Tail'walking' #loveparkrun

We're in Scotland on holiday, staying in Aberdour for the festival and Donkey Brae run. On Saturday we were parkrun tourists and visited the Beveridge Park (named after John's family*) in Kirkcaldy. The course is two laps of the track running around the park and, as I've brought Mac McLaren with me, I (somewhat naively) thought I'd give it a go....

The Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy 

*Beveridge is a common family name in Fife 

So, at 9.30am** I managed to self-propel for maybe a couple of hundred metres before accepting more than a little bit of welcome help from one of the tailwalkers. We then turned the corner and started the ascent up Mount Beveridge. In theory the descent should have been easy, except that Mac (being a tail-dragger) has a habit of spinning out of control around corners or when attempting to brake. In the end I left steering to my assistant and concentrated on putting power in. John and Ali joined us as we completed the final lap. Fortunately, none of us had barcodes so the near hour it took is lost forever to historical record.

With tailwalker Sandie from Dunfermline 

**parkrun in Scotland starts at 9.30am in order to give everyone chance to recover from the indulgences of the night before.


Haha, next time it'll be a flat course, I'll take an assistant to steer, I'll wear gloves to avoid nasty blisters and just maybe I should one day invest in a real racing chair. Don't get me wrong, I've no desire to go fast, just get round parkrun without having to apologise to the tailwalker. But once completed, another run calls and before I know it I'll be a chair-parkrunner ever searching for my next PB..... #loveparkrun

Volunteering #loveparkrun

Crikey, no posts for over a month! The sun has been shining and we've been as busy as ever getting outside in the fresh air: cycling, swimming and volunteering at our (now 11 week old) Street parkrun.

#parkrun is a weekly 5k timed run, jog or walk around a park or similar public space away from roads. #parkruns take place every* Saturday morning at 9am throughout the year come rain or shine. Friendly, inclusive, everyone welcome and completely free to enter!

Originally started in the UK in 2004
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkrun
parkrun has spread around the world and to date about 4.5 million people have registered with the event.

To enter you register online
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/ 
and print off your personal unique barcode. Then simply turn up (don't forget your barcode!) at about 8.45am (in time to listen to the pre-run briefing) on Saturday morning at any parkrun location worldwide. At 9am the run will be started and off you go! As you reach the finish line after 16 minutes* (you're very fast and probably came first!), 26 minutes* (a highly respectable run time), 36 minutes* (running/jogging), 46 minutes* (a good fast walk, or walk/running) or 56 minutes* (walking steadily) your barcode and a team of volunteer timekeepers, barcode scanners record your name and time. In about an hour's time your phone will ping as a link to the results is received. Magic! 

*Note - Street parkrun is flat, others are more challenging so be prepared to add a few minutes for hills.

Well, not quite magic, it's all down to a team of volunteers who turn up every Saturday from about 8am and transform an ordinary park into a 5k course complete with start line, route markers, marshalls and finish funnel. Then there's the results processor to upload the timers and barcode scanners to a nifty bit of online parkrun software.

Street parkrun volunteers 

I'm in there somewhere 

As you probably know, I used to love getting out for a run, carried on (sort of) a few years post MS and badly missed it when I had to stop. I love to encourage others to run and for this reason was keen to get involved early on when I heard that our local Parish Council were hoping to establish a parkrun in Street. More selfishly, my son has also taken up running over the last year or so and if parkrun gets half of my DNA up and running for 9am every Saturday that's great!

Street parkrun

He's in there somewhere

 http://www.parkrun.org.uk/street/news/2018/06/25/street-parkrun-report-8-230618/





*extreme weather conditions (floods, hurricanes and blizzards....) excepted