When deciding what my 2024 plans are going to be I feel a bit like what the organisers of Download festival had to face with their plans for 2024. Download festival is the biggest rock/metal music festival in the UK. And last year was their 20th anniversary where they went all out and made it a 4 day festival with Metallica playing 2 nights then Slipknot and Bring me the Horizon playing the other two nights. Basically they went all out. A bit like myself last year with parkruns going to argubly the biggest and to many best parkruns in the UK with Bushy, Bressay, Lews Castle and Mount Stuart to name a few. Then also completing a challenge which is seen by many as Scotland really as the biggest challenge there is in Scotland in terms of parkruns completed and outwith milestones. Download may not have the stadium rock sized line up this year but it is still a killer line up, a bit like I hope my year is going to pan out.
So with this all in mind what can I do to keep things going with parkrun. My long term goal is 500 parkruns. But as I am on 320 parkruns at the moment there is still a long way to go, and at the rate I am going at the moment that will be at least 4 years. But the key is here how do I get there. There are a variety of options here and I will go through them along with my thoughts on them.
Allbaloopy - This is where you do all the parkruns in Scotland again. I think so far I have done 12 Scottish parkruns at least 2 times. As much as I enjoyed doing it the first time, this would be a big ask to do again. I did rely on many people to get me to some of the more awkard to get to parkruns, I did take a fair amount of my annual leave for it and I also spent a fare whack of money on it. I'm not really sure completing it again will have the same sense of achievement than it did the first time. That said I wouldn't be adverse to doing certain parkruns again if they are accessible by public transport and have hotels near the start. Especially if other folk want to do them for their challenges. Also there will no doubt be new Scottish parkruns in the future so want to keep on top of them.
Complete North east England region/north west region - I have looked into both these regions quite a bit to see if this was feasible. There are only really a handful of people in Scotland that I know of who have either completed these regions or are working towards completing these regions. As far as I know most of them are done by early risers and drive down early morning. I wouldn't have that luxory and would be taking public transport down the day before and staying overnight. There are some straightfoward ones to do, for example in Newcastle. But there are many awkward ones which require a lot of half days off work. Not only that but a lot of treading on the same paths to get down to England. Whereas when I did Scotland I was going in all sorts of directions, making it more interesting. Also Scotland had a lot of easier ones to get to, too. So I don't think doing these regions are really feasible for me, the odd visit here and there is, but not completion.
Alphabeteer - This challenge is to complete a parkrun starting with each letter of the alphabet. The weird thing about this challenge is that by doing all the Scottish parkruns I have already done most of this challenge at the same time so I only have Y and Z to do. Making it seem like not much of a challenge. There are a couple of options for Y in England then the nearest Z is the Netherlands, then Germany then Poland. There are people who do this challenge multiple times with someone having done a record 8 alphabets with all different parkruns. But you get to the stage where you have to go to Australia and South Africa many times. Making it very, very expensive. So if I want to get to 500, this is not really the answer. I may get round to doing one alphabet but not top of my priorities.
Special days - A way parkrunners boost their parkrun count is back going to special parkrun days across the globe. Each country can decide when their day is held. Eg UK is Christmas, Poland is boxing day, Netherlands is Whit Monday etc. I'm in two minds about doing these. Yes they are great for adventures. But parkruns on these days have potential to be exceptionally busy due to all the Brits heading over for them too. And they actually had to make Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland host theirs on the same day in 2024 because of the business of the runs in 2023. This one I will keep an open mind about though it would be nice to visit another country and do a parkrun there at some point. Maybe on a special day or maybe on another weekend where its quieter.
p-index - This is where you complete x parkruns x number of times. eg 5 different parkruns 5 times, 6 different pakruns 6 times. Currently I have a p-index of 7 and I have done for quite a number of years. I used to be more interested in this as I saw it as a way of avoiding my home run. I am currently one off doing 8. The only thing that puts me off doing p-index now is that there are so many parkruns in central Scotland now p-index kind of restricts you into doing certain ones over and over again.
Wilson index - This is one I am quite proud to say I have a wilson index of 0. This is where you do an event number starting with 1, then 2 then 3. It doesnt matter what parkrun it's at. But having a wilson index of 0 basically means I have never been to an inaugral. This challenge is getting more difficult to start in Scotland too as less and less events are starting up, So you really need high numbers to keep this going. Just as well I have no plans on starting it.
Other challenges - There are other challenges too which I have done some of to some extent
- Compass - west, east, north and south in the name
- Stayin alive - 3 parkruns beginning with B, 3 parkruns beginning with G
- Pirates - 7 parkruns beginning with C, 1 beginning with R
- Snakes - 10 parkruns beginning with S
Obviously I have done all the parkruns in Scotland so have covered what I can in above challenges and some English too. But to complete the challenges I would need to go down to England to complete the rest.
So having discussed most of the challenges you may be getting the vibe that maybe going forward challenges aren't really for me. And yes you would be right. But thats not to say I won't be doing them at all. If there is a road trip with mates in there I would be up for it. But I don't think I will be doing these on my own. Also if there is another purpose involved - ie sporting events, gigs or visiting people and there happens to be a parkrun nearby I would be up for that too. But in terms of doing challenges for the sole purpose of parkrunning I think those days maybe over.
Queen's parkrun
Now then, so without these challenges, am I just going to do 180 runs at Queen's to get 500? This is something I have been thinking about too. The problem I have at Queen's at the moment is that I am just not fit enough to run it all and I have this mindset at the moment of approaching it exactly the same way every week. I'll run the first 2 hills on the first lap. Then will walk the third hill. Then I'll walk all the hills in the second and third lap. Doing this every week won't improve me. So I have been thinking I should really take up running at flatter courses next year. I'm not saying I'll never get back to Queen's as I really would like to get sub 30 there. But I think I need to run courses that are easier and faster to get back to running sub 30s on easier courses first. Whether that means adopting another home run for a while or alternating around the various flat courses I'll see as the year progresses. But that's the plan anyway.
In terms of milestones this will be a stepping stone year. I'm currently at 320 parkruns so even 400 won't be achiveable this year. 350 some may call a milestone but I'm not sure on that one. In terms of volunteering I will hit 300 volunteers early next year, then its a big jump to 400 and the next official milestone of 500. But I do hope to celebrate other people's milestones next year too. One in particular is my buddy Brian from Rouken Glen who should reach 500 volunteers all being well.
In terms of time goals next year I just want to go under sub 30 again, once I can do that I may consider entering the odd 10k. And I really want to get my average time from last year too which was far too close to 35 minutes.
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