22nd February: Parkrun

Yesterday I popped my park run cherry along with LSS, Spud and Heidi… We all piled in to the van and headed off 8 miles down the road to Basingstoke for the Parkrun there. Having been told of the battle to get a parking space, we decided to park in the centre of town, paying for a couple of hours just to be sure and walked the short distance to the start line with the dogs eager and ready to run.

Heidi & Spud eager to go.

We arrived with about 20 minutes to go for the start and watched as more and more people arrived till I estimated around 400 of us were gathered for the start… All shapes and sizes, all abilities and about a dozen people running with canine companions. After the briefing we all filed along to the start where when 9 o'clock arrived and we departed as a mass start.

The march to the start.

The Parkrun organisation has been burgeoning over the last few years since its inception and there are now 300 of them in the UK. They are also active in the USA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Poland, Denmark and Russia. The runs are simple in their organisation, with volunteers manning them, and wherever they are, they will always start at 9am on the Saturday. All of the runs are 3 miles (5k) in length, and they work on a barcode basis where upon finishing you are given a positional fob with a barcode that is scanned along with your unique Parkrun ID barcode (allocated for free upon registering on the Parkrun website) and everything is reconciled and published on the run's website later that day.

Ultra-runner extraordinaire Barry Miller has previously recommended me adding Parkruns to my training mix as a way to boost my VO2 levels so that when needs be I can up my tempo for a good few miles at the very least. Pini has also been a good exponent of the virtues of them, as has my uni-friend Claire who has become a regular at her parkrun down Pompey way… and it was one of her chats with LSS that piqued her interest and made the suggestion we head down for her first ever organised run.

I had been warned by Pini that because of it being a massed start, if you want to get away quick and minimise your time then you need to elbow your way to the front of the group. With Spud roped to me I could not really do that and besides I knew I would certainly not be one of the fastest runners, so I started about a third of the way back, leaving LSS and a very excited and chunnering Heidi towards the rear.

From my trail running experiences, a bit of mud holds no fear for me, and with Spud running alongside I decided to stick to the grass and mud beside the path rather than clog-up the tarmac with everybody else. Soon I was well in to my stride and moving through the field, getting plenty of surprised looks from those being overtaken by a fat bloke with a dog running over the slippery mud with greater ease than they could ever dream of and faster than them on Tarmac… The secret of this purely being the trail trainers on my feet as opposed to the road trainers favoured by nigh-on everyone else!

The course was 2.5 laps of Basingstoke's War Memorial Park, with a stretch of about 150 metres being across a playing field, which really slowed down those without any grips in their trainers, and allowed me to chuckle at a few Bambi on ice impersonations in front of me. At around half distance, Spud decided he really needed to lay some cable, so he dropped his bum and deposited what could best be described as a blancmange, which I had to do my best to scoop into a poo-bag and deposit in the nearest bin. This cost us a minute in time and plenty of places, but hey, it's the hazard of running with a hound, so we continued onwards at our previous pace trying to regain those places we had lost.

In what seemed like a flash, well 22 minutes and change, it was all over and Spud and myself waited at the finish for LSS and Heidi to finish their round; crossing the line pink of cheek and short of breath. She had made it… LSS had finished her first ever organised run having thoroughly enjoyed herself.

About to cross the finish line.

All smiles.

The atmosphere of the event was very laid-back and enjoyable. There were runners of ages 5-85 there, with some seriously quick times laid-down at the front of the run and times for those who had managed to get around by walking, which were as big an achievement as anyone's... Let’s not forget that all of them are far faster than those people still tucked-up in bed on a winter Saturday’s morn.

Aside from the two of us, there were a few other out there running with their dogs - a mixed bunch of breeds and sizes, with the organisers really welcoming the four legged runners to the event, although there were a few sniffy looks from some runners - mostly those who were not happy at being overtaken by a dog and its owner as they ran flat-out on their own effort.

Both LSS and I thoroughly enjoyed the run and will certainly be back for more with the dogs. A big thank you goes to the volunteers who organise the runs on a weekly basis and the atmosphere, which for the majority, was very friendly.


Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.