders and raring to go at 9.30am.   I'd remembered this course as being flat, which just goes to show that my memory is useless.  We set off down a definite hill, on the sort of track that seems so popular in country parks, you know the sort with stones and bricks sticking out at odd, ankle twisting angles.  Strangely these paths seem lovely when your legs and feet are just setting out, so long as you avoid the ankle twisting (I didn't), but get really painful to run on after 15 miles!

The start was busy.  We were all in high spirits and the muddy bit about a third of a mile in was frozen solid at this stage.  We soon spread out.  I had no real plan for what I wanted to achieve today, I hadn't run more than 15 miles since Endure 24 back in June.  I thought that I would run a half marathon and then see how I felt.  That is three 4.6mile long laps at this event and I have to admit that I was pretty bored of the course by that point!  I'd completed them in just over 2 hours, so had loads of time left (it is a 6hr challenge).  I faffed around at the well stocked aid station and remembered that I had headphones in my race bag.  That meant that I could listen to my audio book while I carried on. I'll be honest, as the day went on and people dropped out there were fewer and fewer people to chat with, the people I knew well enough to run with were either too fast for me or not there today so I was on my own for a lot of time.

I walked a lot.  I ran the obviously downhill bits and then just enough to stop me from getting too cold.  It never got warm enough to take off my extra layer although the repeated footfall through the muddy sections meant that they did thaw out and get nice and sticky!  My feet and legs were complaining about this unexpected amount of work, they particularly hated the uphill section at the end of each lap and were more than happy to stop for Haribos and coke at the aid station before I coaxed them into another lap.  My last lap was painfully slow, but running slowly means that you see amazing fungi that you missed on the first 5 laps, and because you are going so slowly anyway it doesn't matter if you faff around for 5 minutes trying to extract your phone from your pocket to grab a photo of the fungi.

At the end of my 6th lap, with 27.8 miles behind me, I had a brief, irrational thought that I had plenty of time to run another lap.  Luckily it was fleeting and I rang the bell to announce that I was done before attempting to eat all the remaining food at the aid station and collect my medal and ginger bread man!

I am hoping that by taking it slow for the second half I won't suffer too much tomorrow.  I'm doing a mental checklist of all the classes I have to teach and wondering how much I will be able to do while sitting down, the tutor team meeting at the bottom of the hill is going to be a tough one - I may have to get a head start to get to that one on time!

 Great organisation, as ever, from On The Whistle!  Low key and friendly with gorgeous bling at the end.  Thanks guys!

Dark Valley Half

I signed up for this race way back in the summer.  It sold out within a couple of hours in an internet frenzy in the running world that was reminiscent of the hype that surrounds ticket sales for a Stone Roses concert.  There was a 10k option but. when I signed up, a half marathon wasn't really what I considered to be a long run - so the half it was.  I didn't do anything as sensible as checking the start time, but for some reason had it in my head that we would be running late at night.  I blame British Summer Time!  It is hard to imagine that it can be dark by 5pm while sitting in the garden in full daylight at 9.30pm!

The race was organised by Andy and his excellent team at White Star Running.  There's nothing not to like about a WSR event, this view is shared by so many people that turning up feels a bit like turning up at a party where everyone knows your name.  The party atmosphere was much in evidence as we gathered at the start - fabulous fancy dress, tonnes of tutus, plenty of poppies and lots of fairy lights!  The start was at the visitor centre in Moors Valley Country Park and after a quick race briefing and a chef that we all had our head torches on we were off.  

It was very crowded at the start, but that was fine.  I got to listen to lots of conversations around me, which is often very amusing.  It also meant that I didn't set off too fast and took care with where I was putting my feet on the forest path.  One conversation, probably about 3 miles in, went as follows (-ish - my memory isn't great)

Runner 1:  I'll run with you - I don't want to run too fast

Runner 2: I'm actually enjoying running by myself, I wouldn't want to slow you down

Runner 1: Oh, that's fine, I need a slow run 

Runner 2: Er, I just find that when we run together you tend to run just a wee bit faster than I want to run, so I push myself to keep up

Runner 1: But it is good to push yourself a bit, anyway, I'm out for a slow one

How long this went on for I don't know, as I was running a wee bit faster than they were so was out of earshot, but Runner 2 was trying, so politely, to tell the other runner that they weren't interested in running together and Runner 1 wasn't having any of it!  

Just as I left The Lovestation (a most wonderful aid station with cake, beer and hugs) I heard my name being called - I turned round and saw a sea of head torches and had to ask who was there!  A group of 3 friends from Trotters Independent Trail Runners.  'We knew it was you,' said one of them, 'because of your running style and the funky leggings!'  (Tikkibo - you can see them here!) They are all really good runners, I ran with them for a bit, but felt that I was holding them back, so slowed down and let them go on, only to catch them up about half a mile later.  We ran as a loose group until I needed a wee stop (the queues at that start had been too long!)  I turned off my head torch and headed off the path.  I forgot that I had glow stick bracelets - and as I pulled up my leggings I looked up to see a group of runners waving at me!  

I ran with them for a bit, while we discussed places we had peed, before running on.  I caught up the Trotters guys again, we fell into conversation (predictably about bodily functions but also about Remembrance Day, the iPhone X and missed career opportunities), ran through and round puddles.  Some of the puddles were huge, and quite deep, there was plenty of mud and I heard of people who took tumbles.  At one point I was avoiding a puddle, while my running companion adopted a 'straight through the middle' approach.  I think I was wetter than he was as he splashed the entire contents of the puddle over me!  By this time, we'd split into two pairs rather than running as a four.  I could hear the other two chatting away behind us and was sure that we'd be back together again soon - especially as I was not even going to attempt running up the very steep, very off road (i.e. not even a proper path) hill!

We were so lucky with the weather.  The awful rain that had greeted us on Saturday morning had stopped during the afternoon, the ground was pleasingly soft and squishy underfoot. and when it did start to drizzle it felt refreshing and looked pretty in the beams of our head torches.

Coming to the end of the second lap we were delighted to peel off the course and onto the finish approach.  Due to a dip in the ground we could hear, but couldn't see, the finish until we were right on top of it.  Looking at watches for distance didn't help - the vagaries of GPS meant that we had 2 quite different distances recorded.  We crossed the line, were given our gorgeous medals and collected a packet of yummy biscuits (which I have hidden from the children) and a buff.  We reunited with friends, put on some extra layers - it gets cold really quickly at night - and then went off to eat chilli!  The cafe at the visitor centre had stayed open specially for us and we had pre-ordered our food.  We were delighted to find we could also buy a beer (Cocky Piddle is very nice).  The chilli was good, the company was great and it was lovely to get warm again.  

As we made our way back to the car there were still runners crossing the finish line - in an ideal world I'd have liked to stay around and cheer them all over the line, but it was getting colder now, and getting cold in damp clothing is not a good idea.  

All in all a great event.  Not a fast one, trail running in the dark was never going to be fast, but very enjoyable with great company, awesome bling, tasty food and beer!  

Playing away again!

Having said in my last post that I don't get to indulge in much parkrun tourism, here comes another blog post about me going to a different parkrun!

This weekend Husbando had to be in London overnight for a book fair in Chelsea.  No. 1 son was popping down from university in Manchester to help him, so I hopped on the train after school on Friday and spent a very pleasant evening with the two of them.

On Saturday morning I had a huge number of parkruns I could choose from.  I used the excellent Tourist Tool to narrow down the choices to Burgess parkrun and Southwark parkrun - both were within 3 miles of where we were staying, but the route to Burgess Park looked simpler, and with my capacity to get lost while running that can only be a good thing.  Just as well - Southwark parkrun was cancelled today due to setting up for a fireworks display later in the day.

I've never run to a parkrun before.  I've had a mad panic sprint from a tube station to the start line, but  I have never set out to run to a parkrun and back again before.  Three miles there, pretty much in a straight line - simples!  Shame about the rain.  It wasn't really part of my plan to arrive at the start line soaking wet - but never mind - skin is waterproof.

The start was easy to find.  Wearing my 250 shirt guarantees that someone will say hello to you at a parkrun (in my experience anyway).  Most of the time they want to know where the start is/where they can leave the bags/where the loos are - none of which I can help them with as I've not been there either!

Just before 9am the 'new runners' briefing was announced and I dutifully went along.  I was pleased to hear that this was a one lap course - I like a one lapper!  The new runner briefing was held at the back of the starting pack.  A word of advice to  any tourists wanting to run a fast time would be 'skip the briefing!'  Unless you are planning to be the very fastest person there you know the drill and can follow the person in front.  In fact even if you are planning to be the first finisher the marshals will point you in the right direction!  I did go the briefing, and so had to start at the back of 350+ runners!  I wasn't too worried - I'd already run 3 miles and was just wanting to have a pleasant run in the park.

Unbeknownst to me, the runners were assemble on paths either side of a flower bed and there was a fine array of park furniture and bins to negotiate - I felt as though I was in a game of Super Mario Bros as I tried to go over or round the benches!  Once clear of this - it was plain sailing.  Relatively flat, on paths around a really interesting park.  There was a lovely fishing lake, complete with fishermen, a bridge to nowhere and intriguing glimpses of various buildings.  If the weather had been nicer I'd have hung around to explore a bit! I was surprised at how easy it felt to run today.  I ran the first mile faster than I expected to, and sped up a bit faster each mile.   I chatted with fellow runners as we ran, enjoyed the feeling over overtaking a fair few people as I ran to the finish funnel.  The funnel manager managed to congratulate every runner as they came through to collect their finish token!

After getting my token scanned, and chatting with some tourists from Fulham Palace parkrun, I started off back to the hotel.  It was raining properly now, there were a lot more pedestrians and puddles to negotiate and I managed to take a wrong turn somewhere along the way but got back eventually for a very welcome hot shower!  Soon after I got back to the hotel, while I was sitting with a cup of tea and a couple of slices of buttered toast, my results text came through.  I'd finished first in my age category - for the first time in a very long time!

I think I may have caught the tourism bug.  I may have lived in London for years, but Burgess Park is 'south of the river' and in an area that I have never been to before.  I wonder where my next 'new' parkrun will be....