December parkruns

7/12 - On the Friday night I had my work night out through in Edinburgh. So I used the opportunity to stay the night through there and do an Edinburgh parkrun the next day.  I stayed in the Premier Inn in Edinburgh park so the nearest one to that was the Oriam parkrun which was only 6 events old that day.  I had a rough night hardly getting any sleep and I cant even say it was because of the drink as I don't drink.  I usually dont sleep very well in hotels but this was particularly bad.  Anyway I got up and managed to get the bus to Heriot Watt university campus with plenty of time before the start. I did a short warm up and considering my tired state I thought it was going to be a bad run today.

Oriam is an out and back course with quite wide trails to start with before it gets narrower and narrower. Generally on the way out it feels more uphill than downhill. And when it gets narrower, it also gets muddier. Once you reach that  point the faster runners are coming the other way and there isn't much room to avoid the muddier sections. So its a case of right through it.  And its thick mud too as oppose to wet mud so footing was a bit tricky. But the first mile and last mile are fine and you can make up time especially on the way back.  I had a pretty good run considering finishing in 31.33.  I would come back to this one hopefully in a more awake state!

14/12 - Today I was volunteering at Queens parkrun in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen at parkrun. The rain was torrential and the puddle at the start was just one long puddle.  If you went on the grass that was just as wet.  But everyones spirits were high and it was great getting to know more people at my local event.

21/12 - No parkrun today. I had a bad week sleeping due to stressing about things I shouldn't have and things snow balled a bit.  So I just chose to have a lie in to allow me to get my head levelled out again.

25/12 - Bonus parkrun today due to it being Christmas.  So I headed for Pollok. I thought I would park in the car park at the Burrell today.  I usually get there about 8.55-9am and today was no different. But what was different is that usually the car park is practically empty when I turn up with a few runners and volunteers kicking about.  Today it felt like the car park was already a lot busier.  So I drove right through the car park and parked outside the car park on Shawmoss road.  This is something I always used to do but due to Pollok being so quiet recently I thought the car park would be ok.  But because a lot of other parkruns weren't on I think a lot of people decided on Pollok and it turns out i made the right move.

I wandered down to the start and to my surprise there wasn't many people there and this must of been about 9.25.  Then all of a sudden everyone and I do mean everyone came up the road at the same time as if there was some meeting in the car park and now they were moving up to the start.  I had to stand right to the side and then make my way to the back of the pack as I thought it would be a slow one for me today.  I met Doug and had a good chat.  We walked to the start with the masses. And it was obvious it was way busier than usual. When it started you could run but as soon as I hit the first corner it was back to walking as the path narrowed. But after that it was running all the way. I was just pleased from that point I was running all the way round.  I ended up finishing in 33.57 which I could probably take a few minutes off but that's just want happens in big events.  To be honest I thought with the numbers today I was going to have to queue up to cross the finish line which happened earlier in the year. But it was fine. There was a queue for the scanners but it moved very quickly due to the quick thinking core team putting more scanners on. I think there was about 8 scanners today when usually there is 3-4 now.

If I'm honest the queue from the scanners at Pollok used to be one of my favourite parts.  I have met a fair few people just chatting in the queue and today was no different. I got chatting to 2 people both of which had done over 200 runs at Pollok with one over 300. I know there are people that need to get away after parkrun though so can understand the need to speed the process up especially today.

28/12 - Today I went to Dean Castle country castle park for my last parkrun of the decade, as my mum said she would drive me down. Once there I met Douglas, Craig and Jo who gave me the run down on the course as they had done it before.  It's basically a Y shaped course which you do 2 loops of.  My mum stood in the middle of the Y meaning I passed her a lot and she offered support.  But there was good camaraderie across the field with high fives a plenty both with runners and volunteers due to the 3 out and backs.  To be honest I thought I did better than my time suggested today but I think the short, sharp steep hills are what slowed me down.  But I did thoroughly enjoy it and thankful for my mum taking me down there.  My time in the end was 32.21.

Over the next few days I'll be doing an end of year review for my running.  Something to look forward to :-)