A rare Saturday spent in Timperley meant that Sue and I could pop down to Wythenshawe Park for the ritual of a 5km ‘parkrun’, my 98th at Wythenshawe.
I arrived quite early, just ahead of The Invisible Cyclist, on a beautiful sunny morning. Here’s my ‘update picture’ of the Hall, which looks much as it did back on 23 July.
Run Director Andy was in good form, briefing various batches of First Timers then balancing on a pedestal to address the 280 participants. Unfortunately he omitted to mention one or two ‘etiquette’ items about which some runners needed perhaps to be reminded. (eg “It’s not a race – be courteous when passing slower runners.”)
You’ll have to blow up the next picture to identify the keenies getting ready to zoom off at great speed.
Not having run for a month or so, I jogged off slowly and used one of the ‘Legends’ as a pacer. Ken is much older than me, but when I started doing parkruns I couldn’t get anywhere near him. Now he’s in his mid 70’s and has had some health issues, so he’s a bit easier to keep up with. He tells me that he ran the 5km in 20.29 one month before his 70th birthday. He really is a Legend.
Anyway, we all ambled round the unusually fast, dry course. The results are here, and Andy’s excellent report is here.
After cake provided by Jenn (thanks Jenn), many of us settled down in the Courtyard Tea Room for coffees and a good long chat. Parkrun camaraderie. The sun took a while to reach our tables but we waited patiently on what may be our last sunlit outdoor parkrun coffee morning of the year.
If you’ve got this far, have you also noticed some temporary changes to the sidebar of this blog? This week I entered my first ever marathon, and I’m going to Toulouse to run (maybe walk!) 26 miles or so on Sunday 23 October. I’m raising money, as usual, for the Levana School Partnership that supports pupils at Levana Primary School which is in a deprived area of Cape Town. I know that every penny raised goes to this worthy cause. Clicking on the image below should also take you to the JustGiving page. You’ll see that I also have some ‘printed in error’ copies of my ‘Another Pyrenean Adventure’ book that I’m trying to dispose of in return for small donations. Let me know if you would like a copy (email: martin@topwalks.com).
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