The return of parkrun! End of July, August update

Yes, finally! After 18 months parkrun is back, and it feels great.  Parkrun in England started up 3 weeks before Scotland on the 24th of July. I was very tempted to go down and knew some folk from Scotland were making the trip down, but I was a bit concerned they’re maybe a reaction to folk travelling south for parkruns so I thought I would wait to see what the reaction was like and if it was fine or not.  

31st July - Preston parkrun

As it happens there was no negative reaction that I could tell so I booked up a hotel in Preston and headed down on the train on Friday night which just took a couple of hours.  Preston parkrun is right in the middle of the town beside the river and was only 20-minute walk from my hotel, so it worked out well.  The course is 3 laps, starting off going along beside the river then turning up a steep hill. then you have a long gradual downhill which runs parallel to the river, just further away from it before heading down towards the river again.  The steep uphill really slows you down but because of the long, gradual downhills I wouldn't call it a slow course and I managed to get sub 30 on my return to parkrun with a 29.15.

7th August - Pontefract parkrun

I was on holiday with my parents in the run up to this one down in Harrogate for the week and it finished on the Friday. So, we booked a Premier in, in Pontefract. Mainly because it was cheap, and the parkrun was handy for heading home.  Another nice course. It goes in a small lap of the lake to start off which was about half a mile.  Then a big lap going on a forest track type road which runs inside the racecourse.  Then another small lap of the lake to finish.  It was quite busy initially but spread out after about half a lap of the lake.  I got a bit carried away on this one and my second mile was around 8.30.  There are a few hills on the racecourse and the one coming back towards the lake really caught me out.  Before I reached the lake again, I did take a short walking break just to give myself a breather.  And then continued round the lake to finish in 28.44.

14th August - Queens parkrun

This was the return of parkrun in Scotland where I spent the morning marshalling at my local parkrun, Queens.  It was great morning and good to see folk I hadn't seen in a long time.

21st August - Montrose parkrun

I decided to get back trying to get round the Scottish parkruns so headed up to Montrose.  My hotel was about a 20-minute walk from the start which was ideal.  I got chatting to a few folks who are setting up the new Arbroath parkrun, as well as a chap Bob whose home run is Victoria.  The course is very flat as you go up an old air strip before going in a loop which is almost a square.  It's weird I kept on getting a bit disorientated about where I was on the loop due to the gradual turns.  I kept thinking it was going to be the last one before returning to the air strip and eventually of course it was.  I pushed it quite a bit on this one and paced it pretty well finishing in 28.20.

28th August - Queens parkrun

I actually booked off a half day holiday to head up to Aberdeen on the Friday for Ury Riverside but I ended up not booking anything as with the rising covid cases in Scotland it didn't seem like the best idea especially travelling on public transport.  So, I decided to do my home run Queen's today.  I got there about 9.20 and there were very few people about but then Joe appeared, and I got chatting to him as more and more people appeared. Once it started Kirstin who I run with quite often on a Wednesday popped up, so we spent the run chatting all the way round.  I was a bit concerned about the hills today as I haven't really done any hilly runs in a while (well none like Queen's park) but I think we paced it well and ended up only about 20 seconds off my course best with 31.58.  Would love to get below 30 here which is my goal now.