I’ve had months of telling myself that Swindon is too far to go on Saturday morning for a 5K Parkrun (and let’s be honest, it involves being up way too early for my liking). Despite really enjoying the one I did go to, it wasn’t enough to prod me to go again. After all, I do my running during the week- I don’t need to go on Saturday morning as well, do I? It would be so easy if only there was a Parkrun close to me, I kept telling myself.
My bluff was called. After much organization and debate the inaugural running of the Chippenham Parkrun was announced – on the 12th April 2014. Unfortunately I couldn’t make that date, but I could make the pilot run on 5th April -no more excuses.
On the morning itself, having convinced myself I didn’t have far to go and that there was no need to get to a Parkrun early, I ended up running late. I sprinted through Monkton Park looking for the start and was relieved to see people in hi-viz yellow -surely that must be it? It was of course, and I was there in plenty of time.
At the pre-run briefing, after having the course explained to us (2 laps of a part of the park, followed by 2 laps of another part of the park), we held a minute’s silence for a runner that had collapsed and died at another Parkrun a week ago. It was a sobering thought, The silence was punctuated with bird song, faint traffic noise, and the beep of people’s Garmin watches. It seemed to sum up everything about Parkrun, and I hope he would have approved.
Before we had time to get too philosophical about life and running, we were off. There were only thirty runners so we didn’t overcrowd the path, and the laps were fine and not as boring as the thought of them had been. All of the marshalls were encouraging and had no problems identifying which lap we were on. It might be a different story with more runners and a larger spread of speeds, and will be interesting when faster runners lap others.
As I finished I was delighted to be given the 10th position barcode. I don’t think I’ll ever hold that one again.
Tenth position
As we finished, I was chatting to a lady who’d been pulled around the course by her dog at high speed. Another runner next to us joined in our conversion, and then made my day by asking if I was Lucy, because he’d been reading my blog. A fan! A real life fan!! Darren, it was lovely to meet you, and hopefully I’ll see you at Parkrun again soon.
In our house, Saturday mornings are for having a well earned lie-in. Or even a not-earned-at-all lie-in. On Friday though, our builders had informed us that they would be arriving to pour concrete at 7.30am. On Saturday morning. sigh. Seeing as I was going to be up anyway, and seeing as a combination of builders and children had restricted my running this week, I decided it was time to dip my toe in the Parkrun water.
8:15am found me driving along the motorway to Swindon. My closest Parkruns are both around 30 minutes drive away (another reason I’ve not been before) and I wanted to be there in good time to park, find where the start was and, most importantly, find a toilet (a pre-race essential). It’s a few years since I’ve been to Lydiard Park and I wasn’t sure I could remember where everything was.
I found my way easily and parked closest to the cafe. I was reassured to see other runners getting out of their cars – at least I’d have people to follow! I asked a man, who was with his daughter, if he knew where we had to go (and if there were any toilets). He said he’d only run Swindon once before, a year ago, but they were on holiday so thought they’d come along. I’d met my first Parkrun tourists!
I locked up the car and followed them past the cafe (where he helpfully pointed out the toilets). I then walked on down the path and found people in Parkrun hi-viz jackets putting up a gazebo. I set off for a little warmup ‘jogette’ and explore. I soon found Lydiard House – and quite stunning it was too, with the sun behind the clouds and the leaves starting to turn orange.
As I got back to the gazebo, a few more runners had gathered and more were appearing down the paths all the time. There were youngsters, parents with running buggies, runners of all ages, shapes and sizes. There were also lots of four-legged runners, excited looking dogs attached to their owners’ waists by ‘hands-free’ leads. As I stood waiting, my carpark friend reappeared, pointed out where the start was, and described the route to me. He also helpfully pointed out the fact that the finish wasn’t at the start, but was just over the startline around a corner. Important info when timing your sprint finish! When I told him I was hoping for a time of 25 minutes he said he’d seen a 25 minute pacer and to look out for a tall chap in an orange hi-viz best with ’25’ on the back.
More runners gathered, and then we were being addressed by a lady with a megaphone who asked for ‘absolute silence’. As I commented to a man stood next to me, the dogs obviously hadn’t heard the bit about ‘silence’, as they were doing a great impression of the Hounds of the Baskervilles. I think they knew what was coming and were keen to be off. She said to be careful because the path was wet and to keep off the grass. She asked if there was anybody who was at their first Swindon Parkrun. I sheepishly put my hand up, received a round of applause, and a whisper in my ear from my neighbour that that meant I had to buy the teas at the end.
Next thing the hooter sounded, the dogs howled and we were off. I had been warned that the paths were narrow without much room for overtaking, and I learnt that was no exaggeration. For the first half mile I found myself jogging along at a very sedate pace. I could see a pacer in front of me with a large ’35’ on his back. I decided I had to move up through the pack of runners so employed a combination of skipping through gaps between runners and blatant overtaking by running on the grass at the side of the path until I could see the ’30’ pacer. He was running at about 8:30 minutes per mile pace so I carried on running at his speed.
The route heads away from Lydiard House, along paths around the surrounding fields. Two laps of a triangular course mean you can see runners both ahead and behind you for most of the way around. It is a pretty route, and every junction had a smiling marshal indicating the way. By the second lap I was feeling the run in my legs, so it was amusing and amazing to see how the dogs were trotting along quite easily, enjoying every step. I didn’t envy the dog owner who had to stop when their little dog wanted to investigate a small stream, nor the owner who was having to run whilst carrying a (full) dog poo bag.
As we came along the final straight I was glad I’d been told that the finish was not at the start (which we could see ahead of us), but was a sharp left turn and a short way ahead. I crossed the line, was handed my finishers token and walked round to the gazebo to be scanned. I chatted with other runners again as I rummaged in my pocket for my barcode. It is a simple system that obviously works well to record your time and position.
I drove home fairly happy with my time of 27:39. I hadn’t beaten my PB of 26:46 but after my slow start I hadn’t expected to. However I had made it to my first ever Parkrun and really enjoyed it.
My daughter made me this badge. I wore it.
I loved getting a text later on that day with my official time, and when I followed the link to the Parkrun results page I was amazed to see I’d finished 138th out of 288 runners, I was the 28th female finisher, and for my age category I’d finished third!
