Home parkrun: Brueton, Solihull
Date of first parkrun: 21/05/2011
Total Number of parkruns: 31
Number of other parkrun locations run: 6 – Cannon Hill, Coventry, Killerton,Bushy, Nonsuch, Riddlesdown
Number of times volunteered: 3 (must do better)
My parkrun history: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/athleteresultshistory?athleteNumber=147284
To the bewilderment of my nearest and dearest, I leftSolihull at 6am on New Year’s Day, with my bike in the back of the car, boundfor Bushy Park and the parkrun “Trifecta”. The only explanation I could offerthem; “It’s calling me”.
Ok, so why not just run 3 times in Brueton park then I was asked? Why goto London? A good question.
I think it’s because I’m a numbers man. A run in the parknow, is just training. It has to count towards something, sort of like adding anothernotch to the bed post. The opportunity to get 3 new notches, at 3 locations, onone day, and not even a Saturday at that, was just too much to resist.
I use to be like this following Birmingham City. I had to doevery game in the season, count the away grounds I had visited etc. If youthink giving it everything you’ve got in a 5k parkrun is punishment, trywatching Blues for a whole season.
So, Bushy park started at 9am, Nonsuch at 10am, andRiddlesdown at 11am. And apparently some people were going to bike it betweenlocations. Wow! Awesome!
Once at Bushy, I did find other cyclists who knew where theywere going, fit triathlete types they were, but not surprisingly they were allgoing to be long gone by the time I had finished the Bushy 5k in 24 minutes.
Reluctantly then I stuck to the car, and it was a good jobtoo. I still got lost and after legging it half a kilometre from the wrong carpark, I missed the start at Nonsuch park. I caught up with the tail runnerafter a couple of minutes though, and eventually finished the run in a recordedtime of 27 minutes.
Then more stress trying to find Riddlesdown, but I made iton time, and dragged myself round the extremely muddy course, in a personalworst time of over 28 minutes. Great fun though!
Amongst my numerical goals for 2012, I want to do each ofthe 9 midland parkruns at least once by bike. No doubt there will be morestrife to report in the weeks ahead then J
Thanks for sharing your experience of the parkrun "Trifecta" on New Years Day. You showed plenty of commitment there to go all that way, great effort!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing about your 9 midlands parkruns.
parkrun tourism certainly seems to be the in thing these days (in the world of parkrun at least). I need to get on top of that myself. Being in Coventry, Brueton is next on my list as it turns out! Hopefully see you there.