Tag: parkrun

It was another glorious morning in Newcastle upon Tyne today! …according to my Ring video doorbell.

We were not in Newcastle upon Tyne. We were parkrunning in Stranraer at Agnew parkrun, one of the wettest parkruns we have ever done.

It was also hands-down the flattest parkrun we’ve ever done, and I got another post-hiatus PB in my magic shoes – over a minute off my 32:20 result at Town Moor three weeks ago. My watch today said 31:17, my official result 30:21 – there have been some problems with the results apparently so I’ll go with the watch for now!

I’ll be trying out the last of the three parkruns in the area (Crichton in Dumfries) next time we’re here, but after that I expect we’ll stick to Agnew. Beautifully fast and I can’t wait to come back on a day with better weather!

Generally I consider the 7am (or sometimes 6:30am) alarm to be the worst thing about parkrun… but I was pretty glad to get my run done at 9am this morning given that it was already feeling uncomfortably hot by the time I was walking home at 9:45am!

I made a decision beforehand to take it easy today as I didn’t fancy pushing too hard in the warmer weather. I still managed my second fastest time since the hiatus (well, according to my watch – my official result was a few seconds slower), so I must be improving in some ways!

A bit of tourism for the next few weeks, but I should be back on the Moor before too long.

Quick volunteer slot this morning before catching the train.

I was marshalling at the top of the hill today, which is a spot I’ve not done before. There are about fifteen marshal points on the Jesmond Dene course and I’m still trying to collect them all! I was quite genuinely surprised by how many of the runners – even the faster ones – were walking up the hill. When I’m running the course, I always shufflerun up that hill as a point of principle (don’t need to walk hills on a 5k!) and see a lot of people walking it, but I’m generally towards the back of the field so I assumed it was just a slower folk thing. Maybe not.

Back to Town Moor next week for another run.

It’s been a while since my last trip round the Moor! But it’s so familiar it felt like I’d never been away this morning.

I was in my new-ish (tried them out on a one-miler and a two-miler the last couple of weeks) tempo shoes (Saucony Endorphin Speed). I’ve never used tempo shoes before these, only super-cushioned stability shoes. They took two minutes off my time. I had set a new post-pandemic PB of 34:13 at Tøyen a fortnight ago; I ran Town Moor in 32:20 today. The magic is real.

I wouldn’t wear them for long runs, I don’t think, as they’re not built for comfort. But they’re going to be great for intervals and so on when I get back into those.

Geth managed to lose his barcode in the finish funnel this morning. Some kind soul handed it in to the team so we (or I at least) will be back in a fortnight’s time to collect it!

Back to Pendle and back up the hill (twice) again!

I was only one second slower than the course PB I set back in April, which feels nice and consistent. Hopefully I’ll be able to smash that at some point if I try really hard!

So the PLAN was to go and do Town Moor today for the returning annual Blaydon Race T-Shirt Show-Off. Town Moor is cancelled next week and the week after for the Hoppings fair but it was meant to be on today.

However, the Hoppings prep lorries rolled up early on the Moor this morning and Town Moor cancelled at approximately 8:45am – so at 8:48am when we realised what was happening, we joined the mass panic jog down to Leazes Park. We made it with about three minutes to spare, though they then went and delayed the start to allow for Town Moor stragglers! This enabled a much-appreciated breather before getting going again.

Not at all my fastest around Leazes, though it was a couple of minutes faster than last week’s time at Jesmond Dene as it’s an easier course. Happy with that on current legs!

Back to parkrun this week, and back to slightly speedier running. I managed a couple of minutes faster than I had been doing in the latter stages of marathon training, so I’m happy with that.

I realised about ten minutes after we left the house that I’d forgotten my barcode. Thankfully, a) they accept barcodes on phones nowadays and b) even if they didn’t, I keep a scraggy old barcode under the right sole of the shoes I usually wear for parkrun. Today was their final outing after 550ish miles and the barcode-forgetting incident has reminded me to swap the scraggy barcode into my new shiny pair of tempo shoes later this week.

I’ve decided to change my official home parkrun from Town Moor to Jesmond Dene. It’s nice to visit the Moor for a bit of a speed session now and then, but I’m in the Dene most weeks and I prefer it.

However, it’ll be a few weeks of different parkruns now. Summer is a time for exploring!

Volunteering this week as we’re into the last stages of the marathon taper. I usually (well, for my two marathons so far!) do a shakeout parkrun the day before a marathon – but that won’t be happening this time because of the way that our weekend logistics have worked out. As such, next time I attend parkrun I will (hopefully) be wearing a new race t-shirt!

It was a lovely morning to be marshalling, and it looked like (as usual) there were a fair amount of parkrunners new to the Dene (i.e. lots of people asking me for directions to the start!).

Also, I remembered to take the hi-vis selfie today:

…though there are some even better ones currently at the top of the Jesmond Dene photos page!