Osterley bound, Other Dan off-piste, gingerbread man and hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.
The Son was sleeping and Other Dan was by himself so we did a time check at Hanger Lane and made the decision to head across to Osterley parkrun. Other Dan hasn’t had the chance to run at Osterley yet and my parkrun at the inaugural was a slow jog chatting away to The Son.
Parking is free for parkrunners at Osterley so I held up my parkrun barcode at the car park entrance and we jogged up to the manor house as we only had 5 minutes until parkrun o’clock. The run briefing was already under way on the steps of the main house, which is new location since the inaugural, so we hurried across to leave our tops by the finish funnel.
The start line has also moved up to be in line with the side of the house and the run now officially starts on the third chime of the stable block bell. There were a few false movements as the clock chimed once but everyone waited for the third chime and the field of runners was off.
The course has not changed much since my previous visit although the bottom edge rutted section now has puddles and the tree roots in the wood section have received a coating of tree friendly white paint.
My aim was to hit a sub-25 time today and I was bang on target as the first lap finished. However, my stomach began to mumble & groan and I started to regret the pizza I shared with The Son last night. I carried on through the second lap only to find Other Dan running across my path from the wrong direction as I exited the woods. The runner in front of him had carried on following the path around rather than following the turn sign and Other Dan had followed.
My stomach was getting worse and I knew a visit from the gingerbread man was on the cards so I diverted into the toilets, which are handily placed by the finish funnel. By the time I emerged back onto the course there was no chance of hitting my sub-25 target so instead I picked off distant runners and chased them down.
At the finish, Other Dan was chatting away to the event director while wondering if I had got lost on the course. We eventually met up to share stories of wrong turnings and emergency visits to the toilet before making our way to the café for a welcome hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows.
Running Dan parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:28:22
- Garmin time: 0:28:23
- Finish position: 32 / 53
- Gender position: 24 / 34
- Age category: SM35-39
- Age grade: 47.77 %
