Running On Empty

Very quick post to say 2 things:  1. Volunteering at Leazes Park last weekend was called off due to the course being icy (the event was cancelled)  2. I'm unlikely to make it to any parkrun this coming weekend, volunteering or otherwise, as the family (including me) has some kind of plague (read: flu-like symptoms, but not COVID, apparently) So... zero exercise happening right now. Fingers crossed for Saturday 6th (though I'm competing with Tynemouth Christmas Market that day). 🤞

I've been a bit lax lately, both in getting out for exercise and in blogging about it when I do, so here's a quick round-up: Fri 15 March : the day after the Blue House run, I was out again for another lunchtime jaunt, this time just scraping the edges of Heaton Park and Jesmond Vale. It was a 6K run, but it's always a little frustrating as a destination, as time constraints mean I have to turn back almost as soon as I've got somewhere nice. I need to do the X63 to South Gosforth run again sometime; at least then I'd get to do the full length of Jesmond Dene and Jesmond Vale. Sat 16 March : no parkrun again. 🙁 The girls were being parents for the day and they ruled it out. Sun 17 March : A long-awaited return to Junior Parkrun for Daughter the Elder. 🥰 Not only that, she did herself proud, getting a time of 13:14, which is her 3rd best time ever. Not bad for having had zero practice for 6 months. I even got a sweat on myself keeping up with her, but then I hadn...

Another guide-running parkrun today, and a time that was a full 7 (SEVEN) minutes faster than the first time we ran together. I can't take the credit for that though; my guidee was ready to call this her graduation run for Couch to 5K, as she'd already done two of the three runs in the final week of the programme. Alas, we didn't manage a continuous 30 minutes today, as her knees were complaining; she's still just 6 months after having a little boy and bones aren't what they once were. For me though, it made for a nice, relaxed 5K with a lot of chatting, which was a pleasant change. It was perfect for the day before a 10K and meant that I kept myself on target for 30 parkruns this year... just . I also got a surprise (and slightly random) achievement in the 5K app today, getting the "Palindrome" achievement with a time of 44:44. I feel like there should be a second achievement for that, given that it's ALL the same number, but whatever. 🤷‍♂️ So, as is...

Writing this almost a week late, but last weekend (18/19 Mar) was another one where I didn't do a regular parkrun, but did get out to two parkrun events. On the Saturday, I racked up another volunteer credit (unexpectedly) by being a guide runner for a visually impaired colleague who was getting back to doing exercise after having a little boy. This time last year, she was just starting out on a Couch to 5K program and never actually got to complete it, so to start that journey again with a parkrun was amazing. It did mean that we walked most of it, dodging (as best I could) the multitude of puddles and boggy bits on the Rising Sun course , but getting a fast time certainly wasn't my focus (I got a 52:08, which has made my charts on the 5K app a little interesting 😂). On the Sunday, it was Daughter the First's eleventh junior parkrun, meaning she's now completed a half marathon in total. 👏 That means that she'll be presented with a wristband tomorrow when she do...

Following Friday's 7km run into work, I figured I'd better follow advice to not overdo things, so I chose to make this the weekend when I volunteered for the first time. I'd seen that the Town Moor parkrun was asking for help to fill its slots, so I got in touch. The next morning, there I was freezing my fingers off getting ready to marshal for the first time. Gotta say, I'm not naturally social. Smalltalk is definitely not my thing. Before the start, I probably interacted more with someone's dog (Albi was lovely, mind) than the rest of the volunteers. That said, many thanks to Alison for taking the above photo. Anyway, I'd been assigned the marshal role as one of three at "gate number 3" — like I knew where that was! 😂 Turned out was a gate leading onto/off the moor on Grandstand Road, near the Blue House roundabout. This was the gate I'd gone through on the Race for Life last year, though for the parkrun, only the narrow pedestrian gate was op...