The return of parkrun....

It seems very weird not to have done a parkrun since I was in the UK back in February, ie before Coronavirus hit, but I have watched with interest as they have gradually restarted in various parts of the world - first in NZ and then in the various Australian states and territories.

Understandably Tasmania was one of the first to reopen and NSW would be one of the last (further delayed in many places by another small outbreak the weekend they were due to recommence), so it was quite exciting to think about attending one on my recent visit to Tassie.

I started off my trip staying with my friend Iestyn just south of Hobart and as I was there on a Saturday morning, we made the trip to his local course at Kingston Park parkrun (not to be confused with Kingston parkrun in London that I ran many moons ago). I knew that I wasn’t really recovered from my epic ultra a fortnight before, but I didn’t quite expect to feel so lethargic and plodgy as he showed me the route on a warmup trot. 

Wearing the stripy socks to be with the
 5:20 chicks in spirit for their fancy dress run

The route is slightly under 5K, but I guess you make up for that by having to do 6 x 180 degree turns during the run, and though it gently undulates, there are no taxing hills. I started relatively far back and so by the time we rounded the first tree to double back on ourselves off the grass and onto the path, I was behind about 50 runners including kids and buggies. All the turns (the route itself is vaguely a “Y” shape with you doing the first bit twice) meant that you got to see the speedsters at the sharp end of the field, and there seemed to be a good tussle on right at the front between a fast guy and an amazing lady. Iestyn himself wasn’t that far behind them either. 

Making it look like hard work!

I gradually worked my way up the field, overtaking many younger runners (and the buggy) and though I felt like I was going to have to stop on many occasions, closing people down gave me the motivation to keep going. I couldn’t make up the distance on the two guys that were in sight, but was very happy to finish with the position token 007 in a ladies V40 record time (the leading lady finished second overall and set a massive new ladies CR, with Iestyn also running a PB on the course so it was a good run all round).

Christmas Day is one day of the year that all countries are allowed to stage an extra parkrun (Coronavirus notwithstanding) and as I was staying in Launceston for Christmas and was up before anyone else (an early morning chat with my sister’s family over my Christmas breakfast and their Christmas Eve meal will do that!!), I decided to venture down to Launceston parkrun. Initially I had difficulty in finding how to get to the start, but luckily had plenty of time, and even chatted to another Christmas waif/stray (I recognised the Kirribilli Runners’ vest) who was visiting town from Sydney.

NSW refugees at parkrun

This course was the correct distance but was much flatter and faster than Kingston. The first km was on a trail along a flat levee by the North Esk river and then we ran down off the levee and proceeded to do a clockwise loop of the Heritage Forest along flat firetrails/paths. I had (as usual) moved up past many people along the levee and was in about 4th place as we started round the loop. Unfortunately, the lead runner was out of sight and just as I caught the two guys ahead of me we hit a bifurcation of the trail. With none of us being local, we weren’t sure which way to go, and someone had forgotten to put out the guiding cones (there were marshals of every other junction). We slowed, hesitated for a  brief time and then headed off to the right, and I was very relieved to then spot the “2km” marker post.

"Sprinting" back along the levee

After completing the loop, it was then a case of heading back to the levee and trying to look good running up the slope onto it (as the tailwalkers/runners were still coming out the other way), and then fighting the headwind for the last km back to the finish (why is it that you never feel as much benefit from a tailwind going out as you feel punishment from a headwind going back?). I was over the moon to finish second in what was a good time (for me) and although it was several minutes behind what some ladies have run on that course, it was still a LV40 record :-)

On Boxing Day morning, I’d had a rather broken night but didn’t seem capable of a lie in, so as it was a Saturday morning, I again headed off in search of a parkrun. I had planned on jogging over to a trail-type of course nearby, but found it rather an effort so I mainly walked over there but still got rather hot and sweaty. It was nice to catch up with Amy and her partner Jono there, as I’d gotten to know them a bit over the course of the C2K run three weeks beforehand. Unlike me (as I’ve found a lack of motivation to do much as my body recovers from the Ultra), Amy said that she was enjoying running again but found it hard to do intervals/efforts as her legs were still lacking that “zip” (I’m not sure mine ever had any!!!).

She still set off like a bat out of hell as the run started down a firetrail dotted with various rocks and roots to take out unwary runners, and soon disappeared off into the distance out of sight. The course was definitely a tough one as it was on mountain bike trails so mainly undulating single track with twists, turns and lots of tree roots and boulders. I didn’t think I’d be making up many places during that run as you couldn’t get into a rhythm due to little scrambles and always having to be very alert as to where you were placing your feet (it appears that almost every week, someone takes a tumble!).

A good C2K catch-up

I was surprised to pass a lad that had been part of Amy’s C2K support crew on a wider stretch with about a km to go……though he was blaming it on his Christmas pudding from the day before. I guess he thought I would try to chase Amy down but I was more than happy for her to take the victory and mentioned it was “all about the age grading” - teeheehee…….there have to be some benefits to getting old!

Surprisingly enough, she did actually come into sight as I reeled her in unintentionally and I actually caught her with about 500m to go (along with a young orienteer lad who’d set off rather too fast and his stomach was rebelling!) and so (although that last 500m seemed to take forever as the single track wound up and around away from the finish before finally heading back to it), again I managed to cross the line in second place (Jono was long finished) and although it seemed a rather slow time, this time I managed to claim the overall ladies’ CR and age graded record……not a bad effort but it mean I needed lots of ice cream to recover before flying back to NSW!