Club Run - Jubilee Park

Hello Blog readers.

It's club night and I am leader for this week, I am leader next week too, not sure how I managed to do that (I am group 1 rota leader, messed up somewhere!).  It has been raining most of the day, on and off, but being leader is always so good for me because I have to be there!  No excuses! I can chose the route too. I picked up Tracy on the way and drove towards the rec.  We stopped outside J.J.'s to collect Wendimoo and then we all walked to the rec.

I wanted to take my group though the wood, it's what we all look forward to during Summer but I can't believe that the minutes are ticking away our daylight, but it's still just about ok to go into the woods and get out again before it becomes too dark!  I was going through Jubilee Park, it's a great route, flat, also there's quite a bit of the route that you can see sky, not just the tree canopy! It's perfect for the beginning and the end of summer time running.

We arrived at the rec and I could tell by the way people were standing that they were all listening to introducer, the one one that makes all the annoucements as well as introduce the run leaders.  I should be up there, at the beginning of roll call!  I am going to have to sneak on past them and hope nobody notices me!  I think I managed it well, as HannahH started with group 12 and worked her way down, Nailed it!  Nobody realised I was late!  Actually everyone noticed I was late! When it was my turn I gave my route, and speed, well actually I just showed them the paddle board thing that we have and said we were going at that speed!  We gathered all together and watched as the faster runners  then slower runners ran out of the gates.  There were 12 of us in this weeks group 1, some coming back from injury.  I do love it when runners coming back from injury decide to drop a group or two to get back into the grove.  I know there are some runners who decide to run by themselves first and then step back into their usual group.  I just think it would be so nice that when runners start running again, instead of running by themselves to build them selves up for their usual group then to come back to a slower group, chat to people, share experiences and encourage each other!

So we started our running, we managed to get out before group 2 who were waiting for HannahH to put all the paddles back.  Then it was forwards and upwards, well, there's not really many upwards, not that I can remember.  Auriol had said that there was a hill.  I think I must have that 'runners block'!  All runners get it, especially marathon runners.  They block out the training, how hard it is, they block out how hard it is to run 26.2 miles.  I had that, I did the London marathon twice! (notice how any who has ever done a marathon can get it into a conversation, not matter what).  I think I must get runners block about hills and things, all routes and races that I have ever done are flat......until I go to run them.  I know that the woods just inside Dog Poo Ally have hills, I know that, but Jubilee Park....nah!

Perfect for group 1 running, especially for me while I'm feeling fat and frumpy, and slow!!  I do love this route though, I never really use to venture on to 'my' side of the tracks before, but since we started using that for the Mob Matches I realised it's just so doable for group 1's to do.  We had to run through Dog Poo Ally and then we had a chat about running through the woods, you know, passing down the line when there were roots to step over, or bricks sticking up, tree branches hanging down.  Also about leaving a gap between you and the  person in front of you so that you could see all of these things to avoid!  As we were stand there another group came through, it was Pauls group, I think he runs in group 8, (remember I was just a tad late so didn't hear what group he was taking) He was most impressed with my group chat and even stopped his own group to listen and take on our tips too, I think!

We took the left hand path, which means that we will have to run over the three bridges to get to Jubilee Park, but on the way back we just run over one bridge and then take the road back to the rec.  Last time I went this way, I thought we had to take this path that goes to the right.  It looks like a corridor where the trees join each other at the top, but IllustriousLeader said no, but she apologised because that was the path that we needed, and that leads to the path with the little bridge!  This time we got it right between all of us.  I am sure I will be able to remember all of this next time I do this route.

We soon got back to the entrance to Jubilee park, with just one more bridge to cross back over and then a nice run down to Crossways and  the rec.  We had a count up, all 12 of us came back, yay! And we also all introduced our selves.  I should have done that in the beginning, its friendly!

So a nice run out, I think everyone enjoyed them selves, just a nice steady pace, plenty of catch ups (and a check with IllustriousLeader that I were going the right way).  Love club running!  Love my club, love leading!