A weekend away at Hanbury Manor meant another switch to parkrun tourist mode so we headed out to Gunpowder pakrun on a morning road trip. Our satnav had a problem taking us to the actual park and we ended up at a new looking housing estate where I saw what appeared to be a park over the other side of a small footbridge. Time was against us and it was with great relief that a friendly family walked past and asked us if we were looking for parkrun before proceeding to direct us to the start area. Thank you friendly parkrun runners!
We were greeted by a cheerful marshal at a new temporary starting point, moved this week due to the wet weather and the need for more space at the finish to accommodate food & drink for their 1st birthday celebration; so it was only me, The Son, and friendly parkrun running family standing around. I was starting to wonder if anyone else was going to join us but a crowd (flock? murder? herd? bevy? pack?) of runners approached from the direction of the normal start point.
We were under-way for a 2 and a bit laps on an all tarmac loop of the park with The Son once again setting off too fast. He was busy trying to chase down a younger kid dressed in a parkrun 10 club tee, who had also gone off fast, and both of them ended up slowing down by the time we hit the 1km point. The setting was quite damp & wet underfoot so there were a lot of slugs on the paths so the rest of the run consisted of us trying to avoid stamping on the poor things and The Son slowing down to an eventual run-walk-run-walk-walk-walk-walk strategy. He wasn’t in the best of moods to be honest and the first km had taken it out of him so this week was one of his more slower runs.
We briefly stayed at the finish to cheer on the very few runners still behind us, suddenly realising that I had not stopped my watch at the finish *again*, while The Son tucked into a free cake & juice before we both walked back to the car. I enjoyed the new location although it would have been a much better experience if The Son had not suddenly flicked his ‘teenage mode ‘ switch into the on position.
Running Dan parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:32:00
- Garmin time: 0:35:29
- Gun position: 55 / 70
- Gender position: 39 / 40
- Age category: SM35-39
- Age grade: 42.03 %
The Son parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:32:00
- Garmin time: not taken
- Gun position: 56 / 70
- Gender position: 40 / 40
- Age category: JM14
- Age grade: 49.32 %
