The first 'normal day' Saturday parkrun of the new year and it's our local again at Worthing. It's a cold chilly and bright day....perfect for the large gathering, boosted I am sure, by some new-resolution runners and walkers. We have Lenny today so Lesley will shuffle and I will walk, trot or whatever Lenny wants to do. Starting at the back with a nice couple with their 2 dogs who were doing their first at Worthing. Lenny got off to a flying start with the first poo-stop just short of the pier! At this stage there were still a lot of walkers around us and the Tail-Walker. The other couple also had a poo-stop from one of the dogs with the lady saying "4th poo already today" . Lenny was very keen and I was doing my best to pace him (and me ) He paused for wees and sniffs on a regular basis, plus greeting most dogs out for their promenade, with the usual sniff around and see if they were up for a play...some were! One more poo and then a jump up onto a seat at one of the shelters. This I took as wanting to stop.........but no, he jumped down and carried on to the Canada Flag where he sat down on the wall. Even though we were near the turn-around, I felt we had better beat a retreat especially as Lesley waived, on her return leg causing Lenny to get exited and thus making it easier for us to go back. 
Obviously, I didn't get a time in for this week but Lesley did pretty well at just around 42-43 minutes. She met us at the start point and we wandered back, passing by the start and onto the Perch on the Prom cafe/restaurant, that today was doing a special promo for parkrunners after placing an advert close to the top of the Worthing parkrun Facebook site, obviously we felt, somewhat late in the day when quite a few got cheesed off from last summer with Coast cafe queues. The special was for a bacon bap and coffee @ £6.50. However with just the one girl doing her best to serve a rush at 9:45, making coffee and delivering food, and working the till!! Still, chef did well and all the food came pretty quickly, considering. 'Must get another helper next week' she said...........will parkrunners return or will we go back to The Laughing dog or Coast or The Flower Pot or the Kiosk on the Beach, Cloud 9.... etc. etc. ?
We had a Thursday night prom run with the running club. - 2C when we left home with Lenny. A social night with new branch of Gails opening late, especially for us. The promise of a 'free' bun had 44 signed up on Spond despite the chill night.....a good turn out! why? Lenny loved the shuffle to Canada Flag and back to Gails for a chill while waiting for the crumbs to drop on the floor! The weather has been settled with relatively clear days , chill mornings and nights with little breeze to penetrate the bones!. 
Saturday was no exception when we turned up to pose for a promenade picture with friend Pete at Worthing following the decision our Horsham parkrun was cancelled due to ice. To be honest, Worthing should have gone the same way as we found out later, the promenade was very slippery. So much so, we chose to walk out and shuffle back as the frost was now starting to leave patches of relative safety.....for us senior people! Obviously the younger, fitter and faster crew still managed to finish in just over 16 minutes compared with our tardy 43!! It was back to the Laughing Dog for one of their 3 pancake breakfasts with, bacon, egg, mushroom, spinage and crunchy seeds, plus maple syrup topping, 2 plates, half each! Nice one.
No, not the weather but a family away day, that means we don't add another parkrun to our totals. Caterham on the Hill in Surrey is where we accompany the the youngest grandchildren to a Saturday morning football match for 7 year olds. One plays and the other joins in the warm-ups as he is too young. Lesley's eldest boy has said in the past that there are no parkruns in Caterham so we prepare for the off day by trying to get runs in the preceding week. Lesley with the club and me on Friday with just under 5km track training. 
Saturday morning is a cold one at just 1C, no wind but a murky outlook on the hill. We travel the 10 minutes from our overnight stay in Caterham, to Warlingham School where parking for the adjacent foot is to take place....and then spot the high-vis marshals, parking a large amount of cars in the school grounds.. "They look familiar" Lesley said and indeed, with parkrun logos they were!! We chat with a couple of kitted out runners and the parking marshal and it transpires the parkrun is just down the road. Football was a 9:30 kickoff and not wearing the right gear, so no chance we run or indeed, would be back for the start but.......second half? perhaps. Ah well, next time maybe. In his excuse, the said son was correct, there is no parkrun at Caterham, nor even Warlingham but just over the border and it's called Riddlesdown parkrun. a flatish course apparently,, run on paths and grass, around the park & with a cafe at the end!
Despite the unusual 'red-warning' for severe weather from yet another named storm, luckily, or unluckily for us, it veered north causing havoc and ......parkrun cancellations. But we were going on a short break to, as they say in the brochures, "Sunny Eastbourne" the sunniest seaside town in England. 
By sheer coincidence we were to be there on parkrun day and luckily Eastbourne has a parkrun that as a coincidence were celebrating their 13th anniversary! (cakes at the end) We woke to a glorious morning with a stunning view from our promenade hotel window as the sun rose above the horizon and the waves lapped gently through our open, but slightly dodgy & stuck sash window. It was indeed a lovely long promenade but not to be the route of our parkrun! No, about 3 miles to the North in a slightly less than salubrious location of Shinewater Park. Our researched route from the seafront involved the early morning bus No.1 marked : Shinewater. Simple? Shinewater, turned out to be an estate on the edge of Eastbourne and the driver pointed to a footpath we needed to take to find the actual park. About 400yds of unwanted detritus and the familiar discarded rubbish that lined the muddy path dividing 2 halves of the estates before reaching the entrance to Shinewater park and the parkrun start. The team had already gathered as we warmed up and chatted, before the briefing of.....'out and back, keep left and mind the narrow slippery bit at the the start and finish, otherwise, flat and good paths.' Off we go and judging with our normal pace, we need to start near the rear of a considerable crowd. Bad move as it took several minutes to clear the walkers and strollers so that we could break into our, just quicker than a fast walk, shuffle! Overtaking was nigh impossible on the narrow track before hitting the Cuckoo Trail. This Dr Beeching-ised ex railway line had been turned into a cycle and walking trail, well managed and maintained, just right for a parkrun. Crossing under the dual carriageway and over the river twice we reached the turn-a-round marshal after what seemed a long way. Going back was less crowded as the fast return runners had disappeared and with the sun and blue sky, the park looked quite nice with lakes and a river meandering through. Both completed in under 40 minutes and 1st in my age group, not bad or just silly. On the advice from the RD we went back to the retail park for coffee and cake at Windmills cafe. Nice cafe with, in the precinct seating, (urgh) where the special drink & slice of the day for £3.35 was the main draw for OAPs that obviously had nothing better to do than visit this aging shopping centre with 50% of the shops boarded up and the other 50% were charity shops or pound-stretchers!! So, sounding like a snob from Worthing and an OAP to-boot, we took the bus back to the seafront for a hotel shower and sit on the pier for a drink in the sunshine before a walk to Sovereign Harbour. Nice break and back on Sunday.
Worthing was looking good this Saturday but we were into a 4 day spell of running: Thursday club run at Littlehampton prom, Friday, Heads On track run, this Saturday parkrun and then Sunday charity hilly 4 mile-er at Arundel for Cancer United. So.....take it easy, run slowly, save ourselves for tomorrow! That is exactly what we tried to do but still managed a sub 40 minutes. 
The next day was an early start at 8:30 from close to Arundel Castle where a really good turn-out from the Striders, both to volunteer and quite a crowd running the route. We shuffled the level sections and walked the few up-hills returning in a pretty good time of 55 minutes.....for us. Once medals were collected all the Striders finishers ran back to accompany & encourage our last Strider, Jenny, to round off a good day in perfect, if not chilly winter day. Coffee and breakfast at Swanbourne Lake cafe, chill out and recouperate at home.
It's the 'once-per-month' away parkrun day and Hove Park was to be our group run. As the weather has been for some time now, Saturday was no different! 3C and drizzle-wet. It takes just a 20 minute easy drive over ( early on a Saturday morning) to reach Hove Park and parking is very good with plenty of road-side spaces for 3 hours, more than enough, even for us, to do a short warm-up, parkrun and then have breakfast! 
The heavy rain on the way over, thankfully diminishes to leave the run pretty dry. 15 Striders were there & Rob, my son, came to give us encouragement and take some pictures on the course and although we are both pretty slow now, some of the guys from Striders ran back ( after they had finished) to pace us for over half of the last full lap! It was around 40 minutes finishing although something went amiss with my time that put me a minute behind Lesley, even though we finished pretty much together! We both quite like Hove Park, yes it has inclines that make us puff, but together with free parking right next to the run, toilets that are open, tarmac with no potholes or ramps or roots, a nice cafe that copes with the crowd-rush, but it is also the place where Lesley ran her life-time PB of just over 30minutes quite a few years ago!! Coffee, croissants filled with ham and cheese. a good natter and catch-up, rounded off a most enjoyable morning. It ws followed this morning by a dog trainer giving us all some tips on how to bring Lenny dog under a bit more control. Not take away his oodles of character but just to help us with recall and to enable him to go lead-free at times.......no chance at the moment as too many distractions!.....pidgeons, seagulls, squirels, foxes and of course, other good looking dogs!
Worthing cancelled!! No, not the weather and not a funfair on the prom. You gessed, an unexploded bomb that was discovered on the beach near the Canada flag. It appeared onthe beach on Thursday which gave the emergency services that included the two adjacent RNLI depots being on high alert, police, coastguard and the navy bomb disposal squad time to turn up in force to deal with it and perhaps more importantly, for Worthing parkrun to be cancelled in plenty of time! 
So plan 'B' was to drive the extra 10 minutes to Lancing Green parkrun and meet up with daughter and grandaughter, hand-over Lenny dog for 45 minutes so we could both do our Saturday shuffle. Lancing is not our favourite parkrun but the normally unwelcome 1km of grass was really not too bad today, pretty short grass, even surface and dry. There were not too many Striders today as tomorrow was to be a Sussex Fun-Run league event, through Tilgate Park. Pete was saving himself by marshaling and a few others went to Littlehampton or perhaps just put their feet up! Numbers today were however, boosted by the adjacent cancellation and so 300 plus took part, well up on normal numbers. We both did OK today, especially Lesley as she put in her quickest time for 6 months with me just a minute or so behind her. The crowds at the end, that were queing up for the Perch cafe and also our car being parked some distance away gave us, with Lenny dog, the oportunity to walk him around Brooklands Lake taking our breakfast at the excellent Brooklands lakeside cafe. Sunday was to be the fun-run and we said we would support & cheer on the 30+ Striders that had entered by standing near the crosspaths of the 2 lakes to get some good photos of the 3 times they all passed by. It was very cold but thankfully dry and all seemed to enjoy the day. Hopefully, the bomb will have been removed/detonated and Worthing will be back on next week.
We took a week sabbatical and possibly will even miss the next one, due to(a) being on a coast path walking holiday in Cornwall and(b) coming back with nasty colds and coughs. Cornwall had everything, well almost as it had no parkrun near enough to be able to travel there and get back in time to transfer hotels by 10am! Hotels were good, weather fine and wind light enough to enjoy the ups and downs. 
Food at the HF house was ok, room was an upgrade (we think) with huge bed, sea view and even gowns and slippers! Lots of like minded walkers that were good company. Even though we were not running the paths were undulating enough to be quite a challenge at times. Talking of challenges.....we decided to take the train to St Ives. This involved a 6am start, a change at Southampton, Salisbury, Exeter and St Erth. At 3:15pm we arrived, just as the 'split ticket' app had promised. Thanks to Southern, South Western and GWR all worked out, there and back. Very chilled and relaxing alternative to the car! Not busy trains but we both picked up a nice dose of cold, possibly all the hours we shared with passengers?
We woke to a sunny morning with no intentions of parkrun today. Heavy colds, squiffy back and we had Lenny dog! 8am and we were leaving for Worthing, telling each other we were slightly mad. Lenny was reluctant in putting his harness on, hiding under the outdoor swing. 
After a little coaxing we were off. By the time we had greeted our parkrun friends.......at a distance, all 3 of us seemed much more up-for-it! This was to be Lenny's 1st full parkrun as he failed last time out reaching only Canada Flag before loosing interest.....or was that me? Today he was fully focussed as we started at the rear of over 600 parkrunners. Momentum was lost very early on when the need for a poo ( 3rd one this morning) came over him just before the pier. We soon caught up the tail-walkers and despite the many doggy attractions for him, he continued at steady pace, pulling us along nicely as we had decided to only walk today we felt we were holding him back. So with 2 iffy-health humans and an 11 month old teenage puppy, 4 wees and 2 poos, we did pretty well in not coming last by any means, and finishing in a tad over 50 minutes! So there is 
something to aim at next time? Well, with better health and upping to a slight shuffle it does seem very beatable. Tokens taken and scanned ( not dogs) Coast cafe was very clear with little queueing and as we decided not to meet with friends today at The Laughing Dog, potentially passing on our germs, so we huddled in the corner at Coast cafe, well out of the way for 2 lattes for us and 2 dog treats for Lenny. Then it was a short drive, dropping Lenny off to his Mum's where he will spend a few days before swopping back to us. This fine but slightly chilly weather was ideal for a little garden session when we got back home, made easier by not having Lenny around, eating everything in site and digging holes in the lawn! Hopefully we will shake this malaise off in the next few days and get back to joining in with the club runs as it is predicted to warm up and we have lighter evenings now.
With Lesley just starting to be on the mend after her 4 week bout of some sort of virus, we managed a few shuffles or walks in the week including a 6mile Ramblers walk and a Heads On track training session on Friday. Saturday bode well for weather and the throaty sniffles subsiding at last. We were both awake by 6am ready for a cup of ta, breakfast and a walk down to the, on-time, 700 bus. 
Chris and Jack the dog were already on-board for the 15 minute ride into town. Jack is over his tummy op. but Chris is still smarting from the £4,000 vet bill for the treatment and overnight staycation. Coffee first for Chris and the usual meet up with parkrun friends including Pete and Barbara. Pete has just had some 'treatment' and was looking pretty pale and all wrapped up for a volunteer marshal this week. A few Worthing Striders for an obligatory photo before the off, numbers being limited as there are 35 taking part in a West Sussex fun-run event in Thakeham tomorrow morning. We had decided to fast walk this morning as to not antagonise Lesley's cough and it is close to 4 weeks for her without a run! With an easterly breeze behind us we all set off and long before we reached the pier we found our position, some 2/3rds of the way back and chatting to parkwalker who boasted a 43 minute walk last week. We did manage to stay with him for almost all the way but he seemed to speed up or we slowed slightly in the head-breeze. Caroline (same age as me and a 250+ runner} was just ahead for all of the way with her run and shuffle style and not having Lenny dog we were able to shave about 7 minutes off of his 1st parkrun last week, finishing in a very respectable time of just over 43 minutes. Looking at Fitbit later, both of our readings were over 160 at times so it certainly raises the game for you and must be of benefit. This surely 
just goes to show, if you cannot run, for what ever reason, a good fast walk can be fun, good the mind and good for the body! Coast cafe this morning, not too busy as the beach decking was full giving more room inside for coffee and cake before the 700 back home for a chill then an afternoon of picking up Lenny, help to fit a new headboard for daughter, fix a shelf for pictures, new curtain try-out etc. etc. Sunday and we were off to support the Striders as 35 of them took part, in what turned out to be, a fairly hilly 6 mile run. They all did well with one of the team even taking second place and a net score of over 100 points.
Littlehampton or 'LA' as it's called locally is looking fantastic in blazing early morning sunshine with a calm azure coloured sea as we head down towards the start area via Mewsbrook and a warm up shuffle on the prom. Today is a Worthing striders meet-up as a large team are volunteering to take over the pacing. 
The blue-bib times range at about 2 minute intervals from 20 minutes (Mike) through to 37 minutes (Graham) and even one running as a pacer with his small child in a stroller! So today, the orange and black with blues were in abundance around the meet-up point and at the start. We were just trying to do our first full run since the dreaded lurgy slowed us down and today we predicted about 40 minutes, so as blue bibs times don't go down that far it was allowing us just concentrate on shuffling rather than looking down at our Fitbit watches! So, briefing and thanks over and we are off and both of us soon settle into a slow shuffle, somewhere near the rear of the large crowd. It is fairly plain sailing to the turn around point, which is some 1.3km into the run and just beyond the Beach Cafe, where the prom-path starts to narrow. 
Marshal with dog encourages around as do all the pacers as we pass them several times....one of the good things with an out & back and....out & back again. Passing the cafe it's time for a fast walk now, just to stretch out our legs and get some breath back before it's time to shuffle again. We carry on back and out and back again in this vein until about 500 meters from the end, Tom, a finished pacer comes back to join us, taking us, with many words of encouragement, over the finish line, both a shade over 40 minutes. We are quite chuffed with this as it is really 4 or 5 weeks since proper running, smitten by the virus lurgy. We wait for everyone else in Striders to come over the finish and head up to the Beach Cafe for breakfast and coffee. Beach Cafe do an excellent job of finding everyone a space, if not a seat and serve the food and coffee within 10 minutes....quite an achievement? Excellent turn out and excellent volunteering today by all the Striders, it really is a great socialable club that is always inclusive for the fast and not quite so fast (us). We leave the cafe on a short wander back to our car via the excellent Mewsbrook Park.
It's back to Littlehampton for the second week in a row! It's either we are getting to like Littlehampton with its out and back and out and back again or perhaps the lower numbers, close proximity and local cafes at the finish, must be the draw. No, not this time as we have a date with Worthing RFC, on the way back, to join a task force to help clear up and tackle some long overdue tasks around the grounds. As it happened, we were a small but enthusiastic group of 10 or so Striders to join about the same numbers of Rugby players..............pretty poor show on their behalf with all the teams and supporters they have! However, we moved, via wheel-barrows a big pile of chippings and spread them over the seated barbeque area and I also picked up an angle-grinder ( 1st time in about 30 years) and cut out some dodgy and slightly dangerous, rain covers from the spectators seating! A free hot-dog and pint was perhaps also a draw? 
Back to parkrun at LA. A nice group had gathered and we took advantage with the result of not finishing at the end of the crowd because the volunteer Striders were tail-walking today meaning we actually had someone to wait for at the end! After coffee and cake were taken at the other end of the prom at the superb Harbour Lights cafe. Excellent seating with stunning views of the harbour and river in brilliant sunshine....again! This must be one of the most settled periods we have had since...... Covid? Next week is another, non-Worthing days, as we have booked up Gloucester and the Malvern Hills hike for our 30th wedding anniversary.
Long drive down to Marlborough to meet up with an old work friend of Lesley. lunch at an airfield that has become a dumping ground for many aircraft both military and a host of 747's. One British airways Jumbo is used for weddings and celebrations! The terminal is now a cafe with seating straight out of the plundered aircraft......very novel idea! It was then on to Gloucester ready for the Saturday parkrun the next morning. Gloucester appears to have 3 local runs and with recommendations, we chose the closest that was Gloucester City. Driving into the city showed it was suffering from the, now all too common, beyond it's sell-by date roads with their shuttered up shops, scrawled graffiti, too many vape shops, barbers and under used grocery stores. As we found out later, the out of town malls have all but been destroyed in the inner city, with the exception of the Keys area in and around the Cathedral with canals and a host of outlet stores and more eateries than you could count on several sets of hands and fingers! This has led inevitably with a local population that seemed to us, decidedly porky-people. The norm? who knows. 
At parkrun, however, was a cross section of 'normal' people, up and out of bed nice and early, chatty, helpful and enthusiastic. Even though the course was a tad repetitive, 3 loops of the park and cricket pitch, 1 smaller loop to finish on the green, we enjoyed clocking up another run and a tourist event but it signalled Lesley achieving her 50th different location! quite an achievement? The next day, just to take things easy, we drove up to the Malvern Hills to complete an annual or bi-annual sabbatical (Lesley's dad was from Malvern) of walking the peaks from the Malvern Hills Hotel up to the Worcester Beacon and back. Late lunch or early tea at the hotel before walking it off by ascending the Herefordshire Beacon or British Camp as we know it, arriving back just before darkness! What a lovely weekend.
We have Lenny for a week as Daughter is away with friends for Easter. So Lenny has to accompany us for a few activities. Thursday evening was a bluebell trot in the woods with the running club, Friday was a walk around the Henfield section of the Downslink, with son and Saturday......Worthing parkrun! Overnight drama however.....3am and Lesley had a nasty eye pain, watering and generally horrible. 111 contact and they organised an appointment at 8am at the Urgent Treatment Centre. No dogs so I took Lenny for a parkrun shuffle....as you do. Lesley was fixed up at UTC with ointment and a return visit later that afternoon to see an ophthalmologist. Me and Lenny meanwhile set off near the back of 650 parkrunners for our shuffle. The shuffle, once again, consisted of 2 poo stops, an un-countable amount of sniffs and wees, just a few diversionary, other dog meet & greets, 4 stops to sit on seats, a habit of Lenny, but.......mainly a good steady homeward bounding. 
I found it quite tough to keep up with around 2km to go and with Jenny, a fellow Worthing Strider that normally shuffles in at about 47-49 minutes, in our sights we encouragingly passed her by near the pier and to much cheering from Lesley who had returned from the hospital and others that had waited for us, we(I, as dogs don't get a barcode) finished in just over 47 minutes. Some of our team returned to The Laughing Dog for a natter, coffee and Lenny-dog-treats before taking the bus back home. where we all deserved a good chill-out having been awake a large proportion of the night. Thankfully the ophthalmologist said it was good to get it urgently looked at as it was a small ulcer and needed treatment to prevent it from getting larger! Lesley was disappointed as her vision is now not too good with the drops going in every hour and her left eye being blurred. No driving and no running!
