Vanquishing demons

While most of the UK population was enjoying a Bank Holiday Monday lie in, I had persuaded Husbando to come up to London with me while I ran the Bupa 10,000m.  This meant that we got up at 'normal' time, but that we didn't have the hassle of getting the tribe organised for school, although number one son was travelling as far as Woking with us on the train before getting another train to Brighton for the day.  Porridge with banana and cinnamon was consumed, a final check of race number and timing chip was made and off we set.

London was beautiful this morning.  Despite bumping into a crowd of Chineham Park Runners on Waterloo Station, Husbando and I decided to walk 'our way' to Green Park, crossing an almost deserted Hungerford Bridge.  London was quieter at 8.30am on a Bank Holiday morning that it normally is when I go for a run at 6.30am on a Sunday!

I arrived at Green Park at about 9am.  The voice over the tannoy was exhorting everyone in the red starting areas to make their way to the start!  I still had to queue for a portaloo, untie and retie my shoe laces several times, dither about whether I'd need to keep a t-shirt on until the start, check my bag in at the bag drop etc. etc.  I was no where near ready to proceed to to the start a whole hour before the race was due to start.  I think I got my act together by about 9.20am when the blue wave were being encouraged to get a wiggle on and make their way to The Mall!

Standing in The Mall was a hugely different experience to last year.  Last year it was 27C as we baked in one of the very few hot and sunny days of last year.  This year it was sunny, but the minute the Sun hid behind a cloud there was a chill in the air.  My nerves were starting to build, I'd had a bad time at this race last  year and that, and being injured for a lot of last year had sapped my confidence.  I know that my time does not matter to anyone other than me, but boy does it matter to me!  I set myself a target of getting round in 54 minutes or under, that would be over 2 minutes faster than last year but would mean that I wouldn't have to push too hard on my poorly foot!

Mo Farah went past our start zone, to the accompaniment of a huge cheer.  I gave myself a bit of a talking to.  This bloke has won this event 4 years running, the pressure on him to make it 5 in a row must be incredible.  I was just out for a nice run in the Sun!

Soon we were off.  I started too fast, but thought, never mind, I'll soon slow down.  But I never really did slow down, passing each kilometre marker less than 5 minutes after the previous one.  It wasn't easy, in fact it was possibly the hardest run I have done in a long time, but I thought that I may as well push on.  The support on the course was fantastic, running through Leadenhall Market where a drum band plays loudly is a great treat.  I am not mad on the reverse route though as there seem to be a lot more upward slopes rather than one very short sharpish (not really steep at all) hill and lots of gentle downhill slopes.

The temperature through the City was pretty warm - very sheltered and the buildings reflecting all the heat, but there were plenty of pleasant breezes.  I almost got knocked sideways by the breeze as I passed Horse Guards!  The breeze through St James Park was rather brisk.  Suddenly there were only 400m left!  I picked up the pace, as I turned back onto The Mall and decided it was now or never - I didn't even think about smiling for the cameras, I just ran.   I crossed the line and stopped my watch, then before I could look at it I found I was hanging onto the barrier and trying not to be sick!  I couldn't see a friendly first aider with a sick bag anywhere and I was not going to throw up at this race two years running!

When I did look at my watch I found I had done it!  A new PB!  It had been very hard work, and probably not the best idea 5 days before a marathon, but it is done!

Milling about in Green Park and hearing eveyone's stories of the race was fantastic.  There really is a great atmosphere after this race as runners meet friends and family.  Many photos were taken, and I apologies if the ones I took on other people's cameras are useless but it was so sunny that I couldn't see the screen!

This really is a great race!  It isn't cheap, but if you are only going to do one 10k then this is it.  And if you aren't ever going to do the London Marathon then this race gives you some great sights to look out while you run!

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!

Alton 10, undulating, but a PB course!

I really didn't want to run a race today.  I wanted to plod along, in my own sweet time, probably giving myself lots of negative self talk about how useless and slow I was.  But I did need to run today, and it is the day of the Alton10.  If I 'just went out for a run' there would be hundreds of other runners on my route anyway.  It is a cheap race to enter, just £10 if you book in advance and have a UK athletics club registration, and ridiculously easy for me to get to.  I always get to races with loads of time to spare.  I hate being late, and worry about missed connections, bad traffic, getting lost etc.  This race, however, was less than a mile from my front door.  I could have a lie in, do some chores, check my emails, sort out snacks for the children to eat in my absence and still have loads of time to arrive and collect my race number couldn't I?  Well, yes, if I'd bothered to put a watch on and check the time!  We'd been advised to collect our race numbers by 9.45am, at 9.35am I was halfway through pegging out my washing on the line!

I quickly grabbed 'everything' I needed, realising too late that I had left my heart rate monitor band 'thingy' at home, along with my lip balm and a sweat band for my wrist.  I had remembered my sunglasses though.  As I jogged through the village the sun was shining down and it was really quite warm.  I was glad to dump my bag and sweatshirt, collect my number and meet up with various running friends.  I thought back to the first time I'd run this race, back in 2010, how intimidated I'd felt by all the club vests and the sinewy legs of serious runners.  I hadn't known a soul there.  My running life has changed dramatically, mainly due to parkrun, now I think I'd be hard pushed to turn up at a race without knowing someone there.  I don't name names on here - but it was great to see everyone.

I had no expectations for this run.  I set off too fast - running the first mile at a 5k pace, a bit silly, but at least I knew that the first hill would slow me down!  As we approached the first water station, while I was chatting with an ex policeman, a parkrun friend sped past me.  Our speed equalised a bit after that, thanks to me throwing caution to the wind on the down hill, and we ran together off and on until about 6 miles where she very graciously said she was going to let me go on.  She called out 'You're running really strongly - keep it up!' as I pulled ahead.  I can't tell you what a boost that was.  I kept that in mind as I slogged up a hill at 7 miles.  I think I chatted all the way around!  I certainly didn't feel as though I was going hell for leather, but I kept worrying that if I kept up the pace I was going at then I was going to blow up at some point.  I didn't.  I carried on overtaking people right up to the last few feet of the race.  My children came out to the end of my road to cheer me on just after the 9 mile marker - lovely to see them.  They took some properly awful photos of me too!

As I crossed the line I think the finishing clock said 1:24:57, the official results are yet to be posted, but even if it is more than that it is a PB (over a minute faster than Paris-Versailles, and two minutes faster than my last Alton10).  I punched the air as I crossed the line and shouted 'P-f*cking-B' and then clamped my hand over my mouth and apologised to the young Scouts who were handing out medals and cups of water (they did an excellent job both at the finish and at the water stations).  I was walking on air!  I bounced around looking for people to talk to.  If I'd been told I had to carry on for another 10 miles I am sure I was so high I could have done it!  As it was, after catching up with a few people, I ran home!

I've been on a bit of a post PB high ever since!  I could hardly wait for Husbando to come home so we could go out for another run.  4.5 miles over part of the same course, at a somewhat slower, but still respectable speed!  It was blooming hot out there this evening.  I have to say the local Scouts did an excellent job - not a sign of a plastic cup at the site of the water station we passed!

Winchester inaugural parkrun

A new parkrun in the area, or even not quite in the area, is always a good excuse to catch up with old friends and make new ones.  So when the long awaited Winchester parkrun announced that it was starting today I checked my diary (although what else I could possibly be doing on a Saturday morning I can't think) and made plans accordingly.   It was, in fact, open morning at my younger children's school but, as two of the children were happy to go along on their own, I decided that my presence was not required.

I roped in two friends, who blame me for their parkrun addiction, and we set off with my youngest boy.      After arriving and parking in the leisure centre car park we were soon catching up with runners we knew from other parkruns.  Basingstoke parkrun seemed to have dispatched a huge contingent of runners, many resplendent in Chineham Park Running Club shirts,  Frimley Lodge, Alice Holt, Newbury, Poole and Andover parkrun were also well represented.  There were probably many other parkruns represented, and some famous parkrun faces I didn't spot.

The route is flatter than a flat thing that has been throughly ironed, but it has over 40 corners!  Some of them are very tight, including a U-turn that could become 'interesting' in muddy weather.  As there are three laps this needs negotiating 3 times.  There are also 6 river crossings, willow trees, ducks and an awful lot of grass.  There is a weeny bit of tarmac, but the rest is grass playing fields all the way.  This had the effect of taking my back to my school days when we were made to run around the school fields.  There was a river crossing involved in that run too - we called it 'The Jordan' - and I hated running round those bloody fields!

I had intended to run with my boy, but a friend with a pushchair promised to keep an eye on him.  I was wearing layers as the weather was chilly and I had intended to jog slowly round, but there was no time to change, so after the pre-run briefing I set off.  Soon after the start I stopped to check that a boy who had tripped over was OK, I felt guilty about not running with my own boy - but he doesn't like running the whole 5k with me, and I don't really enjoy running quite as slowly as he does.  With all hope of a cracking time out of the window I carried on at a slightly gentler pace.  The marshals who directed us around the twisty course today were excellent, cheerful and encouraging, taking charge of stray jumpers (my son's) and just making the run much more enjoyable.

I crossed the line in 22mins 18seconds - I knew that something wasn't quite right!  I hadn't run anywhere near hard enough to clock that time, moments later I realised that the distance recorded on my Garmin was 2.9 miles so the course was a 5th of a mile short of the magic 3mile/5k.  What had happened?  It seems that the event director had moved the course markers slightly to accommodate the large field (280 runners) today.  This, amplified over 3 laps, meant that the distance overall was too short.  Some magic formula was applied to the results though and times were adjusted.  While it would be lovely to have recorded a 58 second 5k PB it would not have been a real PB and I'd always have known that!  My actual time went down as 24.13 - much more realistic given the pace I ran at!

After catching my breath, stripping off one of my layers and having a quick chat at the finish, I set off on another lap with the boy.  I quite like this warm down lap with him, I get to chat to other runners and encourage them on (and talk to some of the faster runners who are warming down too), my contrary child always manages to put on an impressive burst of speed as the finish funnel looms closer - despite having whinged about tired legs minutes beforehand!

After scanning of barcodes and retrieval of bags we made our way to the cafe at the sports centre for the most important bit of parkrun - coffee!  It never fails to amaze, or maybe that should be dismay, me that sports centre cafes provide such unhealthy food, and that chocolate vending machines are to be found at every corner.  Surely they should be promoting healthy eating rather than peddling high fat, processed food at every opportunity?  That said, the coffee was good and the company better!  I caught up briefly with old friends who used to run at Basingstoke and a runner I met at Abingdon last week.  I have met so many new friends through parkrun, and now regularly see an old friend (now she has given in to my relentless parkrun evangelism, accepting that the only way to get me to shut up about it was to turn up on a Saturday morning).  Plans were made for future parkrun jaunts.  Where will we go next week?  Who is going to the inaugural Queen Elizabeth parkrun?  Can we cope with the hills there after the flatness of Winchester?  Who knows where we'll end up - better watch this space to find out!

Thank you to all of the team who made today's run possible.  Here's to many more successful Winchester parkruns!

Possibly the prettiest parkrun on the planet!

We got up rather early to set out for my parkrun fix today.  Husbando was exhibiting at a book fair in Oxford, and I decided that a trip to Abingdon was in order.  As I needed to drop Husbando and books in Oxford at 7am we ended up leaving the house just before 6am.  Not a civilised time to be up and about on a Saturday morning.  When we left the house the temperature was just above freezing, so I set out in long running tights.  I did pack my trail shoes 'just in case' but didn't think to take shorts!

The last time I was in Abingdon was for the marathon.  I recognised bits of the town, but have to admit that it looked much nicer in the sunshine and when I wasn't contemplating running 26.2 miles!  Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I'd been given idiot instructions to get to the right car park, and arrived with plenty of time to spare.  The first person I met as I read the instructions on the pay and display machine was my Facebook contact!   

I chatted to lots of friendly people, and we all remarked on how beautiful the weather was, how awful the events in Boston of earlier this week were, mutual friends we might know, tomorrow's London marathon and all the normal chit chat that runners talk about!

After the run briefing we observed a minute of silence out of respect for those who lost lives, family members or were injured in the bombing of the Boston marathon last Monday.  The odd Garmin beeped, which is probably quite fitting, but silence was observed by everyone.  I noticed a couple, not taking part in parkrun, who were walking their dog a short distance from where we were standing.  They paused and observed the silence too. 

And then we were off!  The course is pancake flat, but has quite a lot of sharp and/or narrow turns.  Running along the bank of the Thames in the sunshine was glorious.  As we thundered past a narrowboat I heard someone say 'there's millions of them!' Possibly not quite what they were expecting to see when they moored their boat on a quiet river bank the night before!  A large proportion of the course is on grass.  The going was firm, but quite uneven under foot.  I thought I'd just take it easy and see how I got on.  I am still nervous running on uneven ground, and my ankle still isn't really strong enough for me to really 'go for it' on such ground.  

We ran two laps of what is possibly the prettiest parkrun ever.  I say 'possibly' because I spent a lot of time looking down at my feet rather than at the scenery!  I really enjoyed my run, despite developing running tourettes as I tried to negotiate some twisty bits of the course and came into intimate contact with a hawthorn bush as I rounded a corner!  I chatted with lots of runners and was surprised with my finish time - 23.46 - and the fact that I finished 40th overall!  (5th lady, and 1st in my age category - woo hoo!)  For anyone who is interested you can see the Garmin thingy here!  I felt as though my third mile was much slower than the first two, and was quite happy with that as I have a long run planned tomorrow, but it seems it wasn't slower at all.  I even managed to overtake a few people as we approached the finish funnel.  

After scanning barcodes and getting my breath back I joined a steady trickle of runners making their way across the bridge to the market square.  Lots of Abingdon parkrunners enjoy their post run coffee at Java & Co!  A huge group congregated in the sunshine near the lovely Town Hall.  My interesting, non running related, fact of day is that on Royal occasions buns are thrown off the top of the Town Hall.  This last happened to celebrate the Jubilee last year.   It was lovely to sit drinking coffee and chatting in the sunshine, I think runners like talking about running almost as much as they like running!

I am so glad that I got up early, and am glad I added Abingdon to my parkrun tour.  Next week I'm off to the inaugural Winchester parkrun.  The boys are coming with me - they have missed their parkrun fix as they were away last week, and it wasn't practical for them to come with me today.  

Old Deer parkrun

Check the spelling... 'Old Deer parkrun' is not an event organised just for aged runners!  Runners of all ages gathered at Old Deer Park today for the final run in the adidas BOOST tour.

Last week, at Pymmes parkrun, I was one of 14 runners, and to be fair Old Deer parkrun normally has between 30 and 40 runners.  This week, as you can see by the photo (thanks to Martin Yelling for getting a picture of me) was slightly different.  Adidas have been touring various parkruns over the last few week with their new Boost trainers and for the last run in the series something special had been planned!  I would name all the athletes who were there as part of the adidas team - but I will leave someone out by mistake and risk upsetting them.

I persuaded a friend, who normally runs at Alice Holt parkrun, to join me in today's outing.  Two of my partners in crime from last weekend were meeting me there, as I was taking two of my boys with me as well as a friend it made sense to take my own car.  Our final partner in crime was not allowed out to play as it was his younger son's first birthday party and naming ceremony this afternoon and his assistance was required closer to home*.

Soon after parking the car I was reminded that, despite having many thousands of registered runners, parkrun is a very friendly community.  I saw an Andover parkrunner (who I first met at Killerton parkrun) and said a very quick hello as we both looked for the nearest toilets!  After we crossed the A316 using the foot bridge (which thrilled the boys and terrified me) I bumped in to the best marathon support duo ever!  Hugs and squeals all round!  There were lots of people standing around in the sunshine.  It should be mentioned that sunshine has a novelty value this year.  Normally by the beginning of April most runners would be in shorts and vests/t-shirts.  This year they were still very much in the minority, but it was sunny and the sun did actually have some warmth in it!

After a run briefing that I have to admit to not really listening to as I was refereeing between my two boys we proceeded down to the start.  There were hundreds of us!  The only bit of the run brief that I had heard was that we were running two laps rather than the normal three.  The start saw us running up a very gentle slope for about a quarter of a mile, having spotted the finish funnel (which you couldn't really miss because it was huge!) I worked out that we would have to run up it 3 times in total, thankfully it was a very gentle slope!

The course was entirely on grass, the sort of grass that makes me very glad I gave up playing hockey!  It was hard packed, but ever so slightly uneven.  Just the sort of ground that I fell on last summer and injured my foot.  I was glad that I had worn my road shoes rather than my trail ones, as I think the cushioning was more useful than the grip of trail shoes given the mud free state of the route.  One gentleman had decided against shoes altogether, running barefoot.  The mother (aka worry wart) in me does hope that he didn't step in, or on, anything nasty!  The route, rich in 90º turns, was well marshalled by cheerful and cheering volunteers.  Danny Norman, host of the parkrun show podcast, made my boys' day by recognising them as he carried out his marshalling duties.

I ran quite conservatively.  I almost matched my pace for the first 2 miles of Pymmes parkrun, but in the absence of a smack down between me and another runner I carried on chatting to fellow runners and failed to pick up the pace for the final mile.  I didn't think I'd run fast, because I don't like grass, but I do think I could have worked a bit harder!  I finished in 24min44secs.   After filtering through the finish funnel and collecting my token, I set off back around the course, clockwise this time running alongside the runners but in the opposite direction, to find the boys.  I shouted words of encouragement to people I knew, and to anyone who looked like they were about to give up.  I passed my older boy and ran on to find the younger one, meeting up with him about half a mile back down the route.  He graciously allowed me to carry his water bottle and tracksuit top and begged to borrow my sunglasses (knew I should have gone for a pink pair) and we jogged on to the end.

It was lovely to be able to stand around after the run, rather than dashing off to avoid frostbite/getting even more drenched!  And a lot of the 553 runners (a new attendance record) did stand around and wait.  Prizes were on offer - and runners seem to like prizes almost as much as they like running!  Prizes included adidas trainers and clothing, personal training plans from Liz Yelling, places in the Bupa 10,000m this year and the Silverstone Half and VLM Marathon for next year.   Although I wasn't among the lucky few we all had a very good morning, culminating in coffee and chat at the cafe in the adjacent sports' centre.  My boys had scampi and chips for breakfast and seemed to think that this was the high point of the day!

In addition to breaking the attendance records, I note from a brief perusal of the results page that both the male and female course records fell today too!  No doubt several new age graded records were set too - but it is Saturday evening and my head will explode if I look at too many numbers on a Saturday evening!

So what's next?  Well, a gauntlet was thrown down when my fellow Basingstoke parkrunner said 'You could do 5 different parkruns in 5 weeks if you tried a bit.'  Next week I'll be back 'home' at Basingstoke, I'm on report writing duty so that was an easy decision to make.  I have plans in place for the next two weeks, but I'm not going to commit them to pixels yet just in case I need to change my plans!

*The naming ceremony and first birthday party was lovely too!  I feel very honoured to have been invited!  I just need to remember to take the birthday present with me to the next parkrun!