parkrunners (AOWALC) Anonymous Keep on Running into Spring

[OhOneOhTwoOhThree]

New thread for parkrunners old and new.

We are a long-running thread, but very friendly - please come and say hello, and chat about PBs, tourism, progress towards tee-shirts and anyything else about parkrun

Yes, they just use your runner id in the roster and you will get an email thanking you plus 100points in the table.

28:10 on my watch yay!!!

I did wonder how you'd got on Halle, one of our marshals had her little girl with her who was clapping for all she was worth. Cheered me up through the last bit as I was struggling.

I'm very jealous of that time Cinnamon. I was close to my PB but not close enough. DS might have made it, I sent him off for a sprint once we could see the funnel. It was very slow to start today, wouldn't be surprised to see a new attendance record.

Did everyone have lovely weather today? I was glad of the breeze round bits of the course.

Lovely at Lanhydrock today
My sis and I did approx 37 mins - she really doesn't like running I don't know why she thinks she'll love parkrun every time she visits!

A northern stag party had added parkrun to their agenda - they did very respectably!

I finally made it under 40 mins which had become my nemesis. 39.46. I actually cried when i got the text. 8 weeks ago I hadn't run for 20 years and didn't think i could run to the end of the road. So pleased with myself. Parkrun rocks!

Does your sister enjoy it while she's there Thursday? Lanhydrock looks like a lovely run, hoping to try it later this year when we're on holiday.

Thats lovely to hear lucjam. A fantastic achievement in that time. It took me well over two years to work up to 5K but I'm so glad I did. The buzz when you make a breakthrough likes that is phenomenal.

No times in for us yet. Must stop checking!

Cold and very windy for us up here in NE Scotland today! But very happy to be back parkrunning again after losing this time slot to the kids activities for the last couple of months.
I was doing pacing today for the first time. We only have pacers on the first parkrun of the month and I was quite nervous about it. It is a hilly course so I was given variable paces to do for each km. I didn't do very well though, was going too fast to start so slowed down but obviously by too much and came in a whole 44 seconds slower than my intended time. The RD was really nice about it but I feel a bit bad in case anyone was relying on me and thinking they might have got a PB only to be disappointed .

Congratulations lucjam . The high when you break a target is just brilliant!

Great time too cinnamon, fantastic

Lovely and sunny here. No sweepstake winner today but we had a new course record and 155 runners including some very complimentary tourists (and 1 green t-shirt today Blathers :))

Glad you loved the volunteering Halle. As Cinnamon says it's all done for you, if you got the email then you are in the system. Do opt-in to receive the volunteer emails (via your profile) so you know what is going on and get the call outs when they are short. You could also opt-in to us if you wanted - lots more opportunities for cheering as they go past some points 4 times and we have quite a few small marshals. Just saying :)

Spent time afterwards discussing a parkrun curry evening with the cricket club - that are renowned for their curry nights and want to do a regular parkrun one - win-win :o

DS hit his PB dead on to the second. I was a bit slower than I thought, but still pretty pleased. DD is talking about running too next Saturday, depending how she gets on at Race for Life tomorrow.

How many tourists have you been getting feetheart?

My alternative to parkrun was definitely worth it today - I abseiled off the Orbit outside of the Olympic stadium

It's only 80 meters from the platform we went off and we made sure we waited for breaks in the wind!!

We were supposed to be going at 9:45 which would have made parkrunning as well hard but in the end, we didn't go until just before lunch because of the high winds so I could have fitted in a local parkrun! Ah well, we weren't to know that we were going to be so late.

I must come a visit soon feet. I'll bring some of the green lot with me.

i'm still lurking about, and have been volunteering with mixed success!!

Last week I was marshalling and nearly missed the first runner whilst popping behind the bush for a wee!! and it was a tourist who didn't know the route!!

Yesterday I was timekeeping and it was mostly alright but we were one out at the end, however as they handed out two sets of 101-150 tokens the minor hitch with timings didn't register!! The poor race director spent the afternoon on facebook requesting information from everyone!! She did a fab job.

Cinnamon, your doing fab, although you only had a couple of weeks off in the middle!! It's driving me mad not running, but I have my back into running plan in place!

Halle - I have a bubble machine (from Asda I think) to keep Mini kimmi entertained, but luckily our fave marshalling spot (the first one to get sent back, at about 1 mile) has a bench surrounded by stones, and my little macca pacca loves to make stone towers!! I always used to high five kids marshalling, and when I used to run with Toby he'd high five his way round!!

I might be extra mardy next week as I had a bit of tourism planned - DH is doing the Liverpool half marathon next sunday and we are staying overnight, so I was planning on doing the stoke Hanley pr on the way up, but I cant even walk 5k at a decent pace, so I am barcode scanning!!

Blathers - bonkers :o

kimmi - love the Macca Pacca vision and volunteering tourists are even more wonderful than home-grown ones :)
Eek at results processing nightmare, I'm waiting for ours to run less than smoothly.

chutneypig - it's a bit hard to tell sometimes as they don't always identify themselves or have obvious clubs attached to their names in the results but yesterday I chatted to people from Birmingham, Cheshire and Durham amongst our 155 runners and we are in S Beds!

Yep not my idea of fun either feetheart but must have been amazing blatherskite! I'm not good with heights at all.

Glad to hear you're still lurking and volunteering karatekimmi! How long have you got now?

We had 99 yesterday, another record attendance! Plus bury St Edmunds is cancelled 20th and 27th so we should get quite a few of their runners.

Feet I managed Whipsnade 6 1/4 minutes faster than I did last year. I could have gone even faster but think I lost my nerve. Anyway I should be proud..... Was thinking of you today and how I chased you round last year.

My fave moments of parkrun yesterday:

1. Beating my previous time by 1min27s
2. Hearing a dad say to his son "Mind out for the runners". First time I've ever been described as a runner in my life!
3. Finding out that a junior parkrun now exists at our local and that 4yo dd wants to try it

:) all round!

So many lovely posts - this really is my favourite thread on MN

Well done Halle and cheapandcheerful and cinners lucjam on some brilliant times

Great to see you are still with us Kimmi

Hope ThursdaySister had fun

Well done chutneyboy

Pacing must be soon hard germs you are a for having a go

Blathers let me know when you are on tour to see feet and if I can make it I will bring a Bedford posse

I am missing our 200th parkrun next weekend

That's a shame ohone missing the 200th. Have you got something big planned?

Sounds like a great day all round cheap. I love the junior parkruns. I volunteered for the first time at ours recently and really loved seeing the younger ones with big smiles on their faces.

Soon be the fourth birthday though OhOneOhTwoOhThree

We've had our birthday cinnamon - it was fancy dress. For the 200th they have asked everyone to wear their 10/50/100 shirts for a group photo.

How do you have a fourth birthday before 200?

Can I join you?

I have been doing couch to 5K, and I finally did 5 k on Friday. Dh does parkrun, but I couldn't join him on Saturday, so 13th June will be my first ever park run.
I am overweight and unfit, dh and I ran together to get fit when we first met and I haven't run since, 15 years and 3 dcs later.

Feeling very pleased with myself that I have got to 5k, very nervous about parkrun - will do it in 40plus minutes, dh does it in 20 something

dds did junior parkrun for first time last sunday. dd2 (aged 7) raced in in 13 minutes dd1 (aged 10) was pretty much last, 19 minutes and stomped over the line

Doh! I got them the wrong way round. We will be 4 on Saturday, and the 200th was a few weeks ago. I am all in a muddle (managed a spectacular maths error on the running thread as well yesterday).

Welcome steppemum and hope you enjoy your parkrun.

C&P from our run report, because it's so lovely

"Achieving a personal best (PB) always deserves a pat on the back. At its most muted, this takes the form of “New PB!” on the results page, and the private satisfaction of the runner.

Being the first across the line is also to be admired, a privilege mostly enjoyed by male runners. To level the playing field, therefore, times are also translated to an “Age Grade”. This is a comparative measure of a runner’s time, taking account of age and gender. The ultimate respect therefore is due to runners who score highly according to their “Age Grade”.

This Saturday, Scarlett Grant-Jones (JW10) ran Bedford Parkrun for the first time. Scarlett crossed the line in a highly respectable time of 22.43, but without especial fanfare. Unbeknownst to all around, Scarlett thus shattered the age grade record for Bedford Parkrun, achieving a rating of 90.98%. She thus becomes Bedford’s highest performing parkrunner according to age and gender. Congratulations, Scarlett! Respect!"

One of our juniors also ran his 100th parkrun with a PB of 20:29

Amazing times from those juniors ohone fantastic achievement and a great way to highlight it. I think DS fondly thinks he'd be heading towards that if he wasn't hampered by his slow mother . I think he's wrong! He's busy trying to find a willing relative when we visit the family to run with him and no ones taken him up on the offer.

Did your DD enjoy the junior run steppemum? The atmosphere at ours is great, so positive. I only finished c25k in March and was very nervous for my first run but it was great and hope you find the same.

the dds loved the parkrun, but it was an issue that the little one raced in while her older sister was at the back. (not a surprise to anyone who knows them!)

I didn't run with them, but a friend of ours was there and dd2 tagged along with them, her daughter is 4 and ran it in 12 minutes! (mum wasn't so fast )

We've had a few issues too. DS is up near nine minutes and DD is a couple of minutes slower. She has found it a struggle sometimes but they've been talking about growth mindsets a lot at school and challenging yourself. That's helped. Plus I keep telling her she's faster than me .

That's amazing OhOneOhTwoOhThree!

How far is a junior parkrun to do it in 12mins?