This month started off with more adventures to parkruns I hadn't done before.
02/06 - First stop Elgin. I took a half day on the Friday and headed north by train in the afternoon. I just made my connection in Inverness as there had been delays but was nothing to panic about as it was only an hour wait till the next one and Elgin isn't too far from Inverness.
I stayed the night in the Premier Inn which was about 15 minute walk to the park. On the way I passed the cathedral and I could be wrong but it seemed like Elgin's main landmark. I got to the park in time for the first timers briefing where the guy described the course as a frying pan. It looked flat too so I thought I was in for a fast one today.
I started a bout middle of the pack and because the path is quite wide for the first quarter of a mile I could get into my running right away even with a good sized field of about 200 runners. It spread out quickly as we made our way round a loop of the park, passing the small lake. Then you go up the river, under the bridge and pass the football stadium. Up to the marshal and run back to the start. Then you do it all again. At the beginning of the second loop I was making good progress. About half way round the loop something happened that doesnt usually happen at parkruns that often. I got overtaken by a group of 4 women (not really relevant that they are women). This is because usually i start off slow and gradually pick up the pace each mile so I usually dont get overtaken that often never mind 4 in one go. But these girls were clearly running in a pack and had an excellent strategy. Looking at the results after they finished about 26.20 which would have been a seasons best for me.
But thats when things started to go wrong for me. Once round the loop and starting on to the out and back I had given everything and had to walk run the out and back bit. But I still finished it off in just over 28 minutes and surprisingly didnt get over taken that much.
09/06 - I did intend to be back in Glasgow this week but my work were having a night out in Edinburgh on the Friday night. So I took the opportunity to book myself a hotel in Dunbar for the night and do Lochend woods parkrun in the morning. It is quite difficult to get to Dunbar by public transport on a Saturday morning in time for parkrun without either being mega early or late so staying the night in Dunbar seemed like the wisest move. And the hotel was about 10 minute walk to the start.
In terms of the course it seems like they have made the best out of what they had. The course starts off round the football pitches before heading into the woods. This is good because it spreads out the crowds before hitting the narrower trails. It had been raining quite a lot so the trails in the woods were quite muddy and quite a few puddles. But the puddles were easy enough to avoid. I did like the out and back bit in the woods as you got to encourage runners runnning the other way. It was 2 loops altogether. While I was over 30 minutes today, it was a comfortable 30 minutes so was quite happy with it.
15/06 - This was to be my biggest Scottish parkrun trip to date and what a journey it was. I took the full day off on the and headed up to Thurso for their parkrun. Left the house at 9am and got to Thurso at 6pm. The train ride from Inverness to Thurso was one of the best I have ever been on. My hotel was again about a 10 minute walk to the start. I got there in time for the first timers briefing. Usually there are quite a lot of tourists when I go to breifings and I wouldnt usually say where I was from. But today there was only 3 of us touring so I gave Glasgow a shout out. I really liked the course. 3 laps of the river. I got into a good pace and found myself running behind a guy for quite a bit. At the end of the second lap there is quite a narrow bit as you go on to the bridge which really only has room for 1 person at a time. The tail walker was just in front. I looked behind me and the first place guy was coming. So I signalled for him to go past me. He thanked me, then I followed him past the tailwalker. On the 3rd lap there was walkers coming in the other direction and I was picking up the pace, catching the person in front of me. He then looked behind and saw me coming up and slowed down so I could get past before the walkers got to us. I would like to think this sort of thing happens all the time at parkrun. I was both on the receiving end and giving end of a nice gesture which is what its all about.
My time was also pretty good finishing in just over 28 minutes. I made sure afterwards to thank the guy who gave me the space to move past him as well as the other guy who pretty much much paced me for half the run. Its great for a place like Thurso to have a parkrun and the journey was well and truely worth it for the parkrun and the journey to get there.
22/06 - I would be lying though if the travelling didnt take its toll for the next week though. It was knackering. And when this Saturday came although I was intending to go to parkrun I opted to have a very long lie in instead.
29/06 - With the heatwave hitting this week it is tempting not to go running at all but I managed to drag myself out of bed today and headed for Pollok. Due to the heat I decided just to take it easy today and although still tough in the heat it was quite an enjoyable run. I finished in 33 minutes which is probably my slowest time of the year but at least I got out there.
