Riddlesdown parkrun event 118

If this entry looks odd it is because I'm writing it using the blogger android app on my phone instead of on a real computer.

Anyway....

Up until the Thursday, I was set on finally making it to Bromley parkrun. But then Riddlesdown's event director tweeted a teasing photo of the label of a package she had just recieved and was extremely similar to this..

Yes! My 100 club kit had arrived.

So on the drizzly August bank holiday weekend I drove down to Riddlesdown for the special presentation. 

Paul Groves also recieved his 100 kit on the same day. An interesting fact - I was the first person to run 50 runs at Riddlesdown and Paul is getting very close to being the first to run 100.

So after the excitement it was time to run. I was going to go for a proper time trial effort, but I ended up chatting to a few other runners during the first lap (as I always do at Riddlesdown) so I scrapped that idea.

Time trial or not, it's always great to be amongst the familiar faces at my parkrun home and I do miss not being there every week. However, goals have been set and the tour must continue!

Lastly I'd like to add a huge thank you to Nicki and the rest of the Riddlesdown crew for making the last two-and-a-bit years worth of parkrunning such an amazing experience.

Riddlesdown parkrun second year anniversary event

We headed down to Riddlesdown parkrun for the second birthday celebration event. It was to be the 67th time I would run at my home venue.

I had decided that today would be a buggy run and I had planned to have a stab at beating my course buggy running personal best, however the combination of congestion and narrow paths at the start meant that it took 6 minutes and 22 seconds for me to reach the 1 kilometre point - At this point I gave up on the personal best idea.

I ran the rest of the run hard but with the expectation that I would be miles off my Riddlesdown buggy running personal best, however, in the end I was only two seconds slower - Maybe I should start at the front and let the faster runners filter past me instead of the other way around - That way there's less chance of me clipping someone's heel as I pass and I might actually be able to lower that 'rpbrpb'!

Anyway, the point of the run was to celebrate the second anniversary of Riddlesdown and we did that post-run over at the school. Last year we celebrated undercover. This year the celebrations had been moved onto a small patch of grass and the gazebo had been brought out, along with balloons and a special bunting had been made.

Bespoke volunteering hi-vis vests or jumpers were given out to some of the serial volunteers, the points competition winners were given their shields and a few other special prizes were given. As you'll probably be aware, I'm not a serial Saturday-on-the-day volunteer but as I take care of Riddlesdown's facebook page and volunteer at Bushy Juniors on the first Sunday of every month I was presented with my very own hi-vis vest.

There was cake-a-plenty, including a vegan offering and some bespoke parkrun cupcakes. I didn't sample every single variety but the ones I tasted were very nice indeed.

Thanks to everyone on the management team at Riddlesdown for putting on such a great event week in week out. And thanks for my bespoke volunteering vest - It's brilliant!

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Today was also significant for me as sixty-two weeks after joining it, I became a 'former member of the 50 club', and there's only one way to leave a parkrun club - that's by entering a new one! I had originally planned to run my 100th parkrun at Riddlesdown's 100th event, but an injury to my foot meant that I missed 13 parkruns earlier this year and prevented that from happening. So I was delighted when I checked my diary and saw that if all went to plan I could run it at another of Riddlesdown's special runs.

Stats from my first 100 parkruns:

Days since first parkrun - 778 days

Weeks since first parkrun - 111 weeks

Days spent in the 50 club - 435 days

Weeks in the 50 club - 62 weeks

Venues visited - 31

Number of first finishes - 1 (at Barking)

Number of buggy runs - 7

Number of times I have forgotten my barcode - 0