Tag: parkrun

TMBR turned out and walked at the back of parkrun in memory of Ed today. I hope we did him proud 🧡

We were honoured by the presence of his family today at parkrun too. A wonderful tribute this morning 🧡

No photo today as they’re all slightly awful (moreso than usual haha).

I gave it a good go today, tried to keep up with a few people I knew, and made it round the Moor a minute faster than I did a fortnight ago. No post-parkrun lung ache this time either! I hope this means a couple of weeks of actually having time to run more than a mile most days has improved my fitness a bit. We’ll keep going and see how I get on over the next few weeks.

Not fully decided on next week yet but leaning towards Jesmond Dene.

Volunteering this morning to save legs before a race tomorrow. A busy event at Jesmond Dene (384 finishers, on the high side) but the timekeeping itself went well!

Next week I’ll be on my new training plan, which I haven’t actually drawn up yet, so no idea whether I’ll be attempting a fast one or not. High likelihood I’ll be back in the Dene though.

I’ve been too busy with work this week to fit in much running, so salvaged things to an extent this morning with a parkrun sandwich. Zero energy but I got it done!

Planning to be back in the same place next week…

Back on the Moor today for a warm parkrunday. Took it easy with Geth due to the heat.

Our friend Penny was celebrating her 500th parkrun so it was a happy morning!

Most likely back in the Dene next week.

Third JD in a row between running and volunteering. Big difference in temperature from last week (when I almost wished I’d brought my gloves for timekeeping) – it was a bit tough in the heat today!

Staying local again next week.

I was a bit apprehensive about getting up for parkrun last weekend, as I was only three days back from Canada and still very jetlagged (alarms had been soundly ignored by my body clock for the previous couple of days). Nevertheless, parkrunday vibe always does the job, so I was at Jesmond Dene in plenty of time on a fairly damp morning.

It was a classic ‘I’ll just take it easy’ run round Jesmond Dene – slow mile up the hills, steady mile on the flat, faster mile down the hill once you’ve decided to pretend it was always meant to be a progression. Lovely morning out.

Same place tomorrow but volunteering.

Last Saturday was the second parkrunday of the Toronto trip!

In contrast to the previous week, it was beautifully sunny… but it was still very cold at that time in the morning so we jogged round in all our layers again 🥶 The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that Budapest Park is an 8am start from May to September! The RD explained that part of the reason for this is to avoid the heat of the day, but that was certainly not applicable on this occasion. We even experienced flakes of snow as we were walking back to the streetcar! As it happened though, we were meeting family later that morning, so the earlier start worked out well for us.

This is a really pretty parkrun and also very flat. If I’m there again on a day with better temperature (and not running a race the next day!) I will consider giving it a good blast. This time, though, I just took it easy and enjoyed it.

I’m back home again now so I’ll be a lot more local this weekend.

Last time I did a parkrun while visiting Toronto, in 2018, the nearest event was Whitby, which is a good hour or two away on the train. In 2019, the first parkrun started up in Toronto proper – Downsview parkrun – and I made plans to visit in 2020.

2020 was 2020, and for various reasons I’ve not been able to get back out to Canada until now. It’s been a long seven-year wait to visit Downsview! But we finally made it this last Saturday, and despite some awful weather, it was worth the wait.

It was a really cold, windy, rainy morning and the Downsview course is very exposed. It’s also about a mile to walk from the station to the start, so Geth and I were pretty frozen by the time we got there. As such, we made the decision to take it easy and run in all our layers. Despite this, it took me until the final lap (of three) to thaw out and feel like I could move my legs properly! I was quite surprised to finish in 28:16 as the cold made me feel so slow.

It was so much fun though because the team were so friendly and so were the other runners. As is often the case outside the UK, it was a small field (only 35 runners – there may well be a lot more on nicer days!) and everyone was having a laugh together.

I like to tick off different parkruns (and will be doing so again next week) but I may be tempted to revisit this one on a nicer day during a future visit.