That was quite a nice series of event numbers until Town Moor! I believe Leazes and Jesmond Dene are no longer in sync due to cancellations, but they’ll likely be similar in event number for a while yet.
I’ve got two months’ worth of parkrundays to catch up with as I haven’t had time to blog lately. I’ll try and keep it short-ish!
On the 14th of October I tailwalked around Jesmond Dene. Quite a fast field and if it hadn’t been for the parkwalkers I would probably have had to run!
I couldn’t parkrun on 21st October due to Storm Babet 🙁 I had a volunteer slot booked at Jesmond Dene but it was cancelled and we had a train to catch, and it was a bit too tight for me to get to any other run.
I was back at Jesmond Dene on 28th October. I managed my first ever Jesmond Dene sub-30 – 29:37! (And in Hallowe’en getup, too!)
I headed to Leazes on the 4th of November to try and get an all-time PB. I managed it – 26:24, which was 8 seconds faster than my previous best at Denton Dene in September.
Back at Jesmond Dene on 11th November. I was feeling slightly under the weather so I took it easy for 32:07.
Another run round the Dene on the 18th of November… but this time I gave it a go again and got my second fastest course time (29:44).
And back again on the 25th – this time for another big course PB, despite having an asthma attack on the way up the hill! (Need to remember to take my inhaler before parkrun.) New course PB 28:41!
This resulted in the very strange situation where my Jesmond Dene PB was 1 second faster than my Town Moor PB (28:42, set back in September 2018 – this was my all-time PB for nearly five years before I managed to break it at Agnew this August).
I wasn’t having that, so I resolved to do something about it at Town Moor the following week!
Unfortunately, the following week (2nd December), Town Moor was off. Along with pretty much the entirety of north-east England. 34 out of 36 parkruns in the region cancelled, leaving only Cotsford Fields and Marshall Drive as the two hardy coastal survivors down in Teesside. Much as I hate to miss parkrun, I wasn’t driving down there in the deep snow, so my next adventure would have to wait.
On the 9th of December, I headed to Town Moor, a week later than planned. No pacers unfortunately (they’re only in service on the first weekend of the month) and I wimped out of dressing for a PB attempt due to the cold, but I got a good start and I was overtaking friends who I knew were going for 26:45ish, so I thought I was probably on for a good time if I could just keep going.
I managed 26:23. A new all-time PB by 1 second, just beating my time at Leazes from a few weeks ago! And in tougher conditions on a tougher course 🙂
I have three more parkruns to do in 2023 (as I’m skipping the Christmas Day one for family time) – a course PB attempt this coming weekend, a let’s-see-what-happens on the 23rd, and then a maybe-just-maybe on a fast course on the 30th… so the year isn’t quite done yet. I’ll try and be a bit more prompt with my blog updates for those!