Our first year of parkrun - what a year it's been.
As I haven’t blogged for a while, (I never did get round to writing the post about the HighPeak 40 that I said I would), I thought I’d better not miss another major milestone. And tomorrow is a pretty major milestone for me – it’s the anniversary of our first parkrun!
For any of my running friends, in fact for most, if not all of my friends and family, it probably feels like running, and parkrun have been a big part of my life for a long time now. I'm very well aware that I have something of a reputation (undeniably deserved) as a bit of (OK a complete) running addict and parkrun fanatic.
Believe it or not, it actually was only 52 weeks ago, on 12th November 2011, that James, Kieran and I first ventured down to Colwick Park for our first parkrun event (event #21 there). Little did we know then what a life-transforming day that would be, as we arrived at the almost deserted car park in the centre of the park, about 30 mins before the 9am start of the run.
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| James & Kieran before our first parkrun |
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| The first of dozens of backwards running parkrun pics :) |
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| Colwick Park in November - still pretty, even on grey autumn days |
The perfect event to enjoy with friends and family, and to make new friends too.
Within a mile of the start of our first run, I was having the time of my life, and it was clear the boys were loving it too. By the time we crossed the finish line, I knew we'd become regular attendees at Colwick, but I can't pretend that I had any idea then, just how much parkrun would become a fixture in our weekly routine.
The boys and I finished together in 40th, 41st and 42nd places (out of 102 runners), with times of 25:25 and 25:26, which considering the boys had only run their first mile with me 2 weeks before was pretty stunning. It's also hard to believe that parkrun that day was my 1st organised running event, ever, and it was only a few weeks before (after I'd done my first Triathlon), that I'd started to enjoy running at all...
Here's my RunKeeper trace of our first parkrun. http://runkeeper.com/user/
Since that momentous first parkrun a year ago, so much has changed for me, the boys and others too, and I can say with confidence that the past year has been the most interesting, exciting and happiest of my life so far.
I've been incredibly lucky to have been able to run at parkrun with friends old and new, and to make many new friends through running, but nothing makes me prouder and happier than that as well as James and Kieran being regular parkrunners now, my Mum and Dad are too: something that I would never have thought possible (and I know they wouldn't either) this time last year.
In fact last week we were official pacers at Colwick parkrun and had a fantastic time, hopefully we'll do that again soon, as it was a really rewarding experience.
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| A family of parkrun pacers |
There have been so many rewarding experiences at parkrun over the past year, it's impossible to list them all here, and I know there will be many more in the future, as it takes something major for me to ever not run, or volunteer at a parkrun now. In fact, over the past year, there have only been 2 Saturdays when I haven't been at a parkrun - the first was in January, when Colwick parkrun was cancelled for the first and only time so far, and the 2nd was in September, when my first Ultra (HighPeak 40) started on Saturday at 8am (so there was no way I could do a parkrun at 9am too!).
So many great runs, so much fun.
Only missing 2 parkruns over the past year means tomorrow will be my 50th parkrun event, although it will *only* be the 47th time that I've run, as on 3 occasions I've been a non-running volunteer (once Timekeeper and twice Run Director). I've also been an official pacer 3 times, including once with Terry, a really inspirational blind runner at Colwick, so in total tomorrow I'll have recorded 47 runs and 6 times volunteering in 52 weeks! :)
Over the past year I've been to 10 different parkrun events, 7 in England, 2 in Scotland and 1 in Wales, I've set 8 PBs for 5K, starting with a 21:49 at Colwick and then getting down to 19:35 at the incredibly fast Northampton parkrun course (still my best run, ever), in July.
My fastest time at my home event at Colwick is 20:04, so my next target there is to get under 20 mins, which I'm sure I'll do one day. One of the many things that my parkrun experience has taught me though, is that I enjoy running with friends and family (and pacing people I've never met before), more than I do trying to set a new PB every week.
Through parkrun I've been inspired to try other new events too and over the past year I've run my first 10K race (the day after my first parkrun), and I've now run 5 more since, I've done 2 half marathon races (and I've signed up for several more), my first 2 marathons (Manchester in April and Chester in October) as well as my first Ultra, the aforementioned HighPeak 40 in September. I've also (today) signed up for my biggest challenge yet, the 53 mile Highland Fling race along the West Highland Way next April.
A big Thanks
As I've rambled enough already as usual, I'll sign off this post with a big "Thanks" to everyone who's supported me and run with me over the past year, especially my parents, my kids, my other half Sarah, the Colwick parkrun event team and all of the parkrun family, all my running friends and Twitter friends. I'm looking forward to many more years of happy parkrunning - and hopefully to getting a "50" t-shirt very soon and to be very close to my 100 shirt by this time next year.
And really finally, here's a small selection of the 100s of pictures I've taken at parkrun events over the past year.
