End of year parkruns

As usual, the end of the year came around all too soon. It was filled with lots of events and family meet ups, so I had barely any time to blog.

Volunteering at Southampton parkrun on 24/11/18

Stuart and I were Run Directors at Southampton parkrun on 24th November. It turned out to be a very wet run.

After the event, we had to wash and dry all of the volunteer hi-vis vests. It was a big job as there are about 75. As it was still raining, it wasn’t possible to hang them on the washing line to dry. We don’t have room indoors, so our washing machine and tumble dryer were in use all day.

Volunteering at Southampton parkrun on 01/12/18

The following Saturday was a completely different experience. It was the usual organised chaos getting all of the volunteers signed in, high-vis vests handed out and equipment explained. We were a couple of minutes late getting everyone to the start line and the first timers’ briefing completed. As I was about to start my briefing, my mobile phone rang. Normally, I would ignore it, but I could see that it was a mobile number. I felt I ought to answer it.

Sadly, it was one of our volunteers explaining that they had just found a body.

I had some quick discussions with the Event Director and other Run Directors who were around. We considered various options including delaying the start and rerouting the run. In the end, we did not want to get in the way of the emergency services.

At 9:15am, we cancelled the event. It was then onto letting all of the volunteers know and gathering the kit back in. Embarrassingly, I managed to mislay a visually impaired runner’s white stick, but after a quick search we located it. Phew!

Stu and I then needed to sort out all of the parkrun ‘paperwork’. I was unsure what to do about the volunteers, many of whom had been on the Common for over an hour by the time everything was gathered in. I sent their details in to parkrun HQ. Unfortunately, this caused problems, so event #335 exists online with an unknown runner in 59:59 as the only finisher. Apologies all.

Man’s body found in Southampton Common Lake

Four runs in a row at Southampton parkrun

I then ran four parkruns in a row at Southampton. I didn’t manage to break 30 minutes for any of them, which was frustrating.

I wanted to run sub 29 minutes on Christmas Day, but I was feeling really unwell. I decided to give up on that plan. My goal was just to finish the race. I also knew I would find it hard to run fast. It was quite a warm day and I had on a long-sleeved top.

How did I do this year?

So, that was the end of my parkrun year. Fortunately, my best time for 2018 was 27:18. It says 29:02 in the emails above. That’s my best time for the parkrun year which runs from the event’s anniversary.

I have two goals for the start of 2019: beat 29:02 and then beat 27:18. It’s been my slowest parkrun year since I started parkrunning in 2010.

I did a bit of parkrun tourism in 2018, visiting 10 ‘new’ parkruns, as well as doing a pilgrimage to Bushy. However, I only ran 37 times.

What are your parkrun goals for 2019?