parkrun #38: Harrow

It was off to Harrow last week, with Avril, Chris, Miriam and Jonny. Miriam and Jonny headed off from the start at high speed, with me, Avril and Chris in a group behind.

The course is 3 and a bit laps round, entirely on tarmac. The ‘bit’ of a lap is an extra mini loop midway through the first lap. There are a couple of long-ish but not-too-steep uphill sections on each lap. Early on in the run, we were overtaking and being overtaken by someone in a racing wheelchair, which makes you really notice the hills. Looked tough on the up, but an absolute breeze going down!

Avril, Chris and I decided that we’d run through the finish together, and lined ourselves up side-by-side, only to be told by the event team that ‘it doesn’t work like that’. Team loyalty immediately out the window, Avril dashed first over the line, and I quickly followed, leaving a surprised-looking Chris trailing behind.

A post-parkrun stretch

 

Thanks very much to Avril, Chris, Miriam and Jonny for joining me on the run, and a particular congratulations to Avril, who knocked half a minute off her previous PB (see results).

And thanks as ever to the volunteers for putting on such a fantastic event 🙂

I’m running a different parkrun each week of the year to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK. Please head over to my JustGiving page if you have a few pennies spare for a great cause.

And more importantly, some post-parkrun tea and cake

 

Meanwhile…

…Over on the other side of London, in Mile End, parkrun announced a new partnership with GoodGym. I’m a very recent convert to GoodGym, and was pleased to hear the announcement.

GoodGym is a group that combines running with volunteering. I’ve now done a couple of group runs, where we’ve met, run 2-3k, done some gardening at a local community centre, and then run 2-3k back. I was impressed by how smooth the whole operation was, and found it a good motivator to get out and do a mid week run.

They currently have several groups in London, Bristol, Bath and Essex, and are looking to expand across the rest of the country.