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First Park Run in a while this morning. I thought I was arriving a bit later than usual, but the car park was pretty empty and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Back in July I’d turned up when a Park Run had been cancelled due to a murder investigation in the park. Stevenage is a rough place, but surely that hadn’t happened again. As I walked round the lake I could see a bit of Park Run paraphernalia, like signs pointing the way and bumpers on bollards, but there was not the usual crowd of runners at the start. It was like the Park Run had been abducted by aliens or maybe they’d changed the time. Both as likely as each other. Even though there was nothing on line, I assumed the run had been cancelled so started my run on my own, but just towards the start so I could confirm one way or another.
I was only 15 minutes early, but there was only one man waiting at the start. “What’s going on?” I asked him. “Park Run!? He said. “Oh right, I know. But where is everyone?” Was it just going to be me and him. Might be awkward.
It turned out that it was all going ahead and suddenly people arrived and the usual amount were there. They had left it a bit late. Or I had turned up earlier than usual (but I don’t think so). It was mildly unsettling, but from then on things continued as normal. I plodded along, some way off my record of the year of 26 and a bit minutes and even further off my time of just a year ago when I broke 5 minutes. It wasn’t over 30 minutes, but it wasn’t far off.
I had planned to do two half marathons in about a month’s time, but work commitments mean I can’t do the first one. I think I will give the other one a go, but I have not done enough training, so it might be tough. Apologies to the few people who sponsored me for the double half. I will try and pick up the other one (or do two close together) in 2023,. If anyone wants their charity donation back I will reimburse you.
I am annoyed that I’ve lost fitness and got a bit fat again and that I haven’t yet managed to set things back in the right direction. But I had a promising personal training session yesterday and it was good to get a proper run in this morning and I had a Leggera pizza at lunch (where they substitute the centre of the pizza for salad) so there’s hope. My back hurts and it’s entirely because of my tummy having got too big, so you’re think that would be enough (though obviously it’s a bit of a vicious circle as it makes exercise harder).
Nearly 20 years of Warming Up and how long have we been playing with this particular yoyo.
