Sunday 13 November 2011

Riddlesdown parkrun twenty (rdp20)

... and all of a sudden we were at number twenty.

When we first started going to Riddlesdown parkrun it was all about the running, but over the last four months the run itself has become only part of why we drag ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn and drive for almost an hour (in each direction) every Saturday morning.

The social side of the parkrun is just as important to us, and we always try go to the post-run coffee venue afterwards. Having Matilda has probably made it easier for us to get to know people. She also seems to love the parkrun, as well as all the people that look after, run around, entertain and play with her.

at the start (Photo: Cameron Bew)
For the second consecutive week Nicki lime-sat so that both myself and the wife (mrs7t) could run - thank you :-)

We started together from the back of the pack of the sixty four runners that were present at the start line. mrs7t has only just started running so is still adopting a run-walk strategy. We stayed together for the first kilometre, at that point mrs7t took her first walk break. We said our goodbyes and I continued on at my easy pace.

My run was fairly uneventful. I continued on at around 5 minutes per kilometre pace until I reached the end. I passed a few familiar faces on the way round, I said hello as I passed but I sometimes forget that my easy pace is faster than some people's race pace, so it's not always easy for everyone to reply.

The overall winner finished in 19:57. If I wasn't injured, today could have been a potential P1 day for me. I won't linger on such thoughts. It doesn't help. But it would be nice to take the top spot one day.

mrs7t at 1.6km (Photo: Cameron Bew)
Mrs7t continued with her plan and 8 minutes after I had finished she entered the final straight, and crossed the line in 34:13.

Always a good sign that a runner has worked hard, Mrs7t then staggered to the side and fell to her knees. Matilda couldn't wait to get back into her Mum's arms and walked over to her and sat there while she recovered.

Once the running was over we spent some time mingling and chatting about running things (injuries and GPS were top of the bill today). Then we made our way to the good companions pub for some more chatting and mingling, only this time there was also coffee. (Although, I was disappointed that they didn't make any 'proper' coffee this week, I(we) had to make do with instant coffee). Matilda and Nicki had a few conversations, apparently in Japanese!

team7t (photo: Nicki Clark)
With another parkrun over, we took the scenic road back to Kent.

7t.

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