It looks as if they are on their own, but there were another 303 participants...
A Friday evening in Bacup saw us dog walking with Oscar, now an Old Man, but still with a strong sense of smell!
Saturday morning found us taking the short drive to Towneley Hall, on the outskirts of Burnley. I'm still crocked with Plantar Fasciitis, but Jacob (10) was keen to move on from his regular Sunday morning 2km run, to do the 5km Saturday parkrun.
Parking in a lay-by opposite a park entrance, we wandered down to the hall past an exhibition of excellent wildlife photos.
Cuckoo stand off with a sedge warbler
Over 300 runners then congregated at the start, which enjoys a fine view of the hall.
After a short briefing... off they went.
With a lap to go, the pair of them (is it cool for a boy to do parkrun with a granny?) were going well, and after a slow start were picking off runners as they trundled along.
They managed to avoid being lapped by the leader, Marc Hartley of Blackburn Harriers, who finished in 17:42, well outside his personal best.
The 'Granny/Boy' pair were still going well at the bottom of the final hill. They stormed up it.
Meanwhile, here's a typical 'finish' picture, with runners constrained by the funnel, at the end of which finish barcode tokens are handed out in order by volunteers.
A final sprint from Boy put him a couple of places ahead of Granny.
We weren't sure of the time, but later discovered that Jacob finished about half way down the field in position 166, in a time of 28:40, a personal best and the first time he has gone under 30 minutes. Well done Jacob. We look forward to him visiting us at Wythenshawe, and maybe coming on tour with us.
Here's a view from the front of the hall, looking across a pond to the green swathe from where the parkrun starts.
Passing the photo exhibition, I couldn't resist taking snaps of a couple of the pictures - Kingfisher and Kestrel. If I'd been more alert I might have got a similar kestrel picture on Thursday near Mellor Hall.
The autumn colours are on the way. Here, Sue and Jacob are strolling back up the hill towards the car, and our return for a morning in Bacup with some grandchildren.
A lovely start to the weekend.
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