Broken rules, just in time, thou shall not pass, Eagles chin-wag, low bridge, Lucifer, mud bath and surly service.
Last week I came up with a new rule for attending an inaugural parkrun: if I can get there by car or public transport within an hour then it’s fair game. It only took me one week to ignore that completely!
I saw the details appear for the inaugural Tonbridge parkrun appear during the week and casually checked just how long it would take to get there. I knew the distance was quite far but the journey would mostly be on the motorway so it might just be achievable. I then warped the RAC route planner from a 1 hour 7 minutes journey into a “I can get there in an hour” only to find that several miles of the motorway were restricted to 50mph due to road works.
Fortunately there was an extended run briefing so I had time to faff around trying to find the parkrun location after darting into a random car park and then following a few random parkrunners who also looked a bit lost. My planning was immaculate for the journey aside from checking Google for the actual start location. Not really immaculate at all then.
The start is on the edge of the rugby field, which was waterlogged, and the field of runners were soon squelching towards a tiny gap in a nearby hedge. We all came to a stop as all the runners passed through the gap in single file before picking up the pace again on the pathways.
The route continued on pathway, around the edge of a playing field, under a low bridge (luckily I am short so no need to duck), through woodland, across some small bridges (mostly named Lucifer… what was that all about?), around a lake and back to the finish through the same route.
I was running with a fellow Eagle and we spent the majority of the run chatting away before a decision to ramp up the pace for the final km. We skimmed across the pools of water at the end to storm through the finish funnel.
Everyone headed to the café inside the rugby club where most seemed to ignore the ‘no muddy shoes’ sign, which was bit of a shame. We shuffled in our socks to find a miserable woman serving the food and drinks who seemed to be mortally wounded when I asked if I could buy a slice of cake. It seemed that the cake was only for those that bought a tea or coffee and since I do not drink tea the conversation went downhill quickly.
Another great parkrun has joined the family!
Running Dan parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:27:10
- Garmin time: 0:27:10
- Finish position: 111 / 262
- Gender position: 93 / 160
- Age category: VM40-44
- Age grade: 50.25 %
