Wednesday 18 April 2012

Riddlesdown parkrun forty-four


Every Saturday morning before leaving home I run through the same check-list to make sure I am fully prepared for parkrun. I do not wear my running shoes to drive in so there is always a risk that I could forget them, then there are the post-run snacks and water. Also, my phone (for GPS tracking) and the armband that holds it. At the moment the weather is still on the chilly side so I must remember my gloves. Then the most important thing - My barcode! I keep one in my bag, one in the car, and one in a key ring attached to my car keys.

All things accounted for, we got the green light to travel the 25 miles to Riddlesdown. There were a few spots of rain as we drove along.

This week we arrived slightly earlier than usual and parked in our usual space. It was a bit chilly and I couldn't face removing my sweatshirt, so I left it onfor as long as possible before starting the run. Nicki kindly offered to take it from me at the last minute and hold onto it until the end.

Glancing across the field to check the leaders positions for the report [photo: Gill Hallson]

Instead of starting from the back I decided to mingle with everyone else in the start funnel. Morgan said his bits and pieces and sent us on our way. The rain that had threatened during our journey never materialised, and the run continued under dry conditions, with just a little wind.

Initially I had a slow start, but soon picked up my pace and got settled. Soon after, I felt a stitch coming on, this time it was on my left side and low down, I kept the pace steady and plunged my fingers into the stitch to attempt to rid myself of it. It partly worked, but it never really disappeared.

Just over half-way round I caught up with the lady with the dog. She quite often runs with it, and although I am not that comfortable around loose dogs, I trusted that this one is extremely used to being around runners and posed no risk.

Me and the dog that accompanied me through most of my run [photo: Gill Hallson]

I stayed right behind them until we reached the 4.5km point, I then upped the pace until I reached the finish line. This week's finishing time was on-par with my recent times at 21:31. A stitch-free run would still put me close to or just under 21 minutes, but that's probably about it for me at the moment.

The big thing for me this week was that I was writing the event report (my third time), each time I have done it I have tried to vary the style slightly. This time I went for a more standard style of report. You can read it on the Riddlesdown parkrun news page.

I also now have an official role at Riddlesdown as one of the admins of the Riddlesdown parkrun facebook page. If you are a runner or volunteer at Riddlesdown and also a facebook user head over and 'like' the page!

On the final straight [photo: Nicki Clark]

Post-run we headed down to the Horseshoe, in Warlingham for coffee and early results. Again we stayed for lunch, this time I went for the spicy sizzling vegetable fahitas, which were nice. The we headed home so I could start trawling through the results page in search of interesting facts for the event report!

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