Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

A change to the course this week, following last week's kerfuffle, to take us down through the flood channel and back up before joining the main path, avoiding the worst of the narrowed section in the process. Having started a long way back, I put in a very slow first kilometre, a modest second one, and three very fast ones to finish, pulling back enough time to finish in 20:46. Not bad given that I stood around for a good 15 seconds after the whistle went, waiting for people to start moving. Rather than waiting around at the finish, I ran to the climbing centre, got myself scanned, ran back to the finish and then headed off along the footpath on the eastern side of the canal, and round to bridge over the river. On the other side, I met up with D, who was marshalling, around the same time as the tail runner was coming through. I helped to pick up the signs and we walked back to the start — the other volunteers thought it was pretty funny that I'd finished the 5K and then run the course again — where I got the inside story on the course alteration.

With the others away this week — either on-call or at Glastonbury — and with E taking it easy after picking up a minor shoulder tweak, it was down to me to run solo. Happy, I bumped into FG at the briefing and we got talking about times and conditions and I said I was sure he'd make his target time of 20 minutes. As we made it to the start, I got talking to MB who was pacing 30 minutes, and didn't really worry too much about getting to the front.

Despite being cooler than last week, the humidity felt much higher and conditions weren't exactly ideal for a super-fast time, so I started gently and sped up towards the middle. As I hit the last klick, I started to catch up with F and we pulled each other along and I finished in 20:23 after confusing the total distance field on my watch with my current pace and suddenly cranking up the speed. Still finished 19th out of a field of 235 — much smaller than last week — and managed to get to the Quay quickly enough that I was only the second person to get my barcode scanned.

With D away on a pre-wedding event this morning, I hatched a plan to meet up with E and run at Killerton. And because dogs are allowed there, L decided to being Kira along for a spot of exercise. Once there, we discovered that JF was the week's run director — I subsequently discovered it was his first time and he said it was pretty stressful but got easier once everything was in motion — and lurked around at the start waiting for the off.

I didn't get going particularly cleanly: I forgot to start my watch and had to pause to unlock it before setting it off, so I decided to run the first kilometre or so with E. Once I started to feel warmed up, I began to crank the pace and started overtaking people. Unfortunately, the paths made it hard to pass people without being a total jerk about it, so I kept on varying my pace until we got to the lane at the mid-point, where I really accelerated.

I finished in a very slow 21:41 (my watch, which excluded the time I'd spent fussing about at the start, told me I'd finished in a bit over 21 minutes) but when I reviewed my lap times afterwards, I discovered that my pace over the back part of the course had been extremely fast indeed, which explains how I was able to claw quite so much time back and why I was still overtaking people right up to the finish.

Talking to L after the finish, I gathered that he'd had a tough time and his running partner hadn't been on her best behaviour. And as if to illustrate the point, she somehow managed to tear the attachment point off her harness and dash off towards another dog. L got her back under control very quickly — and the other dog-owner was very nice about it — but he decided he was too frazzled to stay.

E and I set ourselves up at one of the tables in the stable courtyard and settled down for tea. We were joined by a couple who were looking after a lovely little rescue terrier — they said she was some sort of staffie cross — for the weekend and had taken her round parkrun. They said they'd seen Kira — L said something about her growling at a terrier — but they too were very nice about the problems of having a rescue dog, especially when it's as large as a huskie.

Afterwards, we took a spin around the plant section of the NT shop to allow E to check out the dahlias — she was mainly interested in the various purple-shaded bishop cultivars, which she reckoned would suit her current planting scheme. With the weather still slightly overcast and uncertain, we called it a morning and headed home.

Up and out for a very humid run this morning — despite the forecast predicting a modest chance of rain this morning, we had nothing, with most of the moisture well and truly stuck in the atmosphere. Despite wearing my sleeveless top for the first time this year — I always have to aclimatise myself to the way my ponytail slaps me on the shoulders when the sleaves go — I was still so sweltering I had to take off my sunglasses partway through.

Once again, with the course more constricted and constrained than usual, I started slow and cranked up the pace to finish in an adequate 20:32. The course was slightly longer than normal — the marshals respsonsible for the field section had been extremely diligent and marked it out so that it went right into the very corners, erroring on the side of too long rather than too short; a decision I very much agree with!

Despite it being my 70th run, I can't feel too smug: there was someone there celebrating their 400th run! An amazing achievement. Looking at their recent runs, it looks like they're doing a grand tour, running at a different place every weekened, with Exeter happening to coincide with one of their big numbers. And rather charmingly, they'd brought along cake to celebrate!

A big field this morning — well over 400 — and rather haphazard start. I was so far back I didn't even hear the countdown. It took me a good few seconds to start my watch, and even then I noticed I spent a good 6-8 seconds waiting for the group to start moving.

Despite the slow start, I managed to pull things back and finished in 20:33 and completing the last kilometre at a 3:40 pace — I was very determined I wasn't going to finish in more than 21 minutes and because I wasn't precisely sure how much time I'd lost at the start, I wanted to be sure I was well under the cut-off.

A surprisingly quick run, finishing in 19:58 after I noticed my watch ticking down towards the magic twenty minute barrier as I was approaching the end and made the decision to blitz it.

A misty morning down by the river, with the sun just starting to break through as we reached the finish. Following my current tactic of starting slightly more gently and cranking up the pace towards the end — something that makes the run rather more enjoyable — I finished in 20:10 and 25th out of 294 runners. A solidly satisfactory result...

This morning's run didn't get off to a terribly good start, thanks to a large crane that was blocking the usual access path along by the river. Today was obviously the day they were dropping some of the boats that had been over-wintering in the yard back into the water for the sailing season, and the only place the crane could reach those on the eastern side was from the embankment.

Almost immediately after, near disaster struck as I was crossing the small pedestrian bridge over canal. The bridge is currently surrounded by netting and scaffolding which has reduced the already small walkway down to something that can just about accomodate two people walking abreast. I was fiddling with my watch as I approached. I paused because I thought I could hear people coming up behind me and didn't want to step in their way. I turned to look behind me, saw they'd stopped, and stepped out onto the left-hand side of the path.

As I did so, a runner coming the other way ran straight into my right shoulder. Being much smaller and lighter than me, half of her stopped abruptly and the other half carried on with enough momentum to spin her through 180 degrees. Miraculously she managed to straddle the metal bollard in the middle of the path — intended to separate the flow of pedestrians to prevent this sort of thing — only to land on her bum, facing the opposite direction to the one she'd been running in, looking a bit dazed and confused.

Luckily she didn't seem hurt — she checked her elbows for damage and both were intact — and we both apologised profusely. I said that I hadn't been looking ahead of me and she said that she'd though I'd stopped — which I had — and hadn't realised I'd taken a step forward. I suspect neither of us was to blame: it was just one of those things that happens when there are lots of people in a confined area and where a bridge which ought normally to be more than wide enough for such things, has been width restricted for maintenance reasons. Anyway she must've been OK because I saw her finish the 5K in well under 24 minutes.

The run itself went OK and I followed my current strategy of starting slightly slower and building up the pace later; not that I had much choice in the matter given my position on the starting grid. I finished in a respectable but not stellar 20:21 and 33rd overall — there was a big field with plenty of very fast people, so I'm not too unhappy with my result — while D cracked the 24 minute barrier for the first time since January.

Feeling distinctly coldy this morning, I nonetheless decided not to skip this morning's run. Despite feeling OK on arrival L told me about a cycling event he'd done where one of the competitors had died because they had 'flu, which crystallised my decision to take it gently.

I started with the others, shamelessly chattering away for the first half-klick before deciding that I couldn't face holding the same pace over the entire run and pushing up the pace to something like my usual non-parkrun cruising speed. Pottering round the course at something less than full-on meant that I had a chance to really enjoy the run, to take in the scenery, and to feel the camaraderie of running in a big group. By the half-way point, my natural tendency to push had asserted itself and I noticed I was gradually picking up speed. I managed to hold things back to a sensible pace for the next kilometre but by the time we reached the bridge, I finally gave in and opened the throttle all the way. I eventually finished in a respectable 20:39 and, when I checked my splits, I completed my final klick in 3:40 — a solid 30 seconds faster than my first K.

The others finished in decent time and L, who'd been hoping for a fast one, came within 14 seconds of a PB. E reported that results from Killerton were initially a bit problematic with everyone showing up as 59:59 but they must have switched to their backup timer because later in the day they'd corrected the times showing that she finishing in just under 30 minutes.

Afterwards we retired to D&P's place for tea and, in their case, bacon sarnies, and quality dog time. After loafing around for most of the morning and allowing myself to be used as a puppy climbing frame, we went for a walk along the canal. Along the way we met RW, who was out with wife and collie, and saw part of the Men's Walk — an eight mile sponsored walk down to the Turf Locks and back in support of Hospice Care. At this point, I decided to head home, turning left, running up from the river and taking the long but more gradual climb back up from the river.

This week's parkrun was also the first following the retirement of the points league. Despite being at the head of Riverside's table — I'd accumulated 2220 points since last August — I'm not to sorry to see it go. Of course I'm in a privileged position: I get the warm feeling of having my achievement recognised without the embarrassing — to me, at least! — prospect of actually winning anything.

But I agree with the parkrun organisers' decision completely. The league rewarded those of us who attend the same run regularly and who consistently finish high up the order. It didn't do much for people who move around a lot, who can't make it every week, or who are squeezed out of the top hundred, and penalised people who volunteered more than four times a year.

In fact the very things I value about parkrun are antithetical to the points league.

The most important things to me are the community spirit and the sense of inclusion. I particularly like the way it encourages
people who don't think of themselves as runners to join in. Rather ironically, I considered myself a member of the latter category until M talked me into doing my first parkrun back in October 2015. Although I've long been someone who runs, I'd always been a bit reluctant to classify myself as a runner. Rather like E, when she did her first run at Killerton earlier this year, I considered "proper" runners to members of running clubs, people who took it seriously, and who went in for races. But one of things I realise, thanks to parkrun, is that it's not races or clubs that matter, it's just a case of running and anyone, regardless of how fast or slow they are or who seriously they take it, gets to call themselves a runner.

So I'm not sorry to see the league go in favour of a shift towards participation. And I think that without it, I think I'm going to go to Killerton more. And I think I'm going to volunteer more; I'd definitely like to be a pacer, because you still get run but you also get to give something back, but when they're short of marshals it often seems like an optional extra — albeit an extremely popular one.

To Killerton for parkrun this morning. The route was much less muddy than last time and I managed to finish in 20:47, easily peeling a minute off my previous time and qualifying myself for a new PB. It's also enough to put me well within TN's assigned time, effectively laying to rest the ghost of my first attempt where I just missed my appointed cut-off time.

But my improvement was as nothing compared to E who blitzed round and finished exactly two and a half minutes faster than last week and precisely 90 seconds ahead of her previous PB. In some ways I'm not particularly surprised: she has more determination than almost anyone I know and I'm frequently amazed by what she achieves when she tries...