Today was meant to be the proverbial killing of two birds with one parkrun. The Eagles were making a trip from the Gunnersbury parkrun nest to visit Richmond parkrun and this would have been the final parkrun destination for The Son to catchup with all the parkrun locations I have run at.
I ran at Richmond parkrun on Christmas Day in the rain with The Son sheltering at home but once again he failed to run but this time it was just because he did not fancy running today. Fair enough I suppose.
Mrs Dan had planned to run so she changed her plans by accompanying The Son to Pembroke Lodge for breakfast while I tackled Richmond parkrun with my friend Dan, who I had once again picked up from Hanger Lane station.
The course is a single 5km lap on the tarmac, hard ground trails and small sections of grass on a section of Richmond Park. This time out I ran with Dan and we chatted away together for the first 4km to make sure we kept our speed down as both of us are deep into marathon training with 20 mile runs planned for the next day.
We were lucky enough to run past a large herd of deer during the first part and I am sure they were all staring at the crazy early morning runners wondering what was going on. We picked up the pace for the last km, with Dan pulling slightly ahead of me, and the finish line was soon in sight.
I tailed just behind a fast-moving lady and we both picked off a couple of runners ahead of us. Unfortunately she unexpectedly stopped just before the finish line so I ended up sprinting past her through the finish funnel. Thankfully we both received the same finishing time although I took the higher finishing position by the virtue of me running through the finish line and not slowing down just before it.
Even taking it easy I managed to set a new Richmond parkrun PB. We both agreed that they have a really nice course and the undulations are fun because what goes up must come down so the downhill sections are good fun.
I stayed to cheer in a few Eagle finishers behind us and take a few pictures before we walked back to Pembroke Lodge to meet Mrs Dan & The Son for a hot chocolate and biscuit. The Son gave the chocolate 9 out of 10 so Black Park has some serious competition for the title of ‘nicest parkrun hot chocolate’.
Running Dan parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:22:59
- Garmin time: 0:22:58
- Finish position: 91 / 311
- Gender position: 81 / 202
- Age category: SM35-39
- Age grade: 58.96 %
