parkrun #40: Eastleigh

Now I don’t like to pick favourites or anything…

 

…But Eastleigh is my favourite.

 

My favourite because it’s super friendly and encouraging. There are about a million volunteers with important jobs like ‘pompoms’, ‘final lap bell’ and ‘sweetie distributor’. Which really do make a big difference! And the runners are really supportive and chatty as well.

The course winds in a wish-bone shape round 3 laps of a disused golf course. It’s undulating and run entirely on grass, which is a bit on the uneven side and gets very sludgy over winter. (At the start of the year I think they were recommending football boots…)

I ran round with my friend Beth, who was on her first parkrun. We did a run-walk-run job of it, and finished in just under 40 minutes. Beth had imagined that the parkrun was a group of about 10 very serious lycra-clad men, and was surprised to find that over 200 people turned out to run ‘in Eastleigh?! While I’m normally asleep?!’.

Photo credits: Lily Coull (Thanks!)

 

My mum, dad and brother, who live in nearby Winchester and Southampton were also there. My parents both got personal bests, and my brother got a personal worst, having turned up a bit late and missed the start (see results).

Many thanks to the volunteers. And congratulations to Beth. I’ll be recommending Eastleigh to everyone I meet!

At the finish

 

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’re able to help out 🙂