Running Over the Hill

  Running Shorts

Short stories & links from our ageing parkrunners! 

From starting at Aylebury parkrun to being part of the Wendover Woods parkrun 'WWp core team' can on occasions mean that the Saturday  parkrun is more than just an hour in the morning, especially when my wife Lesley, also part of the 'core team', has volunteered to be on the roster for Run Director as well as both of us being general volunteer dogsbodies, oh........we both enjoy a run as well even though it doesn't always show on our faces, see below!! (in our defence it was extremely chilly, hence the well wrapped-up look with several under and overlayers ).                               

Wendover Woods parkrun event is not where it all started as our first venture into this 'obsession' was at nearby, Aylesbury parkrun. With its lollipop shaped circuit and a rather flat tarmac course it was an excellent 'entry' into the world of community jogging. Its rude to mention age but I am now proud to have made it to the age graded group of M70-74 and Lesley is  now well into F70-74 also. Our versions of a 'sprint finish' on the frozen grass some 38 minutes after the start have been photographed for posterity! Far from our course record this time but at least we 'turned up and took part' and that is what it is all about. This particular run was following on shortly after my recent 70th, I was just aiming to finish, alive, and Lesley was to run with me to make sure I stayed alive, as the power of attorney thingy was still in the post! Unusually, she forewent her competitive streak and let me take the cheers & limelight at the end! Hove Park parkrun, the week previous, was to be the last run of my sexagenarian years and a pretty good time set by both of us. However, today was to be a very different course. It was hilly, void of tarmac, freezing cold, dark, slippery and yes, we thought in hindsight, it was still fun! So much fun that I thought I would record from now on this diary of each run...........unless I forget to do it or something better crops up!

Stories below start from late 2018 through to the end of 2019 or jump ahead with orange link below:

Saturday morning we were 'at home' and for parkrun 13 we had already put our names down on the volunteers roster. Having previously not ran due to RD and bar-code reading duties etc. Today we opted for volunteer roles that can be achieved whilst running the event as well! Me, first timers briefing and generally helping with set-up and Lesley ditto but results processing on the laptop, whilst I put all the bar-code chips back into order at the end of the event whilst drinking a cup of coffee. It was bitterly cold and almost dark when we left home for our twenty minute upward climb to the top of the woods and the volunteering gathering area. The set-up team were already there, early at 8am to allow the two sets of volunteers time to reach the outlying areas to firstly, check the course for fallen trees, branches etc. and secondly, place a series of arrows and caution-runners signs at strategic points all around the single loop, 5km course. No mean-feat on a dark and threatning morning! The task is hampered by the solid flint that lies just beneath the trails, preventing the spiky posts of the 'direction arrows' 'caution runners' and 'finish sign' from penetrating more than an inch! Once a softer patch is eventually located and the signs placed accordingly, there are volunteers 'shortcuts'  back up through the woods to the meeting point. We all hope that one day soon, the Forestry Commission who manage the land, will put in permanent waymaked posts, as they have at some of their other parkrun venues**. I struggle as usual with the teardrop flag that welcomes all our runners to the newly constructed carpark. 

The controversial (in many eyes) carpark and the almost  completed cafe (that I will get back to later)now has hard standing for what looks like 500 cars and spaces for coaches. Funding for this was possibly assisted from a grant from HS2 construction, where a 'sweetener fund' was given and used to redevelop The Woods. It's coming on fast now with the huge, Tesco like, carpark finished and swish new barriers at the entrance and exit. They have number plate recognition and pay-on-exit machines to extract funds from those that wish to now use this recreation area including, "will always be free" parkrunners. A new office complete with information desk has been resurrected from the old, and granted, well past it's sell by date toilet block, with the information person answering I am sure, more than one question regarding the inflated parking charges.  I am not going to list them all here but suffice to say that £2.20p (at the time of writing) will cover you for 2 hours. Arrive at 8:30am and leave by 10:30am time for the run and a visit for coffee and cake at the cafe. It all goes against the grain to pay for a 'free' event but it may be an age thing? The Forestry Commission (now renamed Forestry England) is no longer funded and there probably isn't enough money in looking after and cutting down trees so the inevitable commercialisation is going to happen or these places won't exist and our run couldn't take place! The new cafe that is almost constructed will, I am sure, look nice and has a prime location with a clear view across the Chiltern Hills, you can almost see the site of the distant HS2 project if you look hard enough! So lots of glass, lots of balcony for lots of tables and chairs, occupied by hopefully lots of people. The toilets, by the way, are now finished and are wonderful. We have first-hand experience of a similar Forestry England project in the Forest of Dean, you guessed it, lots of glass...........etc. lots of people and a nice revenue no-doubt from the carparks and franchises. The cafe in the forest that we cycled to and did par-take in coffee and cake, lacked 'soul'. It was OK but that's all. Our lovely existing log-cabin style Wendover Woods Cafe is surely all we really need? It's 'muddy-boot' welcoming and has adequate seating indoors on colder or wet days and outside seating under cover or amongst the trees. Granted, queues formed on bank holidays or warm weekends but staff coped and I think visitors coped in this populous country we have inherited and have all had to get used to queues by now! Food menu is unsophisticated but...all that most of us really want. Will it have to close when our futuristic cafe opens?*** Who knows but I suspect there wont be room commercially for both trading at the same time.  ** done!    *** yes!

Anyway.......rant over for now and back to the parkrun. It's getting lighter and the volunteers turn-up, not quite as many as we would have liked but as the run is new we don't have a large pool of runners to draw from....and it's near Christmas....and its cold and looking like rain or sleet later in the morning! We rely on arrows at certain points on the course, where we would have liked the cheery face and body of a high-vis marshal. We have the basics though, timekeepers, barcode scanners, results processors and other general assistants, all well wrapped up against the cold including myself and Lesley. We perform dual functions of volunteering, I do the 'first-timers briefing' and then we strip off (not much strippng today) before walking down to the start and joining the suprisingly large crowd. The run director says a few words of encouragement, singles out the 'tourists', 'milestone runners' and proceeds to get the event underway almost exactly ontime! We have taken up our places in the crowd quite close to the back in anticipation of the knowledge of that is where we probably will end-up. There is no pecking-order it just happens, fast ones surge to the front, tardy ones hover around the back. We have done many events nationally and even in other countries as well and that is just how it happens and how Mr parkrun must have intended it to be. We have been in amongst 600+ at the Hove Park event, still no pushing, no jostling just the mayhem of eager feet, dogs on short leads, buggies and sometimes double buggies. With watches clicking then slowly treading time at the start until everyone finds their own pace and eventually, their own space! At Hove Park there is a small loop and larger loop where you have to circumnavigate twice. This inevitably means, for a good many runners, including us, that they will be 'lapped'. This is done with very little barging or shouting, just a gentle reminder from the marshalls to "keep right" or "faster runner approaching"....it works! it's not a race, there are private race-tracks with marked lanes especially contructed for that! Talking of different parkruns, we are (were**) lucky enough to have a touring caravan and so could tow it close to another venue to coincide with Saturday mornings. It didn't always work out but on one occassion, we got to be pitched close by to an excellent inner-London, Pymms Park parkrun where the broad ethnic mix included girls running with their hijab which is great to see and advances the real ethos of parkrun, free to all, for all! We were made most welcome and the flat, two-loop tarmac path with a cafe at the end was a perfect start to a day in London!

Just the same whilst on holiday in Busstleton near Margaret River, Australia. Although the most common head covering we spotted the locals wearing, were fly nets to keep off the peskies while running along the beach-front! It has an 8am start, as is the norm in this part of the planet and we only had an hour drive to get there from our digs. This 'short' drive was more of a norm here as the parkruns were few and far between, however that was three years ago and they are springing-up all over the place now. Incidentally we are back to Perth shortly and three years ago there was really only a few parkruns to choose from but now there are twenty three, in and around the city! We were welcomed at the briefing by the RD for Busstleton parkrun and introduced on their preamble as 'tourists' both at parkrun and our holiday. Other 'tourist' parkrun venues were visited on our trip including Perth city, Melbourne and Sydney where at 8am the temperature was approaching 30Cs. I was still in my spectator, cheer leader, driver and bag-man stage as I didn't take up walking then jogging parkruns until a few of years ago. Lesley did as many runs as visiting a place on a suitable Saturday would allow! New Zealand was next and three years ago there was a definite shortage of venues, however we  bagged Auckland and Wellington on the North Island and Blenheim & Dunedin on the South Island. I wonder how many we can visit on our next trip?

Running the Wendover Woods parkrun has been described by some with beautiful adjectives taken from our 'finishers':   "Brutal, tough, challenging, hilly, nice, pretty etc.  At the briefing when we describe the loose flints, the downhills, the uphills, and don't forget to look for the views, we hear comments from the expectant runners ranging from....bring it on! to; should I have stayed in bed? we think its somewhere in between but this just shows the diversity of runners out there. 16:30 minutes - 59:59 minutes with most, somewhere in between. ** caravan recently stolen from the storage site by you guess??  It was insured but it's still distressing, all the contents you have accumulated, the feeling that you property is so vulnerable to determined thieves and  so............it is with heavy hearts we have called it a day on our years of touring enjoyment. We still hope to visit other parkruns though, soon! **

CHRISTMAS @ Brighton- Preston Park, is just one of several parkrun events held in and around this sea-side city. We have run around the park and even went with our youngest grandaughter (then!) on a Sunday junior parkrun, but we have never got around to taking part in their parkrun. We were down at our holiday home and it was Christmas day. No run at Hove Park so a few minutes extra drive and here we were on a perfect, mild Christmas morning, just the two of us.......and 680-ish other early-morning 'revellers'. The atire seemed anything red, anything onesie, fairy or just plain silly! Santa hats and Santa beards were abundant making for a colourful spectacle across the park. By 8:59am pepes were still pouring out of nearby streets, those that have been before and timed it to perfection, those that perhaps decided at the last minute and others that had to hunt out the odd available parking space as no public transport today. The core-team and their volunteers had set out the course and the briefing was sung to us with a well rehearsed carol, with a 'briefing' theme using their altered words to the tune of; 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful'. A 2/3 loop of the park on nice flat paths with just a slight hill on each circuit and then to the finish funnel. Lesley commented that the loops gave us chance to see the quicker runners a couple of times, something our circa 35 minutes and home one-loop doesn't do! We finished comfortably in the upper 500's with plenty of people still to finish, behind us! Our times were pretty good too, around 33 minutes, probably due to the flatness and oodles of folk around us! All in all, most enjoyable and plenty of time to get on with the Christmas visits and dinner with most of the familly still in bed! We wil be back to this parkrun, hopefully in the not to distant future.

2019 HAD ARRIVED NEW YEAR DAY: Wendover Woods parkrun. Even though we have been running for quite a while now we haven't got into some of the 'offshoot' parkrun 'clubs'. Yes we have 'toured' a bit but don't go all-out to bag record numbers by travelling 500 miles to the tip of Scotland and then back again....all in a weekend! We just pick them up as we go around. New to us also is 'alphabet' events....beginning with 'A' B' 'C' ... you get the drift! But as this time of year comes around and we are all pent-up needing a run, the Saturday run is never going to be enough for some. I suppose depending on which day of the week it falls, New Year Day takes on a whole new meaning to our intrepid parkrunners. Despite the revelling a few hours before, they are back up and out there....today, in their droves! So the parkrun local teams have started to plan early for a friendly collaboration with nearby runs to put on either a single event but now as we are not far from Tring, it was possible to do the 'double'. Permission was sought for Wendover Woods parkrun  to start at 10:30am giving the early-birds at Tring the opportunity to start at the normal time of 9:00am. It just so happened that the very keen had decided to run the three or so miles between them.....through the woods.....both ways! That's park in Wendover Woods at 8am, run to Tring, run their parkrun, run back, run the Wendover Woods parkrun and yes, some started from Wendover clocktower at 7:30am and ran the extra mile and back of course. I make that around 14miles in old money or 22km which ever you prefer! Possibly, these were the more fortunate as, we could see it coming, the new, slow to lift, numberplate recognition gates and equally slow machine, pay on exit, failed massively to cope. The queue to get into the woods were out to the main road, some 1 mile away and the queue at the end to pay to get out was at least a 45minute wait! The queue for the cafe was 20 minutes but that was a user 'choice' decision and thankfully most cheerfully waited and availed themselves of coffee or tea, cakes or breakfasts. Perhaps I am over critical of the gating system as 460 finishers, plus a good crowd of family and friends supporters, plus of course, the regular visitors who were visiting in numbers that I haven't seen since the last Bank Holiday is being unfair! Yes 460 finishers, that's over four times more than a normal day. It took us slightly by suprise and both with nasty colds volunteering today as timekeeper and Lesley as finish tokens, we were at our limit! My stopwatch thumb had frozen and so had my body, Chris, my fellow timekeeper suffered the same but then he had run Tring! Looking at the results there were so many 'all at once' occasions that the funnel didn't cope at times with backups happening at the finish line. We were trying to keep them in order to collect the correct finish token without missing them sprinting to a finish. It worked and somehow we both ended up with 460 clicks! As for Lesley with the task of handing out tokens until they were exhausted then reverting to paper barcode sheets as we were 16 short! For the bar-code scanners the task was just as difficult with the queue snaking round and a good 15 minute wait to get scanned.Thankfully the runners accepted our challenges and spent the 15 minutes to chat about 'the hill' or 'the mud' or perhaps the next parkrun in just 4 days time! It was an interesting and enjoyable day, hopefully for all that took part or volunteered or simply supported their family and friends. Feedback was really positive too about the course the 'on our limit' organisation and one runner commented it was her first time she had queued to get over the finish line..........oh we also had an unbelievable course record of 16.58 minutes!

BACK TO 'NORMAL' JANUARY SATURDAY and its just after 8am with only  a few days passing from our last 'special' run with 460 runners! Today was not as cold as forecast but cold enough for me, as a volunteer marshall, to wrap up with several layers, warm gloves, silly multi-coloured Madeiran shepherd hat complete with ear muffs. Lesley was going to run and do the run results later so a dual role for her today as runner-volunteer. We arrived by car today as we had things to take and things to bring away, through the slow barriers with the smug knowledge we had a free parking pass to exit, as do all the parkrun volunteers. Plenty of time to assist setting up and to join the three 'far' marshalls that have almost 20 minutes to walk down to their positions, 5, 6 and 7. The numbers arriving looked sparse with more helpers than runners as I battled once again with the parkrun welcome flag, given yet another lease of life with the addition of a short bungy strap. We were off before the briefing so as to take up our posts on-time unaware that some 107 runners eventually started and finished......or did they? Things went well and I did my usual enthusiastic cheering and commiserations to all that passed me by on the bend after 'the hill'! It was good to see that very few, like myself, seemed to enjoy the big-up with a fair proportion choosing to walk it or slow shuffle. Only the front 'proper' runners seemed to stride upwards with barely a wince! As the crowd thinned it was pleasing to see Lesley creeping alongside a nice family, offering them encouragement also. The little girl in pink seemed to smile constantly as I met them again on the top, final section on my way back and again at the finish. So a short walk to the end and cheer the later finishers and finally our tail-walker then clear up and take all the paraphernalia back to our lock-up. All good to this point when we discovered there were still 2 walkers out on the course! How, we can only guess that either the tail walker didn't spot them at the start or they joined-in perhaps after the start. Luckily we had a guy that ran who was still at the finish and hadn't stopped his watch. He took their time at around 59 minutes so they at least had a finish time. Over our coffee and cake we surmised we will have to review how this could happen and try to avoid it in the future. We are still quite new and are learning all the time but these things and others will I am sure, always happen!

Early on in January and its a gloomy parkrun day. I plan to run but first I am thrown-in to 'first timers briefing' as I have done it before and it counts towards a double towards my volunteering role and clocking up another run. As seems the norm we have plenty of , new to Wendover Woods to brief. "thanks for coming, it's hilly, may be slippery, no dogs, no barcode no result, 10% off at the cafe afterwards, bag-drop by the finish, have a good one........" and off we go! walk to the start in the familiar mud, due to contractors still being on site, leave my warm jacket for afters at the bag-drop and join the 130 starters. Lesley is 'tailwalker' today and shares the next 58 minutes with a senior lady who is 'coming back' to fitness. I think I did pretty well considering........? and finished in 110th place in just under 37 minutes with still (only) 20 behind me! It's not just about the run though it's the amazing characters that just turn up out of the blue or in his case, from the dark! Andrew from East London stayed after his run to chat. He first approached me at my briefing and asked the best place to leave his bike " at the finish where our volunteers are always present". He said he was a "tourist" and I assumed he was to cycle back a few miles to perhaps Tring or Wendover station. But no! he was doing the return 70km to east London after leaving at 'silly-hour' for the 4 hour ride to our parkrun. He says he limits the ride to a 100km circle of home....unless he is at his 'other home' up-north where he keeps another (bit dilapidated) bike! Certainly his bike today wasn't a spring-chicken variety and no......it wasn't an e-bike! He has done 360 runs and from looking at stats a fair-few are different events. He has a good volunteering record as well so quite a guy? This is what makes parkrun what it is.....you never know who turns up . 

Saturday 19th January 2019 and it's our turn to both volunteer at WWp. Lesley is RD this week and has collected all the gear from last week's RD to do her usual methodical sift through and check all electrics are charged and check out all the rest of the stuff is present! I am down for MP6 (marshall point 6) that is a 'distant' role offering not only to keep the parkrunners on the right trail but to offer as much support to those that have (almost) made it to the top of the now infamous, 'The Hill'. In the picture I took earlier today of some  front- runners it seems that the description of 'horrible' or even 'brutal'  have been over egged, as here it seems just a gentle rise! But having run the route this afternoon, just to check we hadn't left any signs out, it is tough.....really quite tough! It may be the false sense of security with the over 2km of downhill that leads up to it, and then the sudden up. Or is it an optical elusion from the surrounding trees as can be seen in the photograph. Putting that to one-side it was another of those cold and damp feeling winter days. Thankfully the BBC forecast of 'snow in the Chilterns' didn't materialise and the 'turning to rain' at 11am, also didn't happen, so just damp and squidgy, especially along the top where the contractors JCB's have been working (other makes of mechanical excavators are available). We all hope soon that the work will finish and the trail gets back to normal, as mud at the start and mud at the finish is little fun, or is it just me? No it's not just me, as whilst doing our afternoon circuit, a small child in what was a lovely a pink romper-suit went flat, face-forward, into the muddy soup and we could still hear her parents trying to placate her as we ran towards the new cafe! So no dramas for the RD and team, no one lost or injured, 132 finishers, just the gate not locked and one arrow sign left behind. Just one emailed query from a runner who felt he was 6 second faster than our results gave him (he still had a PB)! Lesley will double check both stopwatches, but .................! All in all a good result from all runners, shufflers, walkers and of course.......VOLUNTEERS! It's off down south next time so will endeavour to take in one of the fine venues on offer to us then it will be back to Wendover Woods for our 'final' event! But before that a walk in our woods after a pretty significant fall of snow had turned it into a 'winter wonderland'. We did the circuit and checked the course to find a fallen tree had almost completely blocked the special-view-path. K at Forestry England was informed and a clearance squad will be dispatched to clear the path asap. Some more works on path improvements had led to a mud-bath on the top road again but we were reassured it will get better as they are making it an all-access route by smoothing and resurfacing, It couldn't have been easy in this weather! Succumbed once again to a coffee and cake but we deserved it as today we both went to the gym and afterward, Lesley then went to kettlebells club and I walked home and then we both did the woods circuit as above...................plenty of steps!

Hove Park parkrun is a particular favourite with us. We like it as it is just 12 minutes from our "south holiday home' near Brighton and has a wonderful park-cafe for after-treats! All on tarmac and 1 small and 2 large loops with usually 400 others to share with, it has a great atmosphere. We did class it initially as 'hilly' until we started Wendover Woods but nevertheless it has a couple of inclines that make us puff! We both found our 'positions' at the start by checking comparable times with other parkrunners which is always a good idea in large events to prevent being swamped by speedy runners trying to get past. So with about 100 behind us we set off together, and soon got into our stride, or as we call it, shuffle! It was obvious that Lesley had benefitted from her training schedule and soon lost me in the crowd only to slowly catch her up on the inclines before she seemed to be 'sprinting' ahead and finishing in a respectable time in the latter 32s and me just over 33! well deserving of a slightly crispy but hot, ham & cheese croissant.
Incidentally, planning permission has been approved and a new........you guessed it, swish glass-fronted cafe in place of the more (we think) in-keeping with the surroundings cafe. So watch this space for a year of turmoil and buildings and of course a Costa-Coffee style menu! Both looking forward to our next parkrun at 'home' where we have volunteered, Lesley timekeeper and me tailwalker. Snow forecast so should be interesting in the woods!   The

1st of February and the news has come through from the RD and ED that tomorrow's Wendover Woods parkrun is cancelled! It's no surprise as we have just walked most of the course and it's 3-4 inches deep. The access road is closed and the carpark is unsafe due to the amount of snow that fell last night and still plenty of flurries today! We were both due to volunteer so looks like a lie-in for a change. Most other local events are cancelled too as well as quite a few in the rest of the UK. The course would be fine for hardened trail runners but challenging for the less able (me)! It's about the priority of safety for the volunteers and runners trying to get to the event early in the morning especially when it is forecast to freeze again overnight.
The woods looked fantastic and thanks to our walking poles we didn't take a tumble in the hills that had been made slippery in parts, from the kids, dads and mums on toboggans.........nice to see them all out taking advantage of a duvet-day for parents and no-show school day for kids and teachers!  Ah-well there is always the gym!

A total change of weather as we braved the 16 hours non-stop-flight to Perth Australia .  Freezing temperatures were replaced by 35C as we took the train to Cottesloe at 7am for the 8am start of the nearest parkrun to our Murray River apartment in Fremantle. What a setting! Sea, sand and surf plus a small gathering of enthusiastic folks. We had already met our first fellow UK tourist on our train and he had decided to volunteer.  Talking of volunteers,  the path was generally flat along the seafront (they call it waterfront in this part of the world ) with the bazaar exception of a diversion down onto the sandy beach with a run along to a bollard,  then back along the water's edge, back across the fine sand (not easy) up a flight of steps and back onto the path again for a sprint finish!  As we always seem to find on our forays into the antipodes and no surprise, are the large amount of 'tourists' who seem to live on our doorstep. Once we arrived in New Zealand we tackled Western Springs in Auckland. It shares many things with it's neighbour, Auckland Zoo! This includes the carpark, the cafe and many of the 'escaped' ducks, chickens and geese that roam around the small park just for the sheer enjoyment of watching us or could it be simply the close proximity, over the zoo wall, of a ready supply of food? Anyway the flat course with one nasty sting runs twice around a pond and twice has to run the gauntlet of hissing geese on the aptly named, "poo corner".
We ran the course twice whilst on our hols and thankfully it was dry underfoot both times as "p-corner" apparently becomes a slip-hazard of some degree we were told. The second occasion our RD for the day recently came to live in NZ with his family........all the way from Berkhamsted, not a million miles from Wendover Woods. There were parkrunners from all over, as you would expect, from this weekly event that worldwide has some 5 million registered participants. The photo I took on the left is Lesley, and in green, a Redway Runner from Milton Keynes. We have been assured that this huge running club has at least one runner at every event you care to think of! May not be exactly true, but it may just seem like it.

Then there was Blenheim on the South Island.
A flat, straight out and back by the river with no marshals just virtual ones, sprayed on in orange using a 'cone stencil' on the tarmac path where you needed to change direction or did the roundabout and back! Very communual group of volunteers that headed for the cafe, with us, for a long chat over 'flat whites' and croissants for the after-run breakfast. On the way back to our rent-a-dent car we spotted, well you couldn't have missed him, a guy doing something rather strange.........pogo-stick-ing or what ever it is called now. We managed to stop him hopping briefly for a chat, he said he needed the break anyway. Young Lee Griggs was training for a mental awareness charity attempt on scaling a Mt Fyffe, by pogo-stick! We saw later he had achieved his goal on his Facebook site with a short Youtube clip to prove it! I took a picture but unfortunately it's a long-shot as he hopped-off at some speed before I could get my phone out of my pocket! He wanted to achieve this in under 24 hours and he reached the top of the 5000 ft mountain in 23 hours and 19 minutes with blistered hands and somewhat fatigued body, no doubt....well done Lee! Coming back to the North Island we stayed close by the Tauranga parkrun.......well, an hour drive away! A slightly strange setting besides an historical village  setting that were part museum and part an enterprise zone for small and unusual businesses. Close to the start major construction works were taking place in a planned new development area but the builders had kindly delayed their work to allow our parkrun to still take place. It was an out and back course beside a river, not pretty but come back next year and the whole thing will probably be completed and knowing NZ it will look great. Apres run was in an historical cafe where we shared our table with a couple from Ireland that since going home from living and working near Bicester (where they also park-runned) have set up a B&B and self contained cottage in a beautiful part of southern Ireland where if you do their local parkrun, that they helped to set up, they will give you a discount if you stay with them........that's novel? 

Back to Auckland to find that the 'Run round The Bays' was taking place, about 5 miles distance and about 5 bays along the beautiful Auckland waterfront. this was to be my first mas-participation event ( since the Charlwood Fun Run some 30 years ago )and the longest distance I have run........yet! Twenty-odd thousand of runners and walkers, many doing it for good causes, as is the norm now, many dressed in company T-shirts, running as teams probably also for the company designated charity. After the zoo parkrun with poo-corner the day before, I found it surprisingly comfortable finishing only 2 minutes behind Lesley. However it took the best part of half-an-hour to find her at the finish and a further hour to queue for the free bus back to where we had started.........then the shuttle bus back to the park & ride, then the short drive back to Hobsonville......the joys of big events! My time was recorded as 01:01:42 and I finished 6,970 out of 23,831 finishers and was 17th out of 95 finishers in the male 70-79 age group........not bad for me as a '1st-timer'!

Singapore on the way back and we were somewhat pleased our 3 day-stop-over didn't fall on a Saturday otherwise we may have been tempted to Singapore parkrun in 35C+ and that could have been our last ever judging by the effort required to just walk around in the humidity! Still.....we walked miles and the night views and light-shows were fantastic. Back to blighty and off to catch up on family matters on the south coast where the temptation of a flat, beside-the-sea parkrun at Lancing (soon we are told, to be renamed 'Lancing-on-Sea'). We have now completed our second run there with excellent times (for us) of <33 minutes! Talking of characters........one guy who speed-walked all the way and finished between Lesley and myself, so he must have been quick, had walked from Brighton that morning to compete in the run and had walked from Redhill to Brighton the previous day in a series of walks he is doing to 'join-up' linearly, walks to Birmingham..........yes, it didn't make sense to us either! I think the moral of these challenges that us humans seem to thrive on. Chat with the challenge do-ers by all means, but never ask them ........... why........?

Bagman & the London 'Vitaliti' 10k run was a very British run that Lesley had entered thanks to a whopping discount for the first 2000 parkrunners that entered! A dodgy knee had cleared up and I was set to be 'bagman' whilst she ran the 10k's around some of our best recognised landmarks in London. Early start, as these things tend to be, where we used the 'free on Sundays & bank holidays' car park beside Amersham underground station. Other runners and some of her local club, On the Run Aylesbury, gathered on the platform. it's no coincidence that the popularity of Amersham is both convenience and it's relative cheapness, due to being the last 'touch-on-touch-off station for Oyster or touch-cards. All day, anywhere in London is still a bargain. We teamed up with another couple who ran the same event last year, he was bagman as well! Once in Green Park, after good humoured queues to get out of the station, the immediate snaking loo-queues were cleverly by-passed to those much nearer Buckingham Palace where just a 5 minute wait and then back out to soak in the atmosphere of 20-odd thousand runners plus friends, family and bag-mans & I assume, bag-ladies!.....although that conjures up a much different picture for me! Us baggies bade our farewells and took up a splendid position above the fountain and overlooking the Buckhouse and the finish. Mo came through 1st in the upper twenties (mins.) followed by 23,000 others. I spotted Lesley and she spotted me, in at a very respectful, just over the hour and she was looking pretty good considering she picked up a wobbly knee in the Auckland parkrun and had taken a few weeks to shake it off completely. Results showed 34th in her age group so delighted with that too. Photos followed at her fellow club members ' On the Run' meeting point and a sneaky photo of her and Mo with Mo distictly looking the more distressed , after his short run. A look around the run-village and an admiring gawp at Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill being interviewed before a snack and back on the underground and back home! Names down for next year? 

** We have bought a tent so the touring goes on .........in fine dry weather with flat fields, electric hook-up & pub nearby!

Weather has been unseasonably 'atrocious' and June seems to have been turned upside down with rain and cold more akin to November. Heating has been turned back on in parkrunners houses and our empty allotment water barrels have been replenished to the brim! No kindness for early Saturday as Lesley's RD volunteering week and my 'jack of all trades' volunteer-day sees the sky dark and rain falling on a muddy and slipery course. The wind was pretty strong as I set out at 8am to do the half course set-up that involves putting out the arrow posts, caution runners signs and clearing branches from the course and a jog back to marshal point 4, wait for the tail walker to appear and leg-it back to do the bar-code scanning before the 1st runner arrives. This multi-tasking shouldn't be necessary if we could attract more volunteers! It seems to becoming the norm at our parkrun and it could be one week where we simply cannot start the event. We have analysed that we are fairly new, we don't have a large core of runners that take part each week, we have a high percentage of 'tourists' that come ( some distance) to run and our initial core of team members have somewhat diminished over the last few months. We put out appeals on facebook and mention it at the briefing each week. Some busier parkruns try to attract people in alphabetical order each week......a-d.....e-h etc. We will try the local community next as we have come to rely on DoE youths but their volunteer period has sadly come to an end. It is a shame that the team, who also would like to enjoy the parkrun by running, have to take turns all too often for volunteer roles. Grumble over, it's just a blip we hope and the fine weather forecast will bring out the parkrunners.........and volunteers!

June 22nd and summer has returned to normal in Wendover Woods. It's volunteer time as the sheet looked pretty empty mid-week and we knew we wouldn't be around for a while to run or volunteer. As it happens, the roster sheet filled and we had plenty of everything, on the day! The evening before we took to Coombe Hill for our, now usual, solstice meet by the war memorial. We join with Lesley's local "On the Run" running club, a few local Ramblers we recognise and many other folk we don't that bring a picnic, wine and beer to listen to the excellent 'folky' group that beat their bongos, play the didgery-doo, sing and dance until the sun has melted away. So a late-ish night, followed by an all to soon, early morning alarm call to summoned us to our roles. Lesley ran the whole course in reverse to check for fallen branches, sinkholes or possibly wild bears that may interrupt the parkrun. I do the half-course set-up, putting out arrows and 'caution runners' signs to warn other woods users of the 'stampede' of 101 runners at 9am. I then take up position MP5 as marshal at the turn before 'The Hill'. It is to offer encouragement and well-dones so-far as the first runner comes through at 9.10am and the last walker with tailwalker at 9.25am. The sun is shinning and not a cloud in a near perfect temperature as a couple of bikers can be heard puffing up the incline. They pause for a chat and I find out they come from Pinner in north London, out for a day ride in the beautiful woods. Yet another couple of guys who had never heard of parkrun! "It's free! It's every Saturday! It's 5K and you could walk it!" Either I am in a parkrun bubble where every other conversation, email or Facebook or Whatsap message is 'parkrun' or they are in a news and social-media black-hole! In the latter group but by no means at the back, a small family appear with father offering 'encouragement' to the young lad. I suppose pushy parents are everywhere but I had a certain empathy with the lad that had a face that said " I would rather still be in bed" However at the end the promise of an ice-cream may have placated his externally silent rant!  Another success, all course markers retrieved.....eventually by our first home runner, who not only ran around again (10K) but ran back to pick up 2 arrows we left behind. Bacon sandwich at the Cafe in the Woods while Lesley completed the results on the laptop with little stress, apart from the wi-fi signal fading as she pressed 'the button'........oh and the only 'incident' was a wheel falling off of Stu's new 4 wheel ( 3) trolley, brought to enable us to move the gear from the carpark to the run start...... it will be fine next week!

My 99th parkrun is at Oxford in Cutteslowe Park. No views of the dreaming spires as the park is on the outskirts of the city, close to the infamous A34 and the convenient park-and-ride. The day is expected to bring temperatures into the mid-thirties but at 8:30am when we arrive it's a more pleasant 22C. You just know they are expecting a lot of starters when they have a high-vis marshal........just for car parking! Being early, we find a convenient slot and as usual we head for the toilets that thankfully are just being opened by the park groundsman. We have a cunning strategy for today as (a) It's promised to be in the upper twenties at 9am and (b) Lesley is running the Forestry England, 10K, in Wendover Woods tomorrow. So no records, just a gentle jog on an almost flat 2 + 2 loops. So both finishing in in around 36 minutes...... according to our Fitbits, with no injuries or sunstroke as a bonus. Nice cafe and chat afterwards with a healthy big-breakfast bagette before we head back to our nearby tent! Yes tent, The day turns out as predicted and the campsite pool is a welcome refreshing place to be....except it's a weekend and every other family with a tent or caravan, within 20 miles radius of Oxford, plus their children, are at the now very full-site and most are in the pool too. You would think that we had learnt our lesson and stick to only going away midweek. We are retired, we have a choice not to go, but.....parkrun tourism is all about Saturdays! Perhaps we should start up a midweek parkrun, say 8pm and with head-torches in the winter?......perhaps not, too many tired bodies after work, peeps rushing on the roads to get home, kiss the kids and get down to the start. Evening meals being gobbled down, indigestion etc. etc..There must also be more health & safety issues in the winter like loosing parkrunners and marshals in the dark. No, best stick to crowded pools, it's safer......but only just!

100 up! and my milestone, fittingly, is at home in Wendover Woods. Weather is fine and body is above 50% so up for it this morning. J. is RD today and apart from volunteering the run-results, we are free to run. His plea on facebook for volunteers has worked wonders and we are not required as back-ups. Just the one hiccup this morning as the guy from Forestry England that should open our shed first thing, the shed with all of the signs and arrows in, decided to not tick it off his opening-woods list, first. We therefore started some 15 minutes late! Anyway, average numbers today and the course we find is tough......so no change there! A 'sprint' along the home straight separates me from Lesley by several seconds at the finish line although others seem to form the opinion that she deliberately 'bottled it' in the last 200 meters so I could take the 100 run glory! Just the usual long wait for the nice black '100' T-shirt to show off wherever parkrun leads me although with time passing since the event started it is becoming pretty common now to have 100 + 250+ 500 even! all being rewarded with their own unique coloured T. Talking of colour......pretty poor colour reproduction from the snap of me at the finish. Yes the T-shirt was that shade of blue but my red face...............! Before you ask, the trolley on the left of the photo is for the equipment and not to tow me back to the cafe for a 'resuss' cake!

Wendover Woods, it's event 43 and Lesley is this week's RD and I am timekeeper...........No.1 course set-up, funnel constructor and de-constructor, shed duty for arrows and signs....bagman for all the gear to name but a few! An air of relief & calmness as the gate to the woods is opened on time at exactly 8am by the duty manager at Forestry England. The shed is opened (unlike a week ago) the weather is perfect and just the wait for the band of volunteers to arrive. Our ED  is there as Mr reliable to do set up no.2. I am off to shuffle around half of the course and bang in posts in the flint ground before returning to a less calm scene of marshals not turning up and a serious risk of the 'unmentionable'

Back a few steps to mid-week when a guy from Centurian contacted Lesley to say they were running an event called the Centurion 100 and it does clash with parkrun! Centurian 100 is not as you may think, a 100 yds shuffle for 100 year olds, Not an event lasting 100 minutes. Not even an event for 100 people. running 100kms. No, it's 100 miles around the toughest paths they could find or invent in our woods......that's 10 x 10 miles circuits starting at 8am on Friday with the cut-off time 32 hours later, right through the night, not a relay of teams but individual guys and girls. If you think you are not quite up for it, then you could try the metric measured 1 day event of 50kms they run alongside the 100 . Same woods, yes, different paths? I have no idea! Good news was the signage was mainly a pink colour and we could spot their runners easily as they had numbers on their vests and after 25 hours of running they just may, or should, look a little more tired! (I spotted a few of them and they still looked pretty fresh). Back to the parkrun and a dilema of being short of 2 very important marshal positions at MP4 and MP6. Step-in the Centurian runners from the 50kms that had finished. The guys  willingly stepped in and ran down to marshal the 2 points and save our day. Some other Centurions also ran the parkrun and others formed a big group near the finish and heartily cheered the 132-ish finishers on......well done all. We have to say there is no-thanks to the contractors that had put in 4 way traffic lights on the A41 causing, now locally famous, long queues........and you guessed, meant our lovely volunteer marshals arrived late at 8.45am. They kindly stayed and merged in, helping out at other stretched points that low numbers of volunteers bring........if only we had more..... but mustn't grumble again! I clicked my stopwatch in synchronised time with Seb, our DoE timekeeper volunteer, that had been with us for many weeks and this was to be his last. Well done and hope to see him at parkrun again, possibly running? After banging the poles into flint....again! at the finish we waited for the first finisher and to everyones delight it was to be  our first, event female finisher. She achieved a whole 90 seconds quicker than our previous first female. Once our fears and doubt had been put-to-bed that she was so-quick that perhaps our Centurions had not arrived at MP6 and she turned right taking 2kms off the 5kms as her 'colleague in speed' was just 30 seconds behind her with the rest of the quick pack.......we could all enjoy the moment. Her club is the notorious  Birchfield Harriers and she is a military trainee! I must mention Amy, our cafe proprietor that almost single-handedly, even though it is nearing the last week of her cafe, opened up, togged up and put in an excellent parkrun performance again. Overall, It was, despite a few early hiccups, an excellent day. Lesley completed the results at home due to poor Wi-fi again and coped with just the one dropped token and a finisher that didn't go through the finish so didn't get a time, but picked up a token!! Can't wait for next week, perhaps a relaxed run or just volunteering again would be good?

I think I have been tailwalker once before but it was sometime ago and I was quite looking forward to a good paced walk! I doubled-up as No 2 set up as well this week and a swift walk/run back to join the briefing. We seem to have a pretty good gathering again with a mixture, as ever, of 1st timers, tourists, dogs and last but not least, children. I was to have a young co- tailwalker this week who explained en-route  she was a 20 someting in age and 20 something in parkrun time but due to a recent appendix op. she would be just walking today. ED got them underway and it soon became obvious that this was not a gentle stroll in the park as we had a pretty quick bunch and we were soon trotting along trying just to keep up! Luckily (for us) we came across a young sister and brother duo stopped in the deeper part of the woods with the young girl bent over with a stitch. Her older brother really did nothing to encourage her but complain that they would miss their 37minute target apparently with a promise of some 'goody' at the end. A few guidance tips from us to stop and stretch and she picked up more pace near the end and finished in just under 40 minutes with us also under 40! I was very hot in the hi-vis and signage that I had remembered to collect plus a further trip out after our cupcakes to collect the signage that passed me by during the 'stitch' incident! Coffee and chat with the last lady finisher who had recorded a PB! This was not her registered 'local' but she said she preferred the ambiance at Wendover Woods.......and the cafe...........and did not really mind the hills! That's parkrun spirit for you. Just as a footnote she said over coffee with her non-running hubby that it was her father that got her into jogging and he had just been invited to the octogenarian special annual parkrun at the home of parkrun, Bushey Park! see my last year's event report from this event on "running reports" in the heading menu.

We 'deserted' the woods today for the Aylesbury parkrun, our original location where it all started for us, or at least, Lesley, exactly 5 years ago, a good enough reason for an anniversary run. Forecast was correct and the heatwave had turned from 30 something to 16C with a welcome drizzle. When we started park running here the numbers were under 100, but today there were well over 200! We soon remembered the start that is nearly 10 minutes from the meeting point and the finish. We remembered to the bottleneck that today had over 200 trying to run, jog, walk, take pushchairs and dogs on leads through a path that is a couple of meters wide with overhanging bushes to-boot! Unless you are lucky to be in the first group at the starting line-up, you will encounter a few minutes of light-hearted shuffling and dodging feet, legs and bodies! Once the first bend is encountered on the "lollipop" shaped course it all starts to spread out. It's 99% tarmac, 2 small humps over footbridges and a slope right at the end before a grass 100 meter stretch to the finish. We both did good times, by our standard, and enjoyed the run and meeting up with some old-faces.

A stunning start to our the first August Wendover woods parkrun where early morning heat was the only problem for the almost 120 finishers today. We left, as usual, just after 7:30am for the uphill walk to meet with the RD and take up our volunteer duties. The new cafe is about to be opened at 8: 30 and we are looking forward to a try-it-out later. I am one of the two 'course set-up' today and we spilt the arrows and signs between both myself and Richard, our other regular set-up volunteer. I will also be marshal 3 and then marshal 8 at the run-in to the grass finish, 3 duties but no problem as it works out nicely.....as a rule. Richard will run the parkrun as set-up gives the opportunity to volunteer and run! Today we have an addition of 4 x km markers to take out and place in spots worked out and photographed for guidance sheets all done by D our RD. By the time I arrive back at the meeting area, after placing said markers, signs and arrows the expectant crowd has gathered and I am already pretty sweaty! Once the Ist-timers briefing is over I hover in high-vis whilst the crowd move on to the start. It's always amazing the fine timing that some parkrunners take to arrive just before the off and today is no exception. Cars arrive in ever-faster entrances to the car-parking area with doors springing open and runners legging-it towards the start or towards me for last minute directions. The final car is a mini that makes a "Paddy Hopkirk" type entrance with the driver failing to notice, or choosing to ignore, the speed-hump, strategically placed, to prevent such incident no doubt! Thankfully they all start and all finish. At marshal point 3 a new hazard  was the delivery driver trying to leave the new cafe but was prevented by the initial rush of parkrunners who snaked into the woods with no gap large enough to allow him to make a dash for the exit! He said he would try and time next Saturday delivery better! Ben, our now regular fastest through the woods, had a younger guy to challenge him this week but he only managed to get within 100 meters at the finish, probably due to Ben achieving yet another PB! It's not all about the quickest, we had many runners, joggers and shufflers, all out to enjoy the warmth of the woods and characters today including 2 VI runners (visually Impaired) that ran with their guide runners. It was amazing to think they avoided all the humps and bumps with just the helpful instructions from their partner.
We finished off by clearing away and off to enjoy our first coffee & cake in the new Wendover Woods cafe. Met the new managers, it has the 10% discount for parkrun and decided amongst us that it wasn't bad . It was not the same as our old cafe and the lovely Amy but things do change and it just takes time to get used to it!  Event 49 of  WWp was at least 3 weeks after our last parkrun due to those holiday things that come round frequently when you are both retired!

No chill-out on the beach for us, no, just a week in the Alps with parkrun sponsors, Exodus holidays. 6 days of ups and downs in the beautiful French and Italian Alps around the Chamonix valley. Would all the tough-ups improve our parkrun times? Yes in the case of Lesley with a new PB and no, in the case of me with just 10 seconds outside my best at WWp. My excuse was, it was 3 weeks since my last run, my sciatica hurt a bit, it was very hot day , I had been 'looking after' my 8 years old grandaughter all week, didn't sleep very well with the 1 hour jet-lag................apart from that, I suppose I was pretty pleased. My eldest daughter had come to stay also and both her and our grandaughter came up the woods with us to volunteer and did the bar-code reading and cheering-on! We had over 130 today in the glorious sunshine. Ben made his last ( coming first) run before the family 'emigrating' to Leicestershire and turned in a respectable PB with some 4 seconds improvement! We had tourists from Sydney and Auckland in-fact we had spoken with the NZ pair at Western Springs parkrun back in our recent visit and they said they were coming over in August and planned to run while they were here. Great to see them again.......the world is a small place, especially for parkrunners! After a drama over stopwatches that were soon sorted by one of our young-tech volunteers and the help of Google, we started a little late with a full house of lovely volunteers, not always easy in the holiday periods. The new cafe at the end after clearing up was a must and run results completed after a bit of jiggery-pokey with numbers and tokens helped by the stronger wi-fi. 

A full house of volunteers today at WWp so an opportunity to try a new parkrun today. Dunstable Downs being just 10 miles away and a nice drive with some spectacular views across Beds Herts & Bucks, it is a run to do at anytime of the year.....however if it's windy and cold and wet, I fear it might be for the strong willed only and indeed it does get cancelled on occasions for that very reason! Today was perfect, sparkling sunshine, far reaching views, a friendly crowd of volunteers and about 100+ runners, walkers etc. It was never going to be quick as it was mainly on grass, that rabbits had done their level best to leave it well corrugated, and when not on grass the trail took to the woods with the trees doing their best to leave hazards at regular intervals. That said, it wasn't too hilly! Today however, the obstacles that nature had left for us were outdone by our aching bodies. Mine was suffering from 'cupboard back' as I spent most of the previous day cooped in our hall storage, trying to make it bigger by up-cycling our old fridge-freezer built-in kitchen unit, converting it to be able to take some of our camping gear, my tools, odds and sods, coats, rucksacks, household files...........oh and also to put wheels on it as it is where the meter/fuse-board lives. Lesley's problem started 2 days ago with a double kettle-size. Not a double lesson but just the hour of throwing 2 kettle weights around. She said she felt like an 'old women' today and coming 1st in her age group, she really is! I only achieved 3rd in my age group but a respectable time of 35.52 leaves a bit to beat next time the sunshines, it's not too cold or too hot, or too windy, or we aren't needed at WWP! National trust own the land at Dunstable Downs and let parkrunners use the land and allow parking for free until 11am (Wendover Woods, it can be done) The cafe is nice, no parkrun discount but they run a loyalty card scheme. So we forced  ourselves to have the cake and coffee pick-me-up.........just to be sociable of course!

Just another normal afternoon in sunny Wendover Woods but things just happen when you go up into the trees! Katie had asked for volunteers to turn up in the afternoon dressed in their running kit. So I downed my paintbrush ( painter/decorator chores not artistic) and we both swiftly joggled up to the meeting point to be greeted by a very small, runner-looking, crowd to have pictures taken throughout the woods, promoting the 3 running trails and a new venture. This venture is the start-up of a Wendover Woods couch to 5k group that are going to meet at 10am Saturdays and within 6 sessions they will be fully fledged to run our 5k WW parkrun. It's not the flat course I would have chosen for newbies but good luck to them anyway and hope to see them as regulars later in the year! Almost mandatory coffee and one cake between the 2 of us and off we head on our way home. The long way back was chosen to get our steps today before carrying on with the paint-job. Just by the ' roundabout' we met 'John'. He was gallantly striding out, albeit slowly, up to the peak. Sticks or poles in each hand we passed by and couldn't resist a chat. 'John' liked a chat and we had chapter & verse on staying positive through adversity. An operation "in my head" was the reason John was not quick but blindness in one eye had been restored miraculously by surgeons "marvelous he said" It appeared he had connections with the US and was training for a 3,000 mile walk, in stages, across several states. In our brief chat we discovered he had lost 10stone in weight with more to go, visits a terminally ill friend, has a 39 year-old son with learning difficulties and believes in never giving up, pouring scorn on those that have said to him, "it can't be done" So "keep positive" is his motto even if you fail it is still worth doing and we couldn't agree more!  Several paces further on we turned to go down our steep descent and an RAF 'fitness leader' in  fatigues was waiting for a group of newish intakes to run up the hill behind him. He advised us to watch out for them and remind them they 'should' be running. Sure enough, further down the path they came passing us by in huffy-puffy droves. The early ones managing a steady trot and the later ones looked on their uppers.........to say the least. Guys and girls all going through 'character building'  exercises, we offered encouragement and gentle applause. What a wonderful place, we thought,  to be lucky enough to be stationed with all of these trails and hills, right on their doorstep! After all they could be in barracks in Lincolnshire, with not a hill in sight, but they wouldn't want that, would they

A good time today at WWp considering I took a tumble at the WWp viewpoint, shortly after "the hill", the down & up the gentle slope with a stunning Chiltern valley view across the barley fields and......stumble....... falling on to my right knee shortly after my right elbow had taken the initial brunt of the fall. Flint is not a wonderful soft bedding to stumble onto, trust me on this! Still, I was soon up and shaken down, acknowledged the couple behind me who paused with a sympathetic "are you alright" ?  ''I'm fine" and gingerly up and away, walking slowly at first then picking up the pace to finish in 36:30. Loads of sympathy from the awaiting parkrun team (not) followed by a medicinal sausage sandwich that eased the pain! The day had started well as we were both down on the roster to do the set-up. So early start and walk up to the storage shed to sort the arrows and signs and the new wooden kms-markers. Set-up involves splitting the course into half for each of the set-up volunteers. We did the Gruffalo section as far as the new 2kms marker and then back up the shortcut in time for the 1st timers briefing and off for our run! Lesley seems to have picked up some pace just lately and was out of sight long before "the hill". I waddled up the hill as usual and started to get back into my slow rythmn home when I looked left, briefly, at the view. Why? I have seen it hundreds of times before. There was nothing unusual about it and as Basil Fawlty famously said  "what do you expect to see Herds of wildebeests sweeping majestically.......? " and that was that! The rest of the run and parkrun morning was fine and thankfully still able to be looking forwards, we will be back next week for the WWp 1st Birthday event when I believe we should be running backwards ( reversing the course) as well as other birthday things including cakes! Just as an aside......do others find that the dogs with runners attached, all seem to ramp it up, on the barking front, as soon as the RD starts to do the briefing! Do they too feel the excitement and anticipation of the off? There could have been important milestones or path hazards or what! I wouldn't have heard any of them. Perhaps our RD was warning me to be aware of a sticky-uppy bit of flint at the viewpoint! In-fact it could have been solely the blame of noisy dogs that I stumbled................

It's our 1st Birthday, 52 runs and the weather is stunning for what promises to be a memorable, in-reverse, event. Stu  the RD & core team have done wonders over the year with all statistics on the WWp website. How many runners max & min & average, overall, fastest slowest, first timers, tourists.......it's truly heaven for the statistician! So new start and finish area that proved such a success that it may be adopted in future as it had an uncluttered feel plus the advantage of a 'hump' for the briefer to set themselves above the crowd. We had 188 peeps this morning to share our beautiful woods. Lesley's day started with collecting a London 'tourist' from Wendover station at 8am to take her back home to share our warm-up walk up into the woods for the start. ED had a marshal short so Lesley stepped in to go out to marshal point 1 (7), the furthest point before runners returning back to the finish. I decided to run with the first outing of my new '100' black shirt. Rules from parkrun states if you temporary change the course for any reason eg. flood, fallen tree, birthday run.......it must be longer to prevent faster times altering the averages of the course. All went well and to be honest, being nearish to the back, I wasn't aware we had a volunteer marshal that mistook where they were supposed to marshal. She took the direction arrow with her and to all intents, disappeared in the woods!  (don't worry she did reappear later). So the front runners, that for the change-round, ran down "The Hill", missed the junction and carried on down some way before being alerted by shouts from behind. They had to retrace their steps back uphill giving a finish result where less quick runners (comparatively) were quite surprised by their result as the previous front runners were of the extra distance travelled, Oops! All ended well and I came in at a respectable 38 mins exactly! Our gazebo housed a host of end of run food goodies to instantly replenish any calories lost during the event. The cafe was well full with the extra numbers this week so all were pleased with the day. ( possibly not the runners that went straight on at the end of "The Hill")

The weather is still perfect for WWp 53 as we drove up to the woods with all the RD gear this morning. Stu arrived to help with the set up and Lesley donned her RD high-vis to get this morning's event under way. I was down to do MP 7  and general dogsbodying like unloading the store shed and sorting arrows  and kms markers for the other marshals when they arrive. A little confusion surrounding '2 x Helens' that had volunteered but everyone turned up and duties filled. Its always nice to see so many volunteers that make running the event much smoother. One of our tail walkers this week was last weeks' first past the post , it's always good to see the shared responsibilities. We topped the 100 again with folks from Wales and South Africa. At the finish the cafe once again did very well with many tucking into full breakfasts and why not ? they have earned it. Back home to do the results and count the tokens. Sort the high-vis and solve the mystery of the missing 2kms marker that may require another walk-around this afternoon! Autumn is approaching and the weather will start to make the dreary early mornings a little less inviting but the spirits of volunteers and parkrunners are never dampened........well only sometimes perhaps! Its a windy morning but bright nevertheless for this morning's parkrun. We had decided to stay local as we also had our flu-jabs booked in at the medical centre this morning. Our RD this week and had his "new toy" as he called it; the megaphone! No more will the parkrunners miss important notices, no more will we miss the milestones and no more will yelping dogs drown out the '3,2,1 -go'. Just to go back a day and we joined Dan in the woods as he had taken charge of 'the trundle wheel' We have had lengthy discussions following Forestry England's request for parkrun to move the meeting-up area to a newly managed area in front of the junior Go-Ape. It was also a consideration to move the finish to the same area which inevitably meant moving the start. Stu's plans were to have start & finish at more or less, the same place. The wheel was trundled around the course and with a bit of jiggery-pokey at the beginning, 5kms worked out perfect. We just need to get the 'OK' from Forestry England. If it's a go-er a new write up and course description on the parkrun www. then off we go!

Back to this morning's 118 run today and despite my aches and pains and Lesley over-doing yesterday with 30,000-ish steps under her belt. We both shuffled, somewhat rather touchingly together, until the finishing straight when Lesley was unable to match me for my pace! We crossed the line in around 38 minutes with just a few finishers behind us! It was a rushed coffee then back down to Wendover village for a very painless jab and hopefully a years' protection from flu!......oh we found all the 'missing bits' from last week......in the storage shed, where they should be.

We had booked a weekend 'break' from WWp as we settle down in our Cambridge 'ready-tent'. Luxury glamping with a small 'g' as if needs-must for a night time pee, a short walk to the loos are required and for showers, washing up and sink things, are also a short walk away! We had a packed agenda but Saturday morning parkrun was a must. With a choice of 2 within Cambridge we chose to drive about 8 miles to Wimpole Hall National Trust parkrun, tempted by the superb location, stunning countryside, free parking ( NT members only) 1-lap course flat-ish course and a highly reviewed cafe within the grounds. Finding Wimpole Hall and parking were fine. Our NT card was scanned and we were straight into the search for the mandatory before run, loos. Cafe and main loos are not available till after 9am but a sneaky 'house staff' loo at the back of the church was just fine! At 8:50 we were summoned by the RD on a splendid PA system as 'first timers' where the course was explained as being grass and gravel, rabbit holes, some mud, narrow slippery bridge, superb views oh and a hill! ..........and cows on the course. Well over 300 starters on this most picturesque course. I spotted the far reaching views, the grand Wimpole Hall, thankfully all the rabbit holes, the cows and cow marshals, walked  and then the the huffy-puffy hill and 'sprinted' back to the finish being passed by children and dogs as usual. Lesley was a good 2 minutes in front of me and was there at the welcoming stop-watches to take pictures and offer encouragement. Place 279 for me so not last and certainly not 1st. I was 5th in my age group so well done all seniors! The cafe was buzzing and a sausage / bacon sandwiches and coffees was just what we needed. The location is worth a day visit if you are a tourist. Don't just rush home as the walks, the Home Farm with all the animals and old outbuildings are great. The Hall itself is splendid so take a tour followed by the walled gardens and tree-lined paths. As with most National Trust sites there are as many eating options as there are places to see and this is no exception!

Back to WWp this week and the weather is still 'bleak' as we look out of the bedroom window in barely half-light!  An early morning core team whatsap starts a bedtime/cuppa debate. The RD is short of one marshal and as we both offered to help.........if problems were to transpire, who was going to draw the short straw? The debate started with exactly what the short straw was on this dark, very wet morning. Was it to run, with <40 minutes of rain, driving into your face and soaking you right through? Or perhaps was it standing in the middle of the woods, trying to look cheerful and cheering on the damp runners and walkers and dogs that didn't really want to be out with their masters? We both hastily dressed for running......just in case a volunteer was plucked from the aether and the debate would not need to take place at all! To cut a long story........I marshalled, Lesley ran. We had a no-show with half of the course set up so I was sent to MP4 and take the appropriate signage and arrows for the half. When I left the gloomy start area there were several more volunteers than runners, no surprise really. Lesley may achieve her highest position today, perhaps in single digits? I settled in my dank position awaiting a few minutes for the start and runner(s) to be soon appearing out of the gloom. First one, them more, then lots, lots more. Grown-ups children, dogs, all out in the persistent rain. I cheerfully encouraged and applauded. There was even Rich from the very flat Aylesbury that had made the soggy journey to enjoy the woods. Lesley hadn't made it into single figures in fact she was 70th out of a very respectable 82 finishers. Talking of the tail end of the run, a gap appeared where I could no longer see the latter runners and peering up Gruffalo hill, I could not see the Tail Walker. Had we not managed to find a tail or had they stopped because of a problem? I even took a photo as when the tail passes we clear our signs and hurry back to the finish to assist if required. Almost giving up hope, I decided to phone-in, just as 2 tails appeared in the distance. And that is how it stayed to the finish! A mystery, but........ considering the weather, all seemed to enjoy with most raising a smiley grimace as they entered the finish funnel. Another testament to the draw of parkrun and all the pleasure it brings to the brave runners and volunteers who just seem to appear at 8-9am, then fill the cafe afterwards with tales of woe, but mainly, joy.

Back down south and the only decision was Hove Park or Lancing Green...............Will it be Hove with it's undulations, 12 minutes drive away, free parking, >300 runners and lovely cafe with the best toasted ham & cheese croissant? or perhaps.............Lancing, very flat, 18 minutes away, £1:50 to park, >75 runners and a cafe that only does brioche buns? A dilemma, that is until we looked at the weather as I exited our holiday park and saw ominous looking dark clouds over Brighton and stunning blue sky over Lancing. So I turned right for Lancing instead of left for Hove park. Later, looking at the run report from Brighton & Hove, the right decision was made! The other reason why the flatter was chosen was Lesley was to compete in her 5th Great South 10 mile run tomorrow! After chatting with my eldest daughter's neighbour, a keen Lancing park runner, we both agreed on tactics to 'take it easy' and following the count-down, set off for the grassy bit at a moderate pace, but soon dropping close to the rear, save for 'walkers' before you loop back to the start/finish and then up onto the tarmac coast path, heading for Shoreham. With sun in our eyes and little wind to assist or hinder this 'perfect' morning for the two of us,  just a jog together, me behind jogging at a reasonable stretch and her just ticking-over, with a smile on her well exhibited, Aylesbury orange T-shirted, face. We did, as usual we find, overhaul the end joggers and walkers, the small children and the dogs that stopped for frequent wee and poo 'breaks' etc. The official photographer actually got two shots of us together, one was not suitable here as it had me in a less than flattering 'looking very old' pose and Lesley pulling a face like she had just eaten a mouthful of  the infamous surstromming . So a 33+ minute jogs, if you are keeping stats and a PB for Lesley the following day at The Great South Run at 1 hour 47 something! All-in-all a good weekend for jogging and more surprisingly, for weather.

Wendover Woods and the contrast of British weather was no more apparent today when greeted by the sound of wind in the trees and rain beating on our window at 3am, just 4 hours before the alarm welcoming us to parkrun! RD and volunteering duties so no running........we did that yesterday evening as part of the whole course-check. We found no trees just a few branches across the route but heaven knows what happened overnight. So we decided to get the course set-up guys and distant marshals to check sections. I was set-up 2 and MP7 so could easily check half of the course. Lesley was RD and as I disappeared about 8:30 to do my role, only the other set-up crew had appeared....no volunteers or early runners! Had the weather put parkrunners off? Had the big rugby match England v NZ clinched their two fold decisions? No! 9:15 and the first runner came through with his young daughter not far behind and then the crowd followed shortly behind, all 87 of them! The course, or certainly where I stood, was lethal. Bare chalk, rain and leaves had created a little skating rink and being at the bottom of a sharp hill with a fork off to the right I warned everyone verbally with words of encouragement and to be "very careful" Only one faller but one too many! No damage done and he still managed to finish around 4th. I joined with the 2 tailwalkers and picked up the signs I had put out earlier on the route back to the start. The tailwalkers came in, in a very respectable 45 minutes which meant I had a jog back to keep up with them. Life is strange sometimes as I wonder how long one of our runners today, a certain Wendy Woods............yes that's correct, decided to travel up to us, on a miserable day, to complete her milestone 50th parkrun.......at Wendover Woods!  Well done Wendy and well done all the volunteers including the DoE team that help out big-time each week especially today at the end funnel where due to Forestry England fencing off 'our' finish whilst they reseed we have to finish on the track, improvising by using the cones as the surface is to hard to drive in our stakes! All went well though and breakfast and coffee were taken in the cafe who were once again grateful for parkrunners to swell the numbers on this otherwise dull start to the day.

I believe that no photos were taken of this morning's parkrun.....................and for a very good reason! Rain, wind, rain and more rain! The Met-Office had predicted it and warnings issued of high winds and deluge that will last for 48 hours. Our phones (cameras) were well and truly concealed in waterproof bags inside of waterproof pouches under 'showerproof' running jackets. It was a rugby final morning as we left our visting family home-alone whilst we set off in the semi-dark for our 20 minutes walk up to the WWP meeting point. I was to be volunteering as set-up 1 and Lesley, set-up 2. No rain to start as we unloaded our equipment shed and duly sorted the arrows and caution runners signs into some semblance of order leaving the rest of the signs for our RD to distribute to the rest of the volunteers that would hopefully appear in the next 15 minutes. When I left for my lower set-up circuit and Lesley for her upper circuit just two others had joined and no sign of the usual early risers and geographically unsure tourists, warming up and familiarising themselves with the woods. Had the Rugby and impending washout disasters curtailed the numbers to nil? Just as the last arrow's spike was pushed uncannily easily into the normally impenetrable flint surface.......the heavens opened! Slowly at first as I made my way up the shortcut and back to the meeting point when drops of rain turned to a deluge. Just a few others had appeared and it was 8:40. Thankfully a full compliment of volunteer marshals were milling around and the distant crew were being dispatched to the far reaches of the woods to stand in the rain for the next hour or so. Lesley reappeared having already walked 20 minutes to get here and 5kms, the there and back of sign distributing! Under the tree, besides the start line, a few runners avoided the rain but seem to have accepted the larger drips from branches above, waiting for the briefing. More marshals than runners was my thought and perhaps it was just as well we had decided to run......to boost the numbers by two.......but no, on the first shout for 'first timers' , a horde of runners appeared through the rain. They had been sheltering (what for?) in the old cafe building! Steaming from the damp and smiling in anticipation or derangement, they were ready to listen and go. It is at times like this that human nature, despite the adversity of 40mph winds, fallen branches, puddles, sludge-like paths and sheet-ice-like chalk patches, find parkrunners joining as one happy, but slightly mad, community! We decide that due to the 'extreme' conditions to take it very steady and all was well until 4kms a flint stone stood up and Lesley kicked it! This caused a sharp pain to run up or down her leg and she is now suffering from a pulled muscle. I hope it clears up pretty quickly as she has a full programme of walks and runs this month including a half-marathon at the end of the month! 

No improvement in the weather conditions and the Shaun the Sheep run was looming, just 7 hours, later that day! Yes the family, or to be precise, some of the family, including our 8 year old grandaughter, my eldest daughter and son-in-law had all braved the weather on Friday evening and the M25 car-park to take part in this, half publicity event for the new Shaun film and money raising for our beloved Wendover Woods, in the form of Forestry England. The weather forecasts had led the Woods to check their flow-chart of whether the event will go ahead or not. In hindsight I am not sure they made the correct decision but no one was injured, so.......back to the event. My daughter is not a runner, due in part to operations on her foot and just her lack of interest. However, she had volunteered to be part of the Shaun team that would be needed to marshal points through the woods in the dark or perhaps be there at the start and finish, help registration or any task that would be deemed to be useful on the night. We donned our wet gear, head torches and walked up through the woods to arrive in the cafe for her 5pm job delegation and briefing. It was obvious just walking up through the woods that it was going to be a difficult and very wet night. Puddles had joined up to become lakes with ruts caused by forestry vehicle becoming a thick and slushy porridge! On entering the cafe...........guess what role the team had for my daughter? It didn't involve standing in the woods and getting wet but being 'happy' for the evening inside the fluffy Shaun suit. She seemed to really enjoy it though except that she was totally 'blind' and saw nothing and needed a minder to guide her outside to the disco-bus. The amazing thing was she managed to hide her identity from her own husband and daughter! At least until after the run when she cuddled both of them and gave the game away! Raining cats & dogs did not dampen the enthusiasm of the families that chose to brave the conditions. Children don't really notice conditions unless they get cold and tonight, if nothing else, was warm. The cafe stayed open for the Shaun team, Forestry England and supporters of the event. We wished it hadn't rained all day and night and we commented the trees were not really 'lit up' just lights at the bottom of trees and spaced out around the circuit. A few lit up characters were dotted around, a double-decker bus that doubled as a disco had made it's way into the Woods.........it was kind of 'quaint'.

From our 8 years old grandaughter last week to our 18 years old for WWp this week! that's the appeal of the woods. Our Easy-jet cabin crew young lady is staying for the weekend and has been cajolled to rise from her bed and join us in the woods. It will be her first time and hopefully not her last as we pick our way up through the woods to the gathering place. -1C and a beautiful sunny, but frosty start, cold but she is well wrapped up in borrowed gear and certainly looks the part if nothing else, in Lesley's clothes! The plan this morning is to not run but to walk around with 'nanny' as nanny is recovering from a hamstring pull and must walk only, to prevent every runners temptation, of going back too early. It is still very slippery as the rain has not really relented this week, enough anyway to assist with drying out, from last Saturday. Close to 100 had gathered with tourists from Winchester and a couple from Amsterdam!  Our RD for the day, reassured them, with tongue in cheek, that Wendover Woods were just as flat as Holland............not! I trotted off at with no particular pace in mind, as my legs didn't seem to want to lift off the ground. Perhaps it was the last evening's pizza 'Volcano" with added spice from Luca, our local Italian restaurant, that hadn't completely settled and was still somewhere in my lower legs trying to slow me down. I was grateful however to my newish trail-shoes that hugged the trails and returned me safe in just over 37 minutes. I waited for the family walking couple, just 14 minutes behind me, before post run(walk) breakfast & coffee in the cafe. We think our grandaughter enjoyed it, if not  the walking, at least the community chit chat and friendliness that had her rabbiting most of the way round and until we left for our downhill walk back home. As predicted, the rain started at 1pm. Next week is Lesley's RD turn and my volunteering......great!

Lesley's brother has arrived from NZ and has been volunteered to come up to the woods to do some barcode scanning. Unfortunately I managed to have passed on a nasty cold to him and he has declined our offer. Never mind, we drive up with all the gear needed for the event and arrive at our set up site. We have chosen the old cafe as a place to sort and handout the various signs and arrows as we are being 'shuffled' by the Forestry England from place to place. Firstly we are asked to move from our original spot to be nearer the cafe, so, we assume, the parkrunners will flock into the new cafe and spend money, rather than going back to their cars and driving home. Then the new meeting point is almost immediately fenced off for re-seeding, so we have to start and finish actually on the drive. The table tennis tables were seconded a couple of weeks a go by us, to lay out our gear with the chance of shoving it under the table, should it rain. We are 'scolded' for this, as it stops punters from using the tables for an hour. ( haven't seen a queue for the tables so far) So plan D, or whatever and we throw a tarpaulin on the side of the drive for the bag drop, use cones to mark the funnel and finish with wobbly stakes stuck in the top, as the drive is too hard to take the stakes. We use the floor of the old cafe to.................. It's getting harder every week to professionally set-up parkrun and to me and Lesley, is more difficult to get organised. We were asked by Forestry England to start a parkrun event in the woods, so these niggles do cheese-me-off.........ever-so-slightly! Back to to the parkrun. The weather has been awful again but due to the elevation we have been spared from the floods all over the country. This is not to say the course is dry, in fact it's pretty boggy in several places, to say the least. Weather wise, it's not a bad morning and all the volunteers have turned up on time and are allocated, by RD Lesley, to their spots and duties. I am to be stop-watch today, simple enough if my fingers don't freeze clicking the 105 finishers over the line. With the exception of one lady that managed to fall over and dislocate her finger......OUCH! all finished ok. Clearing up and back to the cafe for refreshment before Lesley completes the results on the laptop whilst others get sorted with barcodes etc. Another successful day but a little put out now by the frequent niggles that are beginning to get under our skins!

WWp 62nd event was once again in gloom. The rain had relented briefly and  luckily was for the whole of the run today! It was however a damp mist as we took our 20 minute warm-up stroll up to the gathering point in the old cafe. Today's RD and his volunteers had already assembled and course checking and course set up were under way. 1st timers brief for the usual large amount, around a third to half seems to be norma, before the main briefing with dire warnings of trouble under-foot from the inclement conditions over the past few weeks. Congrats for our ED for his 100 last week, a few tourists and a birthday boy before a couple of minute pause to give one of our team volunteers, who had carried out the set-up plus returning back on the course to place a forgotten arrow, swiftly changed into his running gear behind the cover of a much too small tree!  3.2 1 and 116 were off to the accompanying sound of exited, yelping dogs! We were taking it steady today as the underfoot adhesion was rubbish and we were both running tomorrow morning. Thankfully uneventful and just over 40 minutes wasn't too bad considering. We finished just over 2 minutes behind Richard, one of our core of volunteers who was tackling his first run after doing the couch to 5k............and he is in the 70-74 age group, the same as me. Well done Richard!  No fallers and no incidents. The cafe queue for coffee & snacks was being slowed down by a very welcome large group of touring Vegan runners, who were trying to decide from the vast array of breakfast treats, those that could be edible to them! I spoke with them later and this was their 70th touring venue........well done all and they said they really enjoyed the "Woods" and It's always nice when we receive thanks from the participants and today we had a touching message from husband and wife 1st timers saying how much they appreciated the organisers of the run and the coffee afterwards. In future they would join us to run and volunteer. No parkrun next week as we plan to be walking in Shropshire so I hope the weather bucks-up before then. 

I am not renown for competitive running and with the exception of the Charlwood 4 mile fun-run some 25 years ago, Round the Bays  in Auckland early 2019, I have not pinned a number on my sweatshirt until Sunday 24th November at the famous Silverstone Racing Circuit. I was talked into it, by my frequent runner wife as there was, a 'nice' 5km event running alongside the 10k and the even more challenging half-marathon! Lesley had entered the latter, but as described previously a flint-stone ( not Barney) had tripped her up on a parkrun, causing 3+ weeks of pain, both from the jarring and costs of the physio sessions! The result was that she downsized to the 10k and "rather than standing around waiting for me" I was entered in the 5k. A newish experience this as I too had to fiddle around with safety pinning on my number and chip, joining the queues for the porta-loos, having my 'before-run' picture taken and entering the pen at the requisite hour ready for the countdown and off! What persuaded me though, was the iconic chance to run along the same track as the great and good of motor racing history, indeed, I had been here before to watch the 1963 British GrandPrix as a young teen. Driven up in an immaculate MG Magnet ZA by a youth leader at my local club to see a pleasing GB 1-2-3 with Jim Clark 1st, John Surtees 2nd and Graham Hill 3rd!. Little did I know that 10 years later I was installing central heating in John Surtees grand house in Edenbridge and had already travelled extensively to local motor circuits to watch Jim Clark fight it out with Peter Arundel in saloon car races with works Ford Lotus Cortinas .............and now some 50 years later, running around the sacred tarmac! It is nice to know that 5 of those works cars are still in existence .....as well as, thankfully, me!! Anyway, I digress too far into my past! The weather was dreary but dryish and the 30 minute walk from the carpark was an excellent warm up for a pre-event coffee in the event cafe. Some snazzy 'driving experience' cars were littered around to entice the petrol-heads to part with their money or simply gloat at the sporty machines. It was a novelty for me to be at these events and to not have to drag around the back-pack with changes of cloths etc.  but to use the event bag-drop. Wonderful! We togged up in our bin-bag covers to keep our bodies honed at the peak running temperature.........in common with quite a few competitors we noticed so we did not look too ridiculous. The event had attracted several thousand runners in all categories including quite a few from On the Run Aylesbury so Lesley had a running buddy and I was billy-no-mates as they probably found the 5k, a little too short. However, I soaked up the warmth of the cheerful encouragement from strangers all around me, who, although from different walks of life they are bonded by the common theme, jogging and survival! All categories started at the same time, 10am, but each went into numbered pens according to our assumed finishing times. At various points on the circuit we were shepherded off the course according to running the 5k, 10k or half-marathon. I parted company with Lesley and her 'buddy' at about 20 minutes , only to meet up nearing (my) end, albeit in the other direction! I didn't spot her as my eyes and my concentration were straight ahead to the finishing line greeted by the tones of the overly congratulatory DJ, or whatever they are . I finished in a respectable, for me, 34 minutes  and 1 hour 6ish for Lesley. The finish funnel resembled 'Crackerjack' (google-it) each track side pop-up marquee had a special gift.ie; a very nice medal, a bottle of natural water, an almost inedible chewy chocolate dip, a plain cereal energy bar, an ice coffee drink, another cereal energy bar but this one, coated in sticky chocolate followed by a rather nice 'Run Silverstone" white T-shirt supplied in all sizes to suit! With no bag to put them in I either had to drink or eat them, wear them or throw them in the bin and this is what I did whilst I waited a few minutes for Lesley and her buddy to cross the line before joining them in juggling their 'spoils of the run' too! Mustn't grumble, it was all rather nice.( NB. only the inedible half eaten dip was jettisoned) The cafe was now full and we queued for coffee and sandwiches with a cheerful bunch of runners that had completed their challenge with even more still out on the track running their half-marathon. I can't say that this will become a regular occurrence for me, 5k is ok but I will probably stick to 'bag-man'...................results later showed I was second in my age category which only goes to show.........most 70+'s are into something more in keeping with their age!!

Back to Hove Park for the first time since January as we had chosen Lancing as our 'flat run,' when we have been South. We have missed the undulations, the 2.5 plus-laps but more especially, missed the toasted ham & cheese croissants! Firstly, what about the run? Nice day, mild and no rain, no mud, no flints, no big hills, just the big crowds....around 420 with 2 pacers, 33 minutes (too fast) and 35 minutes  (too slow?)........ to help us along. Lesley was in better shape than me with more runs under her belt and not carrying 2 kilos that I have seemed to have picked up somewhere! Probably on our walking holiday where the walks, although fairly tough, didn't burn off the breakfasts, packed lunches, 3 course meals and beers each day! I finished in 384th place in 34:15 and Lesley in 367 with fast-ish 32:42. Son, his partner and grandaughter popped into the cafe for a natter and catchup. Nice day and nice weekend.

The weather is still appalling with just a few days having brief lapses from the rain. I shouldn't keep on about it as it is winter, but the thought of another wet WWp is on the horizon as we study the forecast on Friday night............it will be dry at 8am with a pretty good chance of rain from then on! So in the semi-light and with an extra layer on for the cold we venture into the woods to take our well walked track up to the start. It's pretty squidgy under foot already which is never a good sign for the run. Stuart and helpers are gathered at the meeting point around the table tennis table. We have put our names forward for 'reserve' volunteers this morning but 'unfortunately' we are not required and therefore we both 'have' to run! Although it's nearing Christmas and folks should perhaps be shopping a good turnout and as promised, a dry start. We seem to be close to the rear of the almost 80 runners and almost immediately we find we are alone with just the 2 tail walkers jogging with us as we pass the cafe and Sam, our toilet post marshal, who is taking a video of the full-run this morning. We overtake one runner just past the Gruffalo and slightly before the hairpin but I must add here, his dog was stopping for a number 2, natural break! Almost on-cue the first large spots of the most unwelcome rain appears. These 'spots' join together and form a downpour that lasts until almost 11am! To say we were soaked through is an understatement. From my hat, gloves, top-layers, shorts and running tights, right down to my ankles. The only dry spot was my socks, prevented from a soaking whilst running through through countless large puddles and muddy slops, by my excellent Saucony trail shoes with the magic "Goretex". I am sure other waterproof brands are available but together with my Salomon walking boots also with the magic stay dry "Goretex", I am pretty pleased with its waterproofing properties. We never managed to catch up with the latter runners but through the rain they were always visible and they, like everyone else today, including the tail walkers, were all running all the way! (except the 'Hill') finishing in 38 + minutes which was quite respectable for being last and second last , tail walkers excepted. If you were wondering what become of the stopping dog and owner..........they passed by on the pleasant down hill section before WWP gets 'nasty'. This 'quick' time thankfully meant the volunteers today had minimal time to stand out in the rain and were cleared away in almost record time! The cafe was pretty full of steamy runners and a nice lightweight breakfast was the order of the day for both of us. With coffees and omelettes we shared the highs and lows of the day with our team around us. The puddles, the mud, the unfortunate faller*, the winner and the brave souls that brought up the rear (us). Winter brings out the best of us but this everlasting rain spell is trying its best to dampen our spirits.........without success.....so far!                                                                            *no harm done just a graze and mud soaked body.

Its the 21st December, shortest day and Lesley's birthday. It is also a Saturday, therefore; parkrun day. No volunteers required the RD so we are looking forward to jogging round. Being the shortest day it is barely light as we make the familiar climb upwards to the gathering point by the 'old cafe' today. Weather is cold, grey but dry, so that's a bonus as more than normal park runners are warming up or making their way to the start. The reason for this is the extremely wet weather has led to cancellations of of two our nearest runs,  Aylesbury parkrun now resembles a boating lake and the Ouse at Buckingham has flooded the surrounding footpaths that are used by parkrun. We were expecting a few more runners today as floods do not deter park runners who will always travel that extra mile or twenty to join the nearest event that is still 'on'! For Aylesbury and Buckingham folks we have a warm welcome and nice hills that they may not be quite used to as both events are classed as flat and they are on tarmac paths......a million miles away from our uncomfortable flint, loose gravel, chunky chippings and specially for the last ******* weeks....mud, glorious mud! However, we have a one loop so no doubling back and no clashing with faster or slower runners. We have stunning views, lovely pine, beech and slightly smelly, boxwood trees. A welcoming cafe right at the start and finish, huge carpark (chargeable) friendly bunch of volunteers and of course we have some very sociable runners that come week-after-week just for the enjoyment.  We must have looked a strange site appearing out of the gloom with our walking poles, expecting the worse from the course after last night course inspection report! Both of us wore walking boots and not trail shoes and after 5km of frequent sticky sections and puddles, they felt like lead weights on my tired legs. This 'obviously' was the sole reason we finished in 40 minutes, somewhat well below our course records. However we turned up, took part, made up two more toward the the 128 numbers, I came 1st in my age category and we both sort-of enjoyed it! Stuart our ED took loads of pictures today and they appeared on the Facebook page dedicated to WWp. Our last WWp of the decade but Wendover Woods still has the 28th December 2019 then New Years Day when a double will be taking place with Tring at 9am and Wendover Woods at 10:30am and we will both doing volunteering roles on this special day in the parkrun calendar.

Christmas Day and and no time to open prezzies as it is Tring Park's time to host the special event. No WWp as the gate does not get opened, the Forestry staff have a well earned break as well as the cafe. We had previously debated as to whether to go to Buckingham once Aylesbury was called off but the weather once again dictated that we go to our closest neighbour. It was not to be our first for Tring but it was a first for their new course and the first in mud! Early risers like us found the best parking spaces as the museum carpark was understandably closed and most of the residents were still in their parking spaces. The large numbers also added to the dilemma and resulted in a postponed (for 10 minutes) start. No problems as quite a crowd from On the Run were there for a pre-run natter. Santa hats, jumpers and other Christmas-thingies were in abundance as was now to be expected. Lesley with her charity shop mohair number and me with a tasteless charity shop festive, once-a-year vest! Certainly we did not look out of place as Ken finished his briefing after being led down hill to the start. From the rear we gently ascended along with dog runners and unbelievably, buggies. The cows were nowhere to be seen but had left their marks on the grass and  at poo-corner where thick brown sludge greeted us at the gate into the woods before a dog-leg (not a real one) and incline for the next 10 minutes passing by the monument and up again to the flat section with lovely views on this glorious Christmas morning. Half of the way along the lead runners were starting to come back where we  kept left and mainly in single file. Lesley suddenly overcame her slightly grog health ( sore throat) this morning and picked up enough speed that I found it hard to keep up with her. We overhauled a few slower runners & walkers before doubling back at the edge of Tring Park to follow our route along the flat section before it became almost all downhill back into the open section of Tring Park. Poo corner was now well trampled by the front runners and the lovely volunteer marshal showed us the best route through the goo back to the finish. We were very pleased we ran today as we both had tipped the numbers over 400 to 401! I believe Ken the RD said it could have been record numbers at Tring Park! After watching and cheering the last runners over the line we ambled back to the car, grateful for the interlude between days of rain and it almost felt quite warm. Quick showers at home, open some presents and down to the Red Lion pub for a couple of drinks. This led to a late dinner of lamb minus the  forgotten special grown and hand picked by myself, allotment sprouts ( sorry to rub it in) before chilling out for the rest of the day. We were timed at  just over 40 minutes, not bad considering, the hills, the poo, the narrow gate hold-up, ourfitness etc. We both came 2nd in our age group which can only mean 2 others of a certain age were not only quicker than us but just as silly as us!............please click on the link green below to go to next year!

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