There were a number of events on offer on the first of those days. One of them was at Riddlesdown, so the choice on the Monday was made for me.
The night before the event it rained and rained and rained (quite fitting really, as the Queen has also reigned and reigned and reigned!)
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| The start - what a lovely parade of colours! |
The course was wet, but not muddy - That'll probably return next weekend once it has rained some more!
Today, I was joined for the parkrun by Terry ( @rencestar ) and we made our way over to the start with the other 200 runners that had decided to squeeze in an extra parkrun - Yes, there were 202 runners - That is a new event record!
I started from the back and immediately realised how much worse than normal the congestion would be. Terry had started a little way in front of me and I had hoped to filter through and run alongside him.
On I went, briefly chatting to a few of the other regulars as I slowly worked my way through the pack.
The temperature was on the chilly side and I had not wanted to take my jumper off until the last minute. Fortunately mrs7t and baby7t were marshaling at the 2km/4.9km point and I was able to drop it off as I passed her during the first lap.
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| At 2km, dropping off the extra baggage |
I continued round the course - marching straight through the puddles that had formed overnight.
Towards the end of the trail section on lap 2, a young lad decided to keep blocking my path as I tried to go past him. Not very sporting, anyway I soon forced my my in front and continued onto the finish line.
25:09 - On a normal day that would put me in about 40th position, but today I was 120th! I never did manage to filter through and find Terry, as it happens he finished about a minute ahead of me. You can read his account of the day on his blog - runReNcErun
After the run I managed to find Terry and we made sure that we had been scanned and then stood around chatting amongst ourselves and then with other parkrunners - as you do at parkrun. Then Jo Q appeared with Nicki and introduced me to one of the parkrun show's presenters, Danny Norman.
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| Terry @rencestar / Steve (me) @copy7t |
Then we headed to the Horseshoe - which was packed with parkrunners! I recognised some of the runners from Roundshaw parkrun who had run with us a few weeks earlier and they remembered me too.
Extra parkrun day number one and juneathon day 4 done!
Juneathon day 4: Run - 5km (25:09)
