When we left home for
Lesnes Abbey Woods event 12, the weather had just started to turn from dry to mild rain. We experienced a fleeting moment of doubt, but decided to press on and head over to the venue so that Matilda could complete her 16th junior parkrun.
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| lesnes abbey abbey abbey [photo:7t] |
We were running a little behind schedule, but we pulled up alongside the venue with about 2 minutes to spare. By the time we made it up the little hill to the start-finish area, the runners, parents and some of the volunteers were huddled under a tree.
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| warm-up and briefing under the tree [photo:7t] |
The official warm-up had already started so Matilda and Piggy slotted into the group and joined in with that. The rain had got heavier and was steadily coming down as the run director lead the runners over to the start line. I was impressed with the commitment of the runners that turned up to run in these conditions when it would have been so easy to stay tucked up in a cosy dry bed.
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| the start line [photo:7t] |
I usually run around with Matilda, but today we took a different approach. The plan was for her to run lap one while I waited at run HQ, then I would join her for laps two and three. When she had completed her first lap, she was soaked from head to toe, but happy to continue running without me.
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| the ruins of lesnes abbey abbey abbey [photo:7t] |
I hovered around the Abbey Abbey Abbey taking photos as she made her way around the course, then at the end of lap two, she wanted me to join her. So I did. Our usual games were limited to just 'jumping over things' because the main aim was to finish and get out of the rain.
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| drenched / running with the tail runner [photo:7t] |
Once she had crossed the finish line and been given her token, she made her way over to the event director, Ola, who was tucked away under a tree scanning everyone's barcodes. And that really was it - we were both so wet that the only thing on our minds was to get home and into some dry clothes.
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| barcode scanning [photo:7t] |
Before we left, we called across to the equally drenched volunteers to say thanks - if any didn't hear us, thank you very much for making the event happen. I hope you all dried off quickly. We jumped into the car, grabbed a towel (it was a fluke that I had one handy) and made our way back down the road into Dartford.
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| post-run 'drowned rats' selfie [photo:7t] |
We won't be at the Abbey Abbey Abbey next week as I believe there might be a junior parkrun inaugural event that we quite fancy attending.
