Faster than Mo

On Saturday, we went to Penrose parkrun – Stuart, my mum, baby M and I. It was a bit grey and overcast, but surprisingly warm. Stuart and I had chosen to test our ‘new’ buggy. It’s an old Mountain Buggy Terrain. We’ve bought it to take on holiday with us so that if it gets broken, we won’t be upset.

On arrival at Penrose parkrun, their photographer came to take a photo of us (she was taking pictures of all of the visiting tourists).

Tackling the crowds at Penrose parkrun

Stuart was running on his own, whereas I’d agreed to run with my mum. My mum positioned herself appropriately and then I positioned myself at the back. This is one thing I hate about parkrunning with a buggy – “If possible start from the back of the field and try to keep to one side of the main body of runners.” In my opinion, it would be better to start with runners of comparable speed (but to the side). I’ve comfortably run under 27 minutes with Baby M, so if I start at the back, I have to pass a lot of people which seems more dangerous than starting at the side.

Anyway… after a few minutes, M and I managed to catch up with my mum. It was her 8th parkrun and she decided to push herself for a PB.

Penrose parkrun is an out and back course. It’s not as beautiful as when we first tried it (the old course went out on the cliffs and was much tougher), but it’s still a nice run.

Almost as fast as Mo

I thought mum and I were doing well until the first finisher passed us just 1.2km in. I was quite surprised and glanced at my watch. The runner looked quite comfortable. He was a cani-cross runner. I guessed that his finishing time would be around 16 minutes.

[In the evening, I looked up the details of the first finisher (a chap called Ben Robinson from Bristol and West AC). His dog-assisted time was 13:23, which is less than a minute slower than the 5000m world record and 11 seconds slower than Mo’s last 5000m! Wow!]

Some time later, Stuart passed us and called out. For someone who had said they were going to take it easy, he was looking quite quick. (He finished in 21:09).

The second half

Mum, M and I continued to the turn around point. The course was much busier than usual as it’s in a tourist area, so it was nice to see that there were quite a few people behind us on the course.

At about 3.5km, we passed another cani-cross runner – a reluctant dachshund and his owner.

We continued running. I felt so proud of my mum as she ran almost the entire parkrun, just stopping to drink some water as it was very warm.

My mum finished in 45:01, which was a new PB for her. She was also pleased to have beaten 15 people. (Some people might argue that this isn’t the point of parkrun, but as my mum is almost always the penultimate finisher ahead of the tail walker, it was a victory for her).

Next stop, sub 45!