I headed over to Walthamstow this week with Sophie, who has just moved to Tottenham and was trying out the parkrun as her new local.
The Peter May leisure centre
The course reminded me a lot of Winchester, which is the first parkrun I ever did. It’s based at a leisure centre, and is three laps round the playing fields, run entirely on grass. I’m told that it turns into a real mud-bath over the winter, and sometimes they have a temporary duck pond puddle (complete with ducks) on the finish line.
But conditions were good this week and I went a bit quicker than usual. I escaped my comfortable 27-minute pace by following someone called Karen, who is one of these super-women of parkrun, bounding effortlessly round the course, stopping to pick up fallen branches, and slowing to check with people who were walking that they were ok. I finished in under 26 minutes for the first time since March, and Sophie hit target by finishing in under 30 (see results).
We milled around chatting to some of the other parkrunners at the end, and once things quietened down, wandered across to Walthamstow for a cheap tea and coffee at the nearest greasy spoon. All in all a very successful morning, so many thanks to the volunteers for putting on such a good event.
Me and Sophie looking very orange!
I’m running a different parkrun every 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 🙂
52 parkruns, 52 weeks, 52 places 