Last Saturday I introduced one of my friend’s, Kim, to
Parkrun. I’ve done a few Parkrun’s in Leeds with my friend Maria and we’ve been
encouraging Kim to join us. We were all free last Saturday so decided to try a
route which was new to us all. I am counting down to my 50th Parkrun
and Saturday marked 44 – not long to go now!
We met nice and early at Oakwell Hall Parkrun and as the sun
was shining I’d chosen a t-shirt and shorts. The sun was deceiving. It was
cold. Much colder than it looked. But at least it wasn’t snowing! I spent the time
before we started, jumping up and down on the spot trying to keep warm. I’d
told Kim I would run with her as it was her first time and she was feeling
nervous. I always enjoy doing Parkrun with other people as it’s a much more
sociable and happy experience!
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| Oakwell Hall |
Just before we set off we saw our other friend Laura who was
also new to Oakwell Hall Parkrun last week. The route was pretty and is a 2 lap
course. The marshall’s were super friendly and we were made to feel both welcomed
and encouraged. There were lots of lovely printed signs of encouragement and I
stopped to take a photo of this one (it made me smile!!).
We felt like it was
lying to us the first time round but more encouraging on passing it on the 2nd
lap. The course was challenging with zig zags, mud and trail paths. We run walked the course and as I still didn’t
have my Garmin, I just enjoyed chatting to Kim and Maria and taking in the new
surroundings.
Kim and I crossed the finish line together and Maria, Laura
and her friend were waiting to cheer us on. Kim enjoyed her first Parkrun and
says she’ll be returning for another – she also got a 5K pb! Well done Kim! It was
an enjoyable morning and we had some chocolate before heading our separate ways
to enjoy the rest of our Saturday (which for me may have involved some wine
tasting!!)
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| Me, Maria, Kim |
My Great North Run training has not been productive at all
this week. I had a brilliant week last week, 2 bootcamp sessions and 2 runs but
I’ve not done anything since Saturday (oops!). This week has been spent
celebrating some good news and preparing for our Speech and Language Therapy pantomime.
Tomorrow I am doing Sunderland 10K for the third year running.
I am looking forward to seeing the new start and experiencing a new route. Two years ago, Sunderland 10K was the first
10K race I ever entered and it was only the second time I’d even ran that
distance. Hopefully the next few weeks will see me regaining some motivation
and training a bit harder.
I’m off to sort my things for tomorrow. I know I can cover the
distance tomorrow as it wasn’t too long since I last ran 10K. I look forward*
to increasing my distance over the coming months towards my journey to the
Great North Run.
*I am trying to remain positive, I use the term ‘look
forward’ quite loosely but I’m not dreading it which is progress on a couple of
weeks ago (and indeed the last 18 months since the last time I thought it would
be a good idea to subject myself to running a Half Marathon!)
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