Saturday 6 January 2018

parkrun - And One Extra!

Hello blog readers.

I am very bad lately about my blogging!  I need to keep on top of it!, How else am I going to look back this time next year to see how my running and moods and my life had been going!

So just a quick mention about my Thursday morning just gone.  The first Thursday morning of the year and it was a soggy one!  I am on my "Get your lazy ass out and run Old Girl" kick at the moment, which means that who ever is with me in the morning is going to be pushed just a little harder too, well, all those that usually run behind me, because I will be trying to keep up with those that usually run in front of me!

There were quite a few of us for a Thursday morning, it must be the News Years Resolutions kicking in!  I know there were a couple of ladies coming back for just that reason!  And because of that, strike while the iron is hot and all that, I decided that running through the woods would be a bit slow, squishy and too much opportunity to tippytoe around the muddy bits.  So our route was the Cinder path, including the loop around the little housing estate at the end, and that goes for me too!  I usually wait for the catchups and then run with them in the opposite direction to meet up with the faster ones!

We did pretty well, and we covered nearly four miles in just under the hour that day! My geeky stats will give you all the low down!


Bromley parkrun

Now I am up to date with my blogging, ish, anyway!  But for the year, I am totally on it!  This morning I got up, no hangover, because I am doing the silly dry January thing!  Also there's the no smoking thing happening, which I am totally in the zone with that!  Mainly because I still have a cough from the stupid cold virus and I feel sure that it would have cleared a lot sooner if I hadn't been smoking like a chimney!

I picked up Tracy and we drove to Normans Park!  I had forgotten that Beckenham parkrun was closed today and I feel sure that most of those that usually go there had turned up at Normans Park! It was so busy!  I didn't think I would be able to park my car and I would have to try and fight to leave the park and find space in the adjacent streets!  But I managed to squeeze my car into the overflowing carpark!

We met up with some of our other friends, Carole and Michael, Carole was doing her first parkrun after her surgery around 12 weeks ago!  Auriol was there and that was it for group 1's!  Well, I didn't see anymore.  There were of course loads of PWR's from all other groups there!  And I feel that there are quite a few "Right, new year, new me" resolutionists there too!  It looked like there was a thousand people ready to run! We had a wait for a little bit, however, because there were just so many people someone had parked in the wrong space in their eagerness to chase their pb!  At least next time they will know not to park there!

And so we started, this throng of people, all managed by a fantastic team of volunteers, gently snaking along the path to the other end of the park.  I was being passed by runners, and I was also passing runners.  The conversations that I heard (and can remember!) were "There are so many people here, I wonder if it's like this because of Beckenham"  Of course I said to them as they ran pass me "There's normally just over 600 runners here most Saturdays".  I carried on running around the top of the path and then I over heard another conversation. "I usually do squats in my bathroom while brushing my teeth!"  "Wow!" I said, "What a brilliant idea, multi-tasking" as they came up beside me, ready to overtake me! "I know, right" said one of the other ladies, "Time management"

After that I just knuckled down to my running.  I really wanted to have a walk, but I hadn't even done a full mile so no way was I going to walk!  Ass kicking came in my mind instead "Don't be lazy" was the saying going around, and another quote, one that I can remember reading from Ali who runs with Orpington Road Runners, "Don't be shit".  Well, I don't want to be shit, not anymore.  I don't want to be lazy, I want to do well.   I have already missed out on one of my favourite runs because I was too complacent about entering, the Harvel Hash House Harriers 5 mile run!  A brilliant run it is, and PWR's organise a coach, and everything! So I knuckled down and managed to run the first mile in under 12 minutes!  I haven't done that for a while!  The second and third mile were a little slower, but not as slow as most of the parkruns I had done in the last 12 months!  Oh I hope I have turned a corner, I hope this is not just the old cliche 'New Year, new me!'  I am going to have to keep on kicking my ass to achieve my goals.  Finding that happy sweet spot, finding that, 'yup, this is me' spot.  It's out there somewhere, I know it!

Here's my geeky stats for todays parkrun.





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