Waiting for New Year Day
It's going to be a special double header parkrun with both Tring and Wendover Woods staging a New Year Day spectacular. 9am at tring and 10:30 at the woods. Please join in the fun and see if we can have over 400 starters...........like last year? If you are driving and parking in the woods, Forestry England recommend downloading the app for the car-park to avoid the queues at the ticket machines.........or just chill-out, relax, take a coffee and breakfast, chat with our team and fellow chillers then go for your exit when the queues have abated! For details of the app follow the link below but I strongly recommend reading the (negative)reviews of the system before you make your own decision to download and use it!
Yes It's that time of the year again a brand new decade and of course ..............a parkrun for New Years Day.......double! All hands to the deck with as many of our core team and other assorted volunteers needed to deal with an expected influx of park runners today. If last year was anything to go by we could be seeing 400 starters today! Our ED has taken a well earned holiday break and our frequent RD, volunteer, runner and globetrotter is trotting. Apart from that we are all in delegated roles by Mr Calm as he is known, our RD for the day. This double run has been organised once again by Ken from Tring who not only looks after Tring but helped us to set up WWp in the first place. Ken was RD at Tring on Christmas Day and said to us he intended to do both along with many others. Tring went off at 9am, the usual time and we followed at 10:30 giving ample time to drive between or even run the 3 or so miles between, saving the queues to the carpark barrier and the not inconsiderable parking charge! We had walked this route on several occasions and believe me it is pretty tough in dry conditions, let alone weeks of rain! Still, this wouldn't stop the keenest of park runners, would it? We both had roles around the finish today with Lesley using her dexterity skills and stamina by handing out tokens and me on stopwatch duty so I have put in plenty of thumb-bending practice. 
We arrived at the meeting point after our 20minutes stroll upwards on a pretty good morning for weather, not cold and not wet! Being later in the day and a public bank holiday, we call them "normal" people, were already traipsing through the sludge with dogs and children. The car park looked ominously busy already with our volunteer cars, early park runners and of course, "normal" people! Our RD had already set-up the funnel, too short for our liking, but its all the cones we have until we take up our proper finish position on the grass, that is cordoned off by Forestry England awaiting the seeded green-stuff to burst into life! We anticipate chaos at this funnel as it takes up half of the width of the main footpath leaving just a few feet gap for triple buggies, dogs and children, just released from the car, timekeepers, our official photographer and of course families of the runners waiting in anticipation for their loved-ones to cross the line. It was a delayed start as it was obvious by the cars still filing in and frantic activity in the carpark that we haven't got everyone at the start. Today is a different start as the tardy time of 10:30am means Go-Ape is open and we cannot use their cut through so we all shuffle a few hundred yards down to the junction. I quite like this few minutes as its a time to chat with the person next to you or behind you. I find a couple of guys from Reigate, my home town who have driven up this morning to do the double! We share local places and pubs before our RD does his loud-haler briefing and I click my watch to start the mass of good spirited participants. We have plenty of fast runners and slow joggers today so I anticipate my thumb will need about an hour of clicking and I am almost right with 59+ minutes and a record 475 parkrunners.......phew! We have 3 timekeepers, 2, including me, using a stopwatch and one using the APP. Guess which 2 are in sync? We found the APP was too slow when we had gaggles of runners all together. Shouldn't normally be problem when we have our 100+ but it would be interesting if anyone else has this issue.......Bushey Park for instance! Only slight hitch is marshal 4 goes to 5 in error, potentially leaving just the arrow at the hairpin to prevent the leaders going off towards Chesham. Luckily our marshal on 5 spotted it and being one of our quicker core core-members, sprinted back to 4 just in time. Lesley, whom has excellent dexterity in her fingers and usually has no problem with the token handing out, dropped a few on the ground and had no time to gather them up. This meant from 190-something everyone would have had a slightly different finish position from their token! 
By the time we had cleared away the queue inside the cafe had slightly diminished but the queue for the ticket machine was still taking about 15 minutes! So we finished with 25 runners to spare on our 500 max. stopwatches and still had tokens spare so no drama there. We have got a plan B but this involves a notebook and pen or plan C is raffle-tickets. I don't think the woods can cope with many more and we were thankful the public holiday, although mild and dry was not wall-to-wall sunshine as was Christmas Day. This I am sure kept the numbers of "normal" people down slightly meaning the carpark coped, the cafe coped and we found enough room on the woodland tracks to get 475 runners round!
The second parkrun of 2010 in Wendy Woods but the first 'real' Saturday run was Lesley's first of the year volunteering as RD and it kicked off the Thursday afternoon before parkrunday with the kit being dropped round by the previous RD, for our New Year Day. Lesley goes into solitary confinement mode, checking , checking again, printing reminder lists and of course, checking again! Lots of these 'chores' that parkrun volunteers do, involve a certain amount of organisation like the token sorting and barcode scanning. One of our volunteers, with a new role to her today, commented that it would suit someone that is, OCD! I wouldn't know myself but she has a point? Back to the day and the weather is near perfect as we arrive by car, following the duty manager of Forestry England, in through the now unlocked gate and what seems almost a mile up to and through, the dreaded rising barrier. I have several roles of support today and one is set-up, or for our full one-loop course, is half the course set-up with our ED who has volunteered for the other half. This is because one person would struggle to carry all of the signs and also struggle to carry them around the infamous 5k course. Unless of course you started out way before dawn! The routine starts to fall into place with emptying our lock up of all the said signs, the 4 wheeled cart and all the rest of the parriphinaliar needed for the run. Lesley had taken up her 'panicky' assembly point spot where the nervous wait starts to see if all the volunteers had set their alarms last night and hoping all that the roles will all be filled. I disappear at this stage for a 25 minute or so, jog involving pushing in arrows and caution runners signs at appropriate places. By the time I reach the sneaky shortcut up to the start I realise I am well over-dressed today and sweating like the proverbial! The panic had subsided as all volunteers had arrived including one of our slightly tardy teen DoE lads. The crowd have arrived so its on to the briefings, 1st timers and an opportunity for Lesley to use our new megaphone as her voice is still croaky. This turned out to be a learning curve as we had no idea which knob turned it on. We did however find the alarm siren which had the desired effect of mustering the now large group of runners and also causing a ringing sound in my ears for several minutes!
All runners and walkers got away on time with the exception of one late arrival that joined in around 10 minutes after the others and proceeded to take the wrong loop, adding a few hundred meters to his 5k before finally going the right way passing the cafe and on downhill towards the Gruffalo and eventually meeting up with the tail walkers and slower runners (he did still finish in a respectable position). So 169 finishers, 16 doing their very first parkrun and 56 first to WWp. Our most geographically distant 'tourist' was from Canada and we all agreed that this was a good start to the new decade for Wendover Woods and a good start for the cafe that coped with reasonably large numbers and served us up some excellent and well deserved breakfasts! We also did a couple of good deeds today by reuniting one runner at the start with her dropped barcode and another runner at the finish with both a dropped barcode and her credit card! 
Remember if you want to give WWp a try and maybe don't want to start off running, come and have a look first and see how it works. If you have registered & printed your barcode and would like to firstly volunteer just drop us a line by email at wendoverwoodshelpers@parkrun.com
Saturday 11th January and we are up and about extra early..........why? We are 'touring' to a previously never run parkrun. It is pretty local and near to Leighton Buzzard in South Bedfordshire and is called Rushmere Country Park. A pleasant early Saturday drive for 35minutes north of Leighton Buzzard via part of the Milton Keynes expressway, turning off at the roundabout where the brown signs direct us all the way to the park. This was exactly as described by the parkrun Facebook site information page. It's a short drive through the park to the carpark, cafe, loos and meeting point. A fine drizzle has accompanied us all the way and thankfully stops as soon as we venture out of our car! A good omen for today, perhaps? I had a brief chat with some guys in the next car to us, as you do, and find it's their 1st time too. They have driven down from Birmingham, quite a trip. Its always nice to find loos and nice ones at that! The cafe too looks a good bet but we have come for the run........haven't we? The start routine looks very chilled and organised with 1st time briefing and safety warnings, very similar to us at WWP.........slippery, hilly ups and downs, uneven underfoot, horses, poo, dogs**, bikes and peeps, but apart from that, enjoy, see you in the cafe afterwards! The main briefing finds a few newbies, first timers, milestones and like us, tourists. A short walk to the start before we realise we are way too near the front and with bushes on both sides the first challenge is to try and reverse through the crowds to a more suitable spot to start where we won't be bowled over by the quickies! Just about right as we hear the 'go' and due to the numbers today, we shuffle and walk for the first few hundred metres. We fail to spot any of the park 'features' that we see on our walk round afterwards. 
Seats made of branches, tables in the trees, the "Fall Inn' and the giant chair that make you feel about 2 feet tall! This was just at the start but alI I remembered were the feet of runners in front of me and mud and puddles, never raising my head or turning it from side to side. Not until we spread out on our first of 2 identical loops.
It was a left turning path all of the way with marshals at all turning points. In between were 'undulations' that comprised of gentle downs, gentle ups, tree roots, puddles and mud followed by a steep down and then a steepish up. Back through the finish then the start and do it all over again. My aching left leg couldn't keep up with Lesley's 'nearly over her cold' but I had glimpses of her for all of the way. She was just finishing as I approached the last 'left' before the home straight, across the grass. A receptacle finish in just over 38 minutes, place number 222 and Lesley in the mid 37 minutes in place 209. There were 257 in total and I was 3rd in my age group. Beaten (easily) by Paul, one of our Aylesbury Ramblers who in my defence runs a lot and is entered in the Berlin Marathon this year, some 23 miles further than I like to run! Breakfast was nice with me munching through a 'disgusting' full English in a bap! How do they do that? In fact, how could I eat that? To help it ease down and to get value-for-money from the £3 parking charge, we walked a large loop of the park and left a midday after spotting all the artefacts dotted around the park that we missed on the run. Its an excellent park and Rushmere is well worth a re-visit.......in the summer perhaps!
Naked runner and Its a volunteer duty weekend at WWp. Not really a 'duty' as it is all part of the community package. Sometimes you run and a few times its volunteering. We were on 'standby' with this week with our RD, when a couple dropped out and we stood-in for the role of distant marshals.
The distance marshal are at the other end of our long loop and take 20 minutes to walk there, plus you need to know the course as you could be as lost as the runners! Our lanyards do have a picture of where to stand but........ We take marshal 7 with us and split up to take up our post and I wait for the first glimpse of the fasties coming up the hill. It is a wonderful bright, but distinctly chilly morning as the first runners ascend and turn sharp left to the 'summit' and stunning views across the Chilterns. WWp as at its best on this sort of day despite the mud from what seems an eternal spell of rainfall. To keep warm I have already jogged on the spot, clapped and congratulated each group when I spot a scantily dressed guy striding out on our hill, not a young guy , but he is obviously very proud and very aware of his 'fit' body, so much so that today he wished to show it to everyone else.........well the top part anyway! 
Apparently he did not strip off half way round when 
he had warmed up, but started in his attire.......or lack of it! I managed to pull out the phone and snap a rear view, probably the best bit and others snapped as well! We managed good numbers again today, still benefitting from the New Year keenness or our parkrun has encouraged more locals to switch from other events. Cafe was pretty full again and the parkrun spirit must rub-off on the money going through the tills. We certainly help with our discounted coffee and light-breakfasts. Next week we are south-coast tourists again and the only choice, if we are fit, is the 9 local parkruns within a short drive!
Turn-a-round and head east, beach huts on your right, sea on your left. Then, as we reach the finish ( not our finish) the first parkrunner passes us by, then another and another before we leave the rest of the quicker group behind to their finish. It was here that I noticed the loop was probably full with all stages of runners, each with their own challenge with the high-vis Tailwalkers, as ever, bringing up the rear. But we didn't wait for all to finish after our smidgin over 32 minutes today because we had plans! The chill, the overcast day and the draw of Hove Park Cafe meant that with a 20 minute walk back and at just after 10am we were back in the warm, eating our toasted sandwiches and drinking coffee. A packed cafe with the event team in the corner with the counted tokens box and the lap-top results well in hand. I suppose it was slightly cheating......to run in a 'rival' parkrun and use the warmth and sustenance of another? Hey-ho!
It's the 1st February and no one was even to mention the 'B' word so I am not going to either! Anyway we are still in the continent of Europe and today is Lesley to RD WWp and I am dogsbodying. Friday was pick-up day of all the clobber from our ED and last weeks' RD. He said he was suffering from Coronavirus and would not be volunteering or running this week........very wise. We assume he must have picked up the virus when passing the local Chinese takeaway. So Friday night was kit check and final email reminder for volunteers before a sneak look, again, at tomorrow's weather forecast; Breezy but....dry! We are awake pretty early and load up our new car, well new to us, for the drive up to the already opened gates at Wendy Woods. Rumours had been circulating in the week that we would be entertaining a few local club runners that had decided to make our parkrun their venue for the morning. An earlier email received from a club runner from nearby St Albans, asked for a 'shout-out' for one guy that was to run his 250th with us but WWp was also to be his 100th different parkrun venue!! He turned up with a large crowd of supporters too. Also there was a nice contingent of Bearbrook Runners, a very nearby running club based in Aylesbury. 
With set-up gear and trolley at the ready our early marshals appeared, to assist. I took the lower course set up and by the Gruffalo, passing by our hardy volunteer who was already completing the whole course check before he has a brief rest and then takes off on the run-proper! The crowds were gathering when I returned some 20 minute later. It looked as if the numbers would be quite substantial......for humble us! Briefing was called, first-timers first and our volunteer coped well with her first time and thenumbers of peeps and exited dogs. I walked around with the QUIET sign and managed to stop the noisiest dog before Lesley did the main brief with the aid of our donated megaphone. 176 runners, joggers and walkers looked to have enjoyed our course this morning in blue skies and sunshine. Just the stiff breeze to slow them down..........and the hills of course! I marshalled the funnel today trying to encourage our reasonably 'novice' timekeepers, token handout lady and barcode scanners. One of our ladies with the watch soon fluffed her pressing buttons so we were down to just our DoE girl who is very reliable and had the experience of timekeeping on New Year Day with 475 clicks required. 
One lady with dishing out tokens had a dexterity issue, very similar to myself and our snapping lad...........well no more said! Biggest issue was our finish funnel that in its 'temporary' position on the path is fine with no wind but as we cannot secure the poles without drilling holes in the path, a gust of wind is all it takes to demolish it! I think it was blown down about every 5 minutes, sometimes just as the runners were coming through..............can't wait for the grass to grow and we move to our permanent place on the green! So, we had the usual amount of no-barcodes, unreadable barcodes, broken in half barcodes and the run straight through the funnel guy who refused a token but obviously was clicked a time. If they want to remain annonymous , just take and return the token! Or, just don't come through the funnel, or don't do parkrun! Gripe over, it was a very successful event today, lots of delighted runners & walkers showing there appreciation for the organisation and the delightful Wendover Woods. The cafe appeared to also do very well and was still full even after us do all the packing-away things. The omelettes were delicious and afterwards all the results loaded on the laptop fine. We found homes for all the tokens with no barcode and no missing numbers taken inadvertently as souvenirs!
Storm Ciara is due tomorrow but that's another day as today is pretty near perfect......for early February! Its a run day for us as we warm-up-walk from home, through the woods, to the start. Lesley has volunteered to do 1st timers briefing as well as running and me just to hang around ready for the off. 
As the megaphone is fairly new to us she disappears down to the mustering area to practice the knobs and volume switches with some degree of success. It looks fairly quiet today after last night's rain had spoilt the drying out of our course however by the time of the briefing a good crowd had developed including those that had joined us the evening before at the Red Lion, for a core-team/volunteer, social. I was hoping a couple of pints and a late-ish night would not affect my usual stunning performance! (it didn't by the way) We had plenty of locals, plenty of non-locals and a tourist from Bristol took the distance prize today. A few very-first-timers to parkrun was also nice to see. Amazes me why they choose hilly, horrible US. Our RD gets the main briefing over with the megaphone just about drowning out the exited hounds! 
The start finds us in our place near the back giving ample opportunity to overhaul the other 130 runners in front of us (we don't) and 2 professional cameras are out today to capture some of the good moments at the start, end and the bottom of horrible slippery hill! The down hill section for 2kms is a delight as the sun almost shines and the trees and views are as good as ever. Gingerly down the gradients is our usual safety first plan, and today with fresh rain on the chalk, is no different. I think we do pass-by a few that have chosen the 'walk-run' method as opposed to our shuffle-if-we-can. The Hill is waiting and I too change to a 'walk-run' as a fellow 'veteran' comes alongside to join me for the rest of the run. Summit achieved and still alive before the last nasty section with loose gravel and the chalky slippery section before an 'up' most of the way back to the finish, via the puddles of course, that arrived in November last year and have been with us ever since. These puddles, that I call muddles, have given me an extra half-hour of cleaning (my shoes & Lesley's) every time we do this circuit and I will very happy when we get back to just brushing the dust off! Lesley leaves us (me and Jim, the other vet) behind to plod and chat all the way to finish in 37 +. We three all came in in 99th, 101 & 102 out of 123 finishers. Jim Kindly let me go at the end with him slowing rather than me speeding up. Not a bad time for us in the conditions as slippery does nothing for us. 
Looking at the photos later I can see the marked difference between me and the 1st 60 or so on the descents. They are relishing the downhill recovery and we look like we are stepping on frogs! Need some downhill practice or just carry on avoiding the slimy reptiles............or should I say, amphibians? I am in time to get the barcode/token thingy done and cheer over the final 20s who have put quite some effort in today, several their 1st time and talking to a few, they will be back. Cafe awaits and it's omelette breakfasts and a chat with the volunteers, runners and marshals that are taking up a fair-few of the tables this morning. Its all been in good spirits today but there is a degree of disappointment from our RD and others that were due to run the London Winter Run tomorrow but the forecast of storm Ciara put paid to it along with meeting their friends and family that were to fly, run and share a pre-booked restaurant in the evening! (One day on........good decision, it was awful. Trees down flights cancelled trains not running, roads closed, some flooding and our beloved Wendover Woods closed and remained closed due to fallen trees.)
"Devastation' is far too stronger word but..... a walk in the woods a few days after Ciara and the course was yes, run-able (if that's a word) but littered with branches. Some were small and green from the tops of the firs and many were quite large from the less-healthy trees that are inter-mingled with other intact and fine specimens. Our woods were closed Sunday until reopening on Wednesday morning. No trade for the cafe and a many neighbourhood dogs and their keepers not getting their dose of woods-walkies! On the fine but chilly Tuesday we carried out a recce for a Ramblers lead walk we are doing in early March and the wind was still gusting enough to be of some concern whilst tip-toeing through the outer reaches of the woods. 
I took a picture which sadly showed my inept skill as a phone-photo buff, of a tree that was perfectly perpendicular but had the last 2ft to ground missing, giving the impression it was floating in space.....by magic. I have posted it here but only close inspection (and fear in Lesley's face) will reveal the missing chunk! The forecast is still not good with storm Dennis predicted for Saturday and Sunday this week but unlike Ciara's 97mph, only 50-60mph is forecast. Today's walk however shows there are plenty more precarious timbers out there just waiting for another gust and I wouldn't be surprised if the gate remain locked again to the carpark, cafe and parkrun! Not a problem for us though, we are sneaking to the South to watch the waves and run but I am sure also that the seafront parkruns will be cancelled too, if not for the wind but the beach that has been washed up covering many promenades along the South Coast. The sand may not be a problem but pebbles and shingle will be. Saturday is forecast to be pretty wet and we may go inland to Ifield Mill parkrun, not for its unusual loopy, course, it's 99% tarmac, 99% flat with no mud under-foot, proximity of a cafe close by, nearness to Lesley's middle son and grandchildren, no.............it begins with an "I" and she hasn't bagged one of those yet!!!! She is not a parkrun addict but is well on the way!
Named storm 'Dennis' and a nasty bit of sciatica has made us change our plans. In Stan, our static in the south, we watched the weather forecasts with more than a degree of interest. WWp had a Forestry England mess up with first its closed and then its open then its closed! A bit late for the core team as they had reluctantly cancelled but I feel it was the right decision in the end. Its 'just' a parkrun and will be back next week. Tring & Buckingham were open, Aylesbury, the alternative, un-flooded course was also on, but down here they were starting to be cancelled through Friday. All of the seafront ones, due to the beach being deposited on the courses or too much mud or threats of strong wind bringing trees down. The other consideration was Lesley. She had been going through a very painful buttock/hip and a perhaps more worrying numb leg, enough gip that we had a visit Thursday, on the recommendations of the local GP, to Worthing A&E! It was assessed as a sciatic nerve thingy. Saturday morning and the wind was not too bad with the threat of Dennis ,only arriving with promised gales and rain at 1pm, so we decided that Hove Park with its draw of all-tarmac, stretching-out opportunity, followed by a toasted ham& cheese croissant was all we needed. Lesley felt more comfortable standing rather than moping around at home in the chair, feeling sorry for herself, so it was to be a walk round for her and a joggle round for me! That's how it worked out. Not all together unsurprisingly, 550+ others also agreed with us to get out before 'Storm-Dennis.' We both started near the back after the usual chats with others around us before I 'surged' through the walkers, to join the 35min pacer. I only saw her once as she disappeared somewhere fairly early on, either I passed her or she went ahead of me .......So for me it was pretty comfortable with just the usual twinges coming in at around 35+mins and a short wait before Lesley finished in a respectable 44+mins. The cafe was mobbed but we found a table for our perhaps boringly usual croissants but it was excellent as ever! Our drive back was uneventful but shortly after, Storm-Dennis arrived ........buffeting wind, heavy rain and a very noisy Stan the static! Its going to be around till Sunday night, should be <fun> .
We drove back home early as the weather was really getting us down and somehow it is better to suffer the weather in our flat that doesn't 'rock n roll ' in the wind and is insulated against the cold and noise! The sciatica has worsened and a trip to the physio confirmed that it would not be a quick fix. So no running and no rambles for a while. Physio at the local doctors booked for Saturday at 8:20 am so no early parkrun for her. I scrambled up to the woods as a volunteer set-up, toilet-post marshal and barcode scanner. I, along with most of the parkrun team had took the weather forecast as gospel, so just a wrap up and lightweight shower resistant jacket. Wrong......!! Rain started as I walked the slushy top path to the meeting point. Not heavy at first, just a drizzle that had been given an added penetration by the gusty wind..again. I set off along the top with my arrows and signs, blown about by the gusts, past the creaking tree and on to the section at the top, some 1km from the finish, that would do justice on a Tough Mudder course. The weeks of wet had made this section unavoidable , no keeping to the sides and no side path as the woods are quite dense here. Just grin and bare it on the way to the furthest arrow and then again on the way back. The drizzle turned to proper rain for the rest of the event. I was soaked and and so was everyone else! 
The briefing went and the 'start' sign was surviving the wind well. as were our usual large number of 1st timers and tourists many must have had their local events still cancelled and looked round for us! I took up my position on the toilet-post whilst 110 runners ran towards me. I held both arms out to direct them either side of the post but those not in the know, or those that were feeling friendly, just gave me high 5s. Probably wondering what that stupid bloke in a high-vis was doing standing in the middle of the path! Quick return to my scanning post when Lesley returned to take up the role of the other 'scanner' hot-foot from early morning physio where the news was reasonably good as it was diagnosed as not a full-blown sciatica but was fairly bleak if you are a keen runner like Lesley. No running, keep active, numb leg and foot will eventually reduce and come back in a fortnight! So touch and go for our walking holiday in the Peak District next week. She may just have to sit in front of the fire and read a book while I scale the Peaks. Back to the run and all finished fine. Wet, muddy, knackered but an amazing amount thanked us all and said they would be back. The cafe filled up with steaming bodies a great end to a nice event that was warmed up with the parkrun atmosphere. Our RD had just a couple of token issues..... 2 stuck together, no barcode or wet unreadable bits of paper trying to look like barcodes................all in a day's volunteering!
We drove through snow and rain to get to our 'tourist' destination of Rutland Water parkrun. The week had been spent in the Peak District on an HF walking holiday and leaving the hotel just after breakfast on Friday became somewhat hurried as snow was descending rather rapidly making our exit up a steep incline, somewhat slippery. By the time we had reached Oakham it had turned back to good old familiar.....rain! The night before parkrun was spent in Normanton Park Hotel, right on Rutland water and what must be one of the closest accommodation to the course, just 2 minutes walk from the start! We had negotiated a room with no breakfast and the 11am room vacate time was just perfect. Our special diet pre-parkrun followed on the theme of previous few days of 3-courses + beer and G&Ts of course. Tonight was just simple fish & chips.......and a single beer, just the one &........oh a large brandy night-cap! 
Waking up to no rain was a Saturday morning pleasure. We walked up the tarmac path and took in a few sites including a 'flower filled boat' Runners appeared so with a few minutes to go we both attempted a sort of warm-up. Lesley with her numb foot and sciatic pains decided very wisely to fast-walk again and myself to usual the shuffle. We checked out the 1st timers briefing and then try to listen to the main briefing above chatting people but more annoyingly, barking dogs. I think the RD said "there & back" via the dam, all tarmac, few puddles, keep left, keep the water on your left, have a good time and see you at the end. Barking had drowned out tourists, milestones and any thanks to the volunteers. Just heard the 3,2,1 go and the 200+ parkrunners. very slowly, due to the width of the tarmac and the extremely muddy sides, shuffled into life. Buggies and dogs came past and lots of faster runners even though we started near the back! Late comers.....perhaps? 
With wind behind I found my shuffling pace to be comfortable until the left turn along the dam where the exposure on all fronts, plus the run leaders flying along comfortably in the other direction, slightly unnerved me......but not for long as the turnaround marshal came into view which meant, half-way! Returning to the finish was all against the strong breeze and my split times showed that I started the initial 3km slow and the last 2km slower! Rutland Water had plenty of pacers today and I had spotted the 35mins lady early on. I had my mind set on keeping her somewhere near and heard her frequently encouraging those around by stating how close we were to the expected time. I heard the 10 seconds ahead and the 14 seconds ahead at the last dam turn. I didn't see her or hear her again so I assumed I was ahead in the 34's and I was! The view of the lake was wonderful and as there were no flints and roots as trip hazards, I felt I could gaze around me without the Wendover Woods risks I usually encounter! The finish was in view as I passed our hotel where we will be showering and changing a little later!
'Sprint' finish through the hoop and turn to see Lesley speed walking over the line just a couple of minutes after me and looking in good shape considering. After token and barcode reading we took the 5 minute stroll to the waterfront cafe for our breakfast. Rutland Water with the parkrun route are managed by Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust in partnership with Anglian Water. They kindly have a concession carpark rate of just £1.00 if you present your barcode, it would be nice if Forestry England copied this at our parkrun but hey-ho! Thoroughly recommend this course for PB's as barely an inch of ascent and descent, all tarmac and the bonus of a good cafe with great bird-watching opportunities afterwards. close by access to the A1, M1 & A14 with a waterfront hotel for overnight stays if you don't want to walk far to the start.
It's the eve of International Women's Day and parkrun hierarchy have suggested we use this Saturday to promote this by endeavouring to have an all-women volunteer force this week. It hasn't been plain-sailing to fill the roster with Lesley being RD and chief roster filler she found by Wednesday there were plenty of open slots. It may be that there was not too much interest in what is usually a diverse but all inclusive event however last minute discussions with her running club filled up the remaining lady-places. 
Friday the ED and I raised the new flag near the car park path in brilliant sunshine and did a little work on the new funnel stake blocks! In just a few hours and a little pre-parkrun sleep I was taking the gear out of the shed....and later putting it away....and I held the heavy megaphone for the briefings volunteers, but these are not volunteer roles so I had to run today! The annoying early morning rain disappeared by the time we drove to the woods, changing to just a grey overcast morning where the set-up proved to be rather muddled. This sadly, is the usual start now in handing out all the roles to volunteers. Signs and arrows, high-vis, lanyards, first aid kits, course check runner, 2 x set-up runners and all the on-course marshals roles. 2x Timekeepers, 2x barcode scanners all with no flat-table again so it was down to sheltering on the muddy floor of the decking of the old cafe again as the green is still out of use. This means the start/finish, the funnel, timekeepers barcode readers along with the runners, supporters.......and the general public have to share the driveway......not satisfactory at all to both myself and more importantly, as she is one of only a handful of volunteer RDs, Lesley. She has a nature of only dealing with this responsible role if it is organised. At home, she sorts and re-sorts the not insubstantial amount of stuff. She prepares reminder sheets, charges watches and scanners and on the morning she is pretty p******ed off at the moment with just using the muddy floor of a disused shed to dish out the gear to the very vital role of our volunteers. However we do now have concrete blocks to put the stakes into at the funnel as the ED bought them up and drilled the holes so the stakes should no longer blow-over in a breeze tripping up the finishers! 
I cut them in half as they were too heavy to lift but 6 still heavy blocks are not by any means a permanent solution as they have to be carried from shed to the start....and back afterwards! Back to the parkrun. A good number today of around 140 with a smattering of purple and quite a few used our 'This Girl Can' photo frame especially supplied for the occasion. Barking dogs at the rear once again drowned out the 3.2.1.off as I shuffled into life from the rear. My body said keep it slow today but I soon found my 'happy' pace mingling around the 20 behind me group. The first downhill, passing the gruffalo was thankfully over as the smell of bacon from the cafe is very disconcerting indeed! Thursday's all day rain had messed up the course once again and slipping and squelching were the order of the day. On 'The Hill' I did the walk 10, run 10 all the way up the hill with a degree of success as I overtook a couple of just-walkers! Following the nasty-down, the home straight of approximately 2km was still mud-bound, with a couple of sections looking and feeling like a 'Tough Mudder' course with no way round but wade through knowing that later in the morning will be the familiar half-hour, muddy trail shoes cleaning session.........again! Resisting looking at any 'views' today and with plenty of folks in front and behind me I crossed the finish in an annoying just 2 seconds over 37 minutes. So this leads me to believe that with no mud, me carrying a little less weight, a less achy body, nicer weather and being a little more mentally relaxed.........I feel I could beat that time easily! A special thanks today to other 'oldies',Richard for not running here today and a big congratulations to Dave for moving up to an age group above me.........so I came first for my age!!
What a strange atmosphere as the 'historic' 14th March 2020 may turn out to be a momentous day in parkrun history. Events all over the world have been cancelled for the foreseeable future and the UK looks to be hanging on by a thread to the outright ban on 'mass events' . Corona virus has already started to change the lives of most people and parkrun HQ have said that if they cancel one in the UK they will have to cancel all. There is no-way to prevent mass numbers simply getting on their bikes (or cars) and just going to the next event that is still on. I think we are all pretty aware this will be our last until we beat, or deal with the virus completely. I am running today and Lesley with her jippy hip has volunteered to Tail Walk. Weather is good after an overnight rain shower had done its best to mud-up the course......again! The gathering looked pretty buoyant and lots of familiar faces from Aylesbury were spotted making for around 130+ starters & finishers. I can't say I burst into life at the off as I thought we were started but we hadn't. This lead to a false time on Fitbit coupled with my usual, forgetting to press the stop at the end. Uneventful but nice run, which is good. No trips or falls, no wobbly bits and no sprinting up or down hills. No high 5s....just tired legs along the top after negotiating the mud bath and of course, steamed-up glasses! I had just a few runners pass me and I ran slowly passing- by a few......just a few. I walked & ran The Hill and trotted around, finishing in 37 + again. I walked back to cheer on the last of the runners and the first of the walkers followed by the Tail Walker.......Lesley. Clearing up was straight forward as all the signs and trolley were put back in our store. When would they come out again? Nice crowd at the cafe for a chilled breakfast and natter before back home to clean up before our London trip** There will be a lot of peeps that will miss this social side of volunteering and taking part in parkrun, perhaps even more than the running itself?
Sunday 15th March 2020.............Well, just a day on and it looks like the government advice is moving up a lot of notches. Life may be put on hold in a big way! We made the most of being able to go to the theatre and last night we saw a cracking concert at the London Palladium given by Paul Carrack and his brilliant 6-piece band. Although a few seats were empty, due to the obvious, there were enough folks, of a certain demographic age, to make it very enjoyable. We had a 17 year old girl from Donegal 'warming up' the crowd with some amazing covers and a splattering of her own songs.....just her and her guitar......and mum & dad in the balcony! Paul's voice was superb with his eclectic mix of jazz, rock, blues, ballads and oldies. We walked the 40 minutes from Marylebone there and the 40 minutes back, to avoid the underground. The streets were very quiet around Oxford Street and Baker Street.......for Saturday night but our train back to Amersham was still pretty packed. It had a feeling that this was probably one of the last public performances in the West End and the last time many of the shops may be open.........weird situation! If you ask, yes we used alcohol hand stuff, nose stuff, alcohol wipes and washed our hands singing 'Nellie the Elephant' as many times as a wash basin was available, however, we were mixing with the general public. We currently are waiting for news of our Spanish walking holiday in early April and wondering also what will happen to our Ramblers South Downs walking week later April. We are organising and leading this one and feel very responsible but will have to go with Government advice.
