Volunteering at parkrun

On as many Saturday mornings as I can manage I join around 250 other people at one of my local parkruns. It's one of the best things since sliced bread if you ask me; a timed 5km run that's completely free thanks to a host of volunteers.

Over the past six years I've done 102 runs at 12 different locations across England (I'm yet to do a parkrun in Wales, Scotland or Ireland, or indeed one of the many that are springing up in other countries), and all thanks to the many people who don hi-viz come rain or shine and  make sure we're all safe. I can't quite believe I've been park running for that long, but there we have it. So I've done my fair share of running, so having reached my 100-run milestone and with the next milestone of 250 runs too far away to feel achievable, it's time to concentrate on giving something back. 

Prior to 2016 I volunteered 11 times across a variety of role including set up, marshal, finish tokens and barcode scanning. This year alone I've volunteered five times and in some new roles such as pacer and timekeeper, possibly the most nerve-wracking role there is! I enjoy donning my hi-viz just as much as my trainers, perhaps even more so, as I get to see all the action and cheer on every runner. 

Parkrun, as an organisation, now recognise the effort that volunteers put in by issuing them with their own milestone t-shirt after taking on 25 volunteer roles, in the same way as runners earn their t-shirts for 50, 100 and 250 runs. It's a great idea and although I'd do it for the love of it, I must admit it's a lovely touch. I can honestly say I don't have a favourite volunteer role, although pacing was a lot of fun. Even when the weather is shocking, wet, windy, cold, I still get out and do my bit. 

Every parkrun has an option for you to sign up to volunteer request emails and will have an email address that you can use to contact them and offer up your help. Please consider doing this even if you're not a runner, especially in holiday times when volunteers are often thin on the ground. It doesn't take up much of your day and you get o be part of something great. I ran my local parkrun last weekend, as it was their birthday event, but I've got my name down to volunteer for the next two weeks... role to be confirmed!

Have you volunteered at parkrun? Do you have a favourite role? Are you a runner who's never volunteered or a volunteer who's never run?

Getting Active in Bracknell Forest

My attention was recently drawn to an article in the Southwark News that suggests that the council will be charging personal trainers for using public parks. Although I can *sort* of see the logic behind it my over riding thought is that it's just one more barrier to getting people active.

I feel incredibly lucky to live in an area where the council takes such a great interest in public health and in encouraging people to get active. We have a huge range of facilities, both privately- and council-run and lots of green space. Of course it's one thing to have these facilities and quite another to ensure people are aware of them. I started to investigate the range of activities myself in my Berkshire Fitness Scene series, something I'd like to pick up again some time.

As a step towards raising awareness and encouraging people to get active, I've contributed to an article for Bracknell Forest Council touching on how it's never too late to get active and how it's key to find the right activity for you. Too many people have a misconception that exercise begins and ends in the gym. I even managed to get in a mention of RunFitUK! There's also input from the director of our brand new Bracknell parkrun.

The article does have a bias towards running but this is more due to editing and the coincidence that Bracknell parkrun is new to the scene. I'm delighted to be in discussion with BFC about a pilot scheme for encouraging those who are new to or hesitant about exercise and excited to be looking at different pathways through the scheme that aren't just running related. Early days but watch this space!

How do you rate the sports, recreational and keep fit activities in your area? What's your favourite, that little gem that you wish more people knew about? Do you feel that your council do enough to promote healthy living?

Killing Time Before Brighton

How nice was the Bank Holiday weekend in England for once?! Ok we got a bit of rain of Friday but Sunday and Monday were rather glorious and restful for me, for a change. So much of a change I feel compelled to write about it.

My Friday morning was given over to marshal duties whilst Saturday was a nice mix of volunteering at the first Bracknell parkrun (seeing lots of familiar faces and meeting the Mayor), running, dog walking and a few drinks for a friends' birthday.

But of course I'm on taper at the moment and as such the vast swathes of time I had at my disposal on Sunday and Monday could not be filled with hours of running. I did get out for a pre-breakfast 30 minute recovery run on Easter Sunday though. I decided to do a few laps of the lake in the nature reserve behind my house. It's only about three quarters of a mile round so don't run there generally but it's beautiful and I don't even go walking round there as much as I should. Although I did spend a very happy evening sitting on a bench looking over the lake with my ex-housemate and a bottle of wine once.

I had breakfast outside for the first time this year and spent the rest of the day eating more HCBs (toasted with cheese for lunch - really good) making bunting from some of my dads old shirts and watching the last episodes of Breaking Bad.

I got really restless though; I'm not used to having no plans! I pottered around on the allotment on Monday and got home just in time to meet the ice cream van...

Then I took myself back to the lake with a book and sat in the sun on a tree stump ,feeling very Tom Sawyer. A late lunch in the sun was followed by a snooze and an evening of cooking, baking and the cinema. It was absolute bliss I tell you, although I really, really wanted to run on Monday. I did get out at lunchtime yesterday though for a gentle hours jog in the sun and I've got lots of energy in my legs so I suppose it's all working.

Yes I'm wearing a daisy chain headband... what of it?

Spare moments were spent keeping up to date with how friends and notable celebs are doing in MdS. I'm not sure if MdS is distracting me from Brighton or the other way around!

How was your Easter weekend? Did you get active or chill out? Anyone else on taper finding they're disproportionately hungry at the moment?

Cake, Concerns and Case Studies

It's less than a month to go until the Brighton Marathon and so last weekend I did my longest run to date in this set of training; 3 hour run at marathon pace. I wasn't looking forward to it and although I managed to keep the average pace I had aimed for I'm still nervous that my longest run has only been 16 miles and that I have to maintain that for another 10 miles. If I'd designed my own training programme I'd have run further. My longest runs were 18 and 20 miles respectively in my previous marathon training. But I'm trying to keep the faith.

As if 3 hours of running wasn't enough I also took Jasper The Dog for an hours walk that day. Dogs don't care that you've run 16 miles. They tend to want to bound around for as long as you'll let them. I've grown very fond of Jasper very quickly and might try a bit of a jog with him next time.

The highlight of the weekend though was joining my friend Debbie for her 100th park run. As is customary there was cake. A huge Victoria sponge that was demolished in the cafe over talk of the Barcelona marathon and lashings of tea. Perfect.

I started the week feeling rather fatigued and ended up skipping my workout on Monday. I could feel that I needed the down time and so after PTing a friend and staying a while for dinner and a much-needed chat I ended up in bed around 9:30pm, falling asleep to an episode of Breaking Bad. I had the best nights sleep in around two weeks. I did Monday's workout on Tuesday after RunFit but still struggled. Despite feeling as though I was working hard I couldn't get my heart rate into the zone I was meant to. But I moved my body and slept well again. I developed a streaming nose on Thursday for no apparent reason and started to fret about my training again. Twitter gave me all the advice about rest that I'd have given others which I tried to take. I've done what I can and am trying not to worry about what I couldn't. Sum total of this week's training amounts to one strength session including a 200kg prowler pull (which I'm pretty pleased with - so sue me), one swimming lesson and 27.5 miles run.

Lunch in the garden, topping up the iron and vitamin D levels

I had a blood test to check that my vitamins and minerals were all in balance as although I've not changed the supplements I'm taking, my lifestyle has changed a bit and I'd been feeling more up-and-down. Glad to report that all levels are normal apart from my cholesterol which has apparently gone up since my last test in September but as I wasn't told whether my HDL or LDL was high it's not a very helpful reading. So sleep, good food, rest and less worry is the order of the day I think.

This weekend I've got to get my head back into the books one more time to finish off my case study and draw up some session plans. I'll also be helping out at Cholsey Chase and walking Jasper again. All this productivity is nicely book-ended by extra fun in the form of a gig and an evening of The Walking Dead viewing, both of which I'm looking forward to A LOT.

Papers, papers everywhere

Have you managed to get out in the sunshine this week? Just why is it that running and cake seem to go hand in hand?

Bracknell parkrun

It's official, parkrun is coming to Bracknell! 

Parkrun is going from strength to strength with new locations launching just about every week, or so it seems, in the UK and overseas alike. Some parts of the country have a higher density of events than others and I'm inclined to think that I'm in one of the luckier areas with my two nearest parkruns being 20 minutes drive away and another two or three within 30-40 minutes drive. 

I'd heard a rumour that work was in progress to bring two parkruns to the area, one in Ascot and one in Bracknell. I've yet to hear anything more about Ascot but I've heard that although the Bracknell event is yet to appear on the events page it will be launching on April 4th. Even better it's going to be less than two miles from my front door! 

There's a "test" parkrun on Saturday 21st March at 1pm which I hope to attend but nothing will stop me from being at the inaugural event either as a runner or a volunteer. I'd also like to get a few of the RunFitUK  Bracknell Team together and use it as a way to show them just how much they're improving (insert proud face emoticon here).

If you're local to the area or just fancy a bit of parkrun tourism, keep an eye out for the Bracknell parkrun and indeed other new events wherever you are.

Newbury parkrun

I enjoy parkrun. I've been parkrunning since 2010. I've completed 71 runs at 9 different venues and volunteered 10 times. This year I'm hoping to reach my 100th parkrun and so far it seems I'm right on track. My latest bit of parkrun tourism was at Newbury. I'd had this one in mind for a while, as it's my friend Debbie's local one and I'd been invited a few times. Finally we found a Saturday that worked for us all so it was game on! I met Debbie and her hubby, Steve, at their house which meant getting up even earlier than on a regular work day but it was absolutely worth it.

We'd had a dusting of snow overnight so there was some um-ing and er-ing about trail shoes vs road shoes but as the Newbury course is quite flat and mostly on hard packed paths road shoes were perfectly adequate. It's a single lap course, not something I come across very often and a very welcome change. It's also somewhat larger than my regular haunt boasting between 300 and 450 runners.

With a race the next day I was supposed to be taking it easy but my legs had lots of energy in them and a slight competitive edge came out. Debbie and I ran together for the most part until she pulled a sprint finish out of the bag. And I thought we were friends! But it was a good fast course, well marked and I thoroughly enjoyed the change.

Some expert photo-bombing in the background there.

One of the big attractions for a lot of people is the social aspect of parkrun. I must confess this is something that I often bypass. I generally go alone or have something to dash off to afterwards so it made a nice change not only to run with friends but to stop for coffee and a natter afterwards in the local caff, that opens just for us runners on a Saturday. I met the lovely Theresa from Miles Stronger, purveyor of barcode t-shirts, and ate the largest rock cake you ever did see. It was the first time I'd stayed for coffee after a parkrun and it's something I resolve to do more often in the future, even if that means being brave and introducing myself to people I don't know.

Second breakfast

I hear on the grapevine that a couple more park runs are starting up near me so I look forward to a little more parkrun tourism in due course. In the meantime I'll be going back to Newbury for Debbie's 100th parkrun in March so I'd best get working on my sprint finish... or would that be out of line?

Have you done any parkrun tourism? What's your favourite course? Do you stick around for socialising afterwards?