Bexley Christmas Day parkrun 2014

My previous Christmas Day parkruns have been the following;

2011: Riddlesdown

2012: Hilly Fields and Dulwich (note: christmas day doubles are no longer permitted)

2013: Great Lines

I haven't purposefully chosen to visit different venues each year, they've just been the ones that have worked out best for me depending on Christmas Day plans. The story behind this year's choice is one that started with the idea to repeat 2013's Great Lines visit with my daughter in her running buggy. This then evolved into going to Barking parkrun so we could have a proper buggy running time trial on their fast, flat tarmac course, but then on Christmas Eve she announced that she didn't want to go buggy running with me.

christmas day at bexley parkrun [photo: 'littlelizzieuk69']

After an hour or so of trying to persuade her otherwise, I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I'd be running alone. So instead of going further afield, I decided to pick my closest possible venue with the idea being that I could get back home in about 10 minutes once I had finished my run. So on Christmas morning, I crept out of the house while everyone else slept and jumped in the car to Danson Park, in Bexley.

I have been to this venue before, so if you want to read about the venue in detail please have a look at my previous Bexley parkrun blog entry. I arrived and parked up at the venue at 8.30am and as it was a little chilly, I decided that I'd have a warm-up run instead of standing around getting cold. 4 kilometres later I arrived at the start line and said hello to a couple of familiar faces.

The run started on time and before I knew it I was huffing and puffing around the park as part of a total number of 168 Christmas Day runners at event 149. The one thing that I don't like about Danson Park is the sheer number of dogs the park attracts, and there were plenty of them out in the park again. There were no issues that I know of, but I prefer less doggy places.

Two undulating laps later, I arrived at the finish funnel and did all the usual post-parkrun necessities. I didn't hang around for long after and started to jog back towards the car, but as I did I bumped into a fellow parkrunner that had been reading the blog, so we had a little chat as we headed towards the gate. We parted company and I continued my cool down jog back to the car.

I had managed to squeeze in a nice round 10 kilometres of running first thing on Christmas morning (including a new course pb during the parkrun) and still made it back home before 10am, where I found my daughter still lazing in bed waiting for my return so we could have a family breakfast before sitting down to open a few pressies.

Dartford parkrun 21 - still cold, still tired but not so clunky

I ended up running a little late for our Christmas run (event 21) and by the time I turned up at the Dartford Harriers clubhouse at 7.40am, Richey had already cracked open the storage container and had the signage out and ready to go. Richey headed off to the grass and trail section of the course to check the conditions while I popped over to set up the signage at Jagger's Leg.

sir mick [photo:7t]

While over there, I had an idea to give Sir Mick a Christmas makeover, so when I got back to DpHQ and met Richey (and Adam who had just joined us) I aired the thought that really we should have probably made a little bit of an effort with making the course look Christmassy. In that instant Richey sprung into action and flew over to Dartford High Street where he managed to pick up some tinsel for the finish funnel and a Christmas hat for Sir Mick!

richey was looking after the reindeer during santa's briefing [photo:gary bignell]

With all that done I headed into the Dartford Harriers clubhouse, by now wearing my Christmas hat, to attempt to warm up my freezing fingers. At the very last minute, Richey had been stripped of his role as run director and a white-bearded, red-suited chap had taken his place! He gave us a briefing and the order that everyone MUST go to the clubhouse for some mulled cider and baked treats afterwards.

about 1.5km into the run [photo:gary bignell]

The run was started. I ran at roughly the pace I had hoped to - my first, second, third and fifth kilometres were almost identical splits (the fourth kilometre was slower because I eased off the gas going up the incline). I whipped of my Christmas hat during the second lap to let my head cool down a little, but I stuck it back on in time for the final stretch where judging by my facial expression in the photo that Gary Bignell took, I was actually pushing quite hard. This was followed by a swift change into my volunteering vest and some barcode scanning.

pushing hard at the end [photo:gary bignell]

Adam (who has recently become a key member of the volunteer team) headed off to collect the course signage and I began winding up the finish funnel with the help of my two little helpers, Alex and Matilda. When everything was packed away I finally headed into the clubhouse where I was handed a mug full of the mulled cider and helped myself to a Christmas biscuit or three!

the little helpers handing out finish tokens [photo:gary bignell]

I also bumped into a tourist from Southwark parkrun who was very complimentary about blog7t, which really made my day. Thank you.

Dartford Harriers Xmas Dash and Kids' Fun Run 2014

The Dartford Harriers Xmas Dash and Kids’ Fun Run 2014 was the second running of this festive event through Central Park in Dartford. I had picked up a couple of entry forms quite a way in advance of the event but only filled them out and registered on the day, which really was the easiest way to enter the event.

richey, me and dawn [photo: brian page]

We had pre-arranged with our friend that we would take her son with us and he and my daughter could run the fun run together, just like they do when they go to Gravesend junior parkrun. The race HQ is in the Dartford Harriers clubhouse at the southern end of Central Park, which is also the HQ for Dartford parkrun, and upon arrival it made a pleasant change not to have to worry about course set up, volunteers, and everything else that goes with staging an event.

I had arrived with plenty of time to spare and spent it chatting away to SLGR and Dartford Harriers team mates, as well as some other friends from other clubs around the local area. The route for the 5k Xmas Dash was 3 clockwise laps around the main body of Central Park – mostly on tarmac, but a short section was on the grass.

richey and me [photo: brian page]

It made a change running around the park in the opposite direction to that of the weekly parkrun and following my heavy legs from the previous day’s run, I had decided to just have an easy jog around the park – after all, there was no chip timing and the times and positions were not recorded at all. This was essentially a Christmas fun run with no pressure to push the pace – just as it should be!

In the start funnel, I lined up next to SLGR team mates Dawn and Richey and we stayed together for the whole of the first lap, even posing for a photo when we saw our club chairman with his camera as we approached the end of the first lap. After this we ended up separated from Dawn, but we continued our way around the course for the next two laps until we had the idea to put in a proper effort on one of the Strava segments on the course.

#teamslgr and the mayor

We were briefly separated during our all-out efforts on the 300 metre out-and-back Strava segment, but we were soon reunited and after taking a quick detour around the back of the Dartford Harriers clubhouse, we finished and were presented with our festive medals by the Mayor of Dartford – Cllr. Avtar Sandhu MBE.

There was a great turnout of So Let’s Go Running runners and after rounding them all up we managed to have a great team photo taken with the Mayor before it was time for the kids to have their turn at running.

the kids fun run [photo:7t]

The original kids' fun run course was supposed to be up to 4 laps around the track (with each child free to decide when they had had enough), but as the track is currently undergoing refurbishment work, this was changed to a loop (or two) on the tarmac paths around the edge of the main grass area in the park. My daughter and her friend took part and had a great time, and were thrilled when they also received their festive medals. We managed to get a quick snap of the three of us with our medals before returning to the clubhouse to warm up.

showing off our rudolph medals [photo: dani]

It was a fun, family event and definitely one to add to your family's pre-christmas calendar!

Great Christmas Lines parkrun

Choosing which venue to visit on Christmas day was an interesting process. At first I had my heart set on going to Riddlesdown, but then I promised my daughter that I would take her for a Christmas day buggy run and I knew that Riddlesdown would be muddy. I really couldn't face scrubbing mud off the buggy post-run, so I started making a list of other possible venues - initially I had set my mind on Dulwich or Barking - both flat and on tarmac and would have been good choices if we had decided to stay at my parent's house on christmas eve...

pre-run briefing

... However, we decided to stay at home in Dartford so I turned my attention elsewhere and came up with a shortlist of Maidstone, Maldon Prom, Great Lines or Whitstable. But just as I was settling on Maidstone, the river Medway burst its banks and flooded parts of the course - Maidstone parkrun was called off. That left three options and Great Lines parkrun just felt like the right place to go.

the first lap of the playing field [photo: michael wraight]

On the day, the wife decided to stay at home while me and Matilda hit the road to Gillingham. The good thing about visiting a venue that I had already been to was that I wasn't tempted to run around taking photos for a full-on course description on the blog and I could just enjoy the festivities of the day. Looking around, there were lots of christmas themed hats and costumes being worn and gave the day an extra special feel.

wheeeee [photo: michael wraight]

With the two adjacent parkrun venues (Maidstone and Shorne Woods) both not having Christmas day events, Great Lines had become a focal point for North-West Kent's Christmas Day parkrunning and the turnout was pretty good with 75 runners. Being on pretty high ground, the course had not suffered like many others following the recent storm and apart from a couple of puddles was basically bone dry. Matilda had brought her wand, her santa toy and her jingle bells, so we had the great sound of jingle-jingle-jingle all the way round the course!

go santa and lime! [photo: michael wraight]

We did our two laps, and Matilda really loved the long gradual downhill at the end of both laps - we flew down it on both occasions. Our kilometre splits were all over the place and our last kilometre ended up being our fastest of the whole run (sub 4 minutes). When our time came through it worked out that we set a new 5k buggy running pb of 24.45. I think we can probably go about another two minutes faster but we haven't done a time trial on a flat tarmac course yet and I'm quite enjoying gradually bringing our time down. There was a bit of a '24' theme - Along with finishing in 24 minutes, it was my 124th parkrun and we finished in overall position 24 (also gender position 24).

buggy runner [photo: james lampert]

Post run, Matilda had a complimentary mince pie, which she dropped and meant Santa had to go back for a replacement. After chatting to a few fellow runners and to briefly to Tony the event director, we packed the buggy away and headed back along the A2 to see if Father Christmas had left any presents under the tree.

buggy runners celebrating our new pb [photo: james lampert]

We had a really nice christmas parkrun morning. Thanks so much to Tony and all the volunteers that came out to make the event possible and thanks to the photographers that were kind enough to allow me to use their photos. 

Cyclopark Christmas Cracker 2013

I found out about the inaugural Cyclopark Christmas Cracker only about a week before it was scheduled to take place. I've always wanted to run a Christmas race but have never actually been organised enough to make it happen. After a few tweets with @cyclopark I had formulated a plan.

arrival at cyclopark

The main event was a 5k race plus there was also a 1k family fun run. I decided that it would be fun to enter both, that way I could run the 5k as a race and run the 1k with my daughter in her running buggy - I gave her the option of actually entering and walking the course herself but she chose the running buggy.

On the day, we arrived at the Cyclopark, which is quite a new cycling facility built adjacent to the A2 in Gravesend. There is a spacious car park and parking costs £1. I hadn't registered in advance so we went into the registration room and sorted out the paperwork and payment. The 5k cost £7 for adults and £4 for children, while the 1k was a flat £3. The 1k family run was short enough to tempt the wife into entering too!

almost ready

With it being Christmas, I had arrived dressed for occasion and for those that hadn't, there were santa hats included in the entry fee - so no excuse not to look festive! The cyclopark has lots of different cycling facilities - one of them being a 2.5km long beautifully smooth undulating tarmac track, which is what was used for the race.

The 5k

For my first race of the day I lined up on the track at 10am and after chatting to a fellow runner and posing for a few fun photos we were sent on our way. It was two laps around the tarmac track. At the start, as usual, plenty of people went out way too fast but after 500 metres nature brought everyone into line and that left about four of us in the lead pack.

and off.. I am wearing the santa beard

The runner I was chatting to beforehand was leading the race, but when we were chatting beforehand he said that he usually runs 5k in around 22 minutes, so I knew that he had gone out way too fast (and he said the same post-race). Before too long a couple of us caught up with him and filtered past.

As I mentioned before, the course undulates and it also has some nice sweeping corners. So we continued our journey around the first lap. The end of the lap is run up an incline and just before we reached the half-way point, there is a footbridge that passes over the track which was lined with cheering spectators.

runners 1, 2 and 3 just before half-way

At half-way, I was in second place and just a few seconds behind the leader. I remember the race organiser saying something along the lines of 'keep going - you're being chased by Santa!' to the leader as he passed, which I found quite funny. As we started lap 2, I could hear footsteps not far behind me and I was convinced I was about to be passed at any moment.

runner 1 crossing the half-way mark, followed by santa

As you'll see in the photos, I wore a Santa hat complete with beard and a tie that resembled Santa's buttons and belt buckle. I was burning up underneath that hat and the tie had swung around so that it was flying in the wind behind me and strangling me. I thought about removing both, but it was a Christmas event and I didn't want to remove my festive attire!

I continued around the course, which was actually quite windy so some sections were tougher than they would normally be and it probably knocked a few seconds off my time. By the time I came around the final bend and could see the incline in front of me I was still in second place. The runner in front had opened a wider gap so I knew first place was out of reach.

the first 5k done

I was more concerned, as I had been the whole of the second lap, about the third placed runner overtaking me, but as I started the final incline there wasn't any sign of him sprinting up behind me so I passed under the footbridge and across the finish line without being overtaken, finishing in second place overall.

I overheard one of the timers say 19.37 was my finish time and I was really pleased with that (official results to follow when published), especially considering the undulating course and the windy conditions. To be honest, I felt terrible the whole way round. Much worse than some of my recent 5k races or time trials.

everything looking a bit wonky post-race

I had my festive medal placed around my neck before having a few photos taken and then heading off for 20 minutes of recovery time before the next race was due to start.

Full 5k results were posted on facebook - here.

The 1k Family Fun Run

At 10.45am it was time for the family fun run to begin. I had already secured my daughter into her safety harness in our running buggy (the baby jogger 2) and I lined up at the front with the wife to our side - she had toyed with the idea of entering the 5k but in the end went for the 1k only. Again, we posed for the official photos and then the fun run was started.

waiting to go again

As the start is slightly uphill, it took a while to get going with the additional weight of the running buggy, and others had already started darting around in front of us so it took us about 100 metres to finally get some clear air by going around the outside of some other runners on the corner.

When I run with my daughter in the running buggy, she constantly shouts at me to go faster -  she loves it. So instead of a slow plod, we pushed the pace - we (I?) had come up with the idea that we'd like to complete the 1km in less than 4 minutes. I felt a strange overtaking all of the children over the next first few hundred metres, but you have to understand that I was being ordered to run faster!

her first medal

Once my daughter was satisfied with the pace, she went into her other buggy running mode, which is to quietly scream the whole way round as if she is on a rollercoaster - and that's actually what one section of the course is like. There's a short sharp downhill which we flew down, and by the sound of her scream, that must have been her favourite part.

The good thing with the tarmac track is that there are lots of different configurations and the organisers had changed the layout with some strategically placed cones so that we would only have to cover the 1 kilometre to return to the start/finish area. The last section was still up the incline and this time I had to push the buggy up it - pffff..

wife and daughter with medals and chocolate

So we crossed the line in first position and my daughter was very excited to be awarded her first ever race medal, and even more excited to be handed a selection pack of chocolates! The 1k race wasn't officially timed so I took our time from my 1km GPS reading - turns out that we did it in 3.59.

We turned around to watch the rest of the runners finish and more importantly to look out for the wife, who soon after came cruising up the incline glad that she had listened to my advice and stuck with the 1k race and not the 5k.

Post race/fun run

After the runs, there were complimentary mince pies for all runners in the race registration area so we dived in and grabbed one each. We then decided to have a spot of lunch in the cyclocafe before heading off, the mushroom omelette and salad was pretty decent. They also sell freshly squeezed juices, which I have noted for next time I pass by on the cycle path that runs adjacent to the A2 and gives cyclists a safe route between Dartford and Strood via Shorne Woods.

cyclopark

We had a brilliant morning and are looking forward to next year already! However, I do plan to go back and try out the cycling facilities in the near future.