Parkrun WAG

14 March 2015

My week off wasn’t all about walking, although there was certainly a fair bit of it. For one, the weather wasn’t brilliant every single day so I chose my walking days carefully and, in between times, got on with other things like cleaning, personal pampering and a little bit of gardening, mostly this involved moving things from cold cracked pots into new ones. When Saturday morning came around and I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work I decided to become a Parkrun WAG. After all, it isn’t often I get the chance.

For those not familiar with Parkruns, they are weekly organised 5k runs in local parks all over the world. They are held every Saturday morning and anyone who has signed up for Parkrun and got their timing chip can rock up at any Parkrun they like and join it. This means runners of all abilities can always find a park to run in on a Saturday morning wherever they may be in the world. It’s free and the only thing you have to do, other than turn up and run, is volunteer as a marshal once in a while.

Commando goes most Saturday mornings, either to The Common or Royal Victoria Country Park but, as I’m usually working, I can’t go to watch. Actually, if I wasn’t working I could even sign up myself because there are always people who go just to walk the course, some of them quite slowly. This Saturday Commando chose Victoria Country Park, which is his favourite venue. When we arrived at the car park there was still a hint of dawn pink to the sky over Southampton Water and it was cold, even for me with a coat, hat, scarf and gloves. Commando, in his running gear must have been freezing.

As we walked across to the far side of the park to the start line Commando said, “This week it’s a naked Parkrun.”
“Seems a bit cold for that,” I said, sure from the glint in his eye it couldn’t really mean running without clothes.
“It means running with no watches or timing gadgets,” he grinned. Then he filled me in on the course. As it’s still muddy and they can’t run through the woods they would be doing three laps along the shore and then around the bottom half of the park. “You can get a coffee in the cafe while I’m running if you like.”
“Why would I do that? I wouldn’t see you run,” I said, tempting as it sounded because the coffee in that cafe is good.

There was a bit of standing around while everyone gathered and I noticed a very small girl with a baloon tied to her.
“Oh look, it must be her birthday,” I said.
“I doubt it,” Commando replied, “it says fifty on that baloon, it’s probably her fiftieth Parkrun.”
He was probably right. If she was fifty she was looking very good for it plus she was a midget. In reality she couldn’t have been more than seven or eight so to complete fifty Parkruns was quite an achievement.

By this time the briefing had started and a few announcements about people who’d reached milestone numbers of runs. The baloon girl was probably one of them. Commando stripped off his jacket and gave it to me, along with his hat. It made me cold just to look at him. Then everyone lined up at the start line and they were off. Within moments I’d lost him in a sea of other runners and I stood for a few moments watching as the line of brightly coloured Lycra bobbed down the path towards the shore.

Thinking about it the shore seemed like a good place to go for a view of Commando when he came round for his second lap, so, walking across the grass to avoid straggling runners, I made my way to the D-Day monument. There was a sailing boat on the water close to the Fawley bank and I thought about sitting on one of the seats to wait but decided the shore would be a better vantage point. This turned out to be one of my better ideas.

For a little while I wandered along the shingle looking for the best place to stand and getting slightly distracted by shells and driftwood. Luckily the pounding of feet on tarmac alerted me to the first runners and I got into position just in time to see Commando zooming past. He spotted me too and stuck his thumb up then he was lost in the crowd again as they disappeared around the corner by the boatyard.

While I waited for the third lap to come round I wandered down to the boatyard thinking it might be a better vantage point. Ok, I wanted to look at the boats too, there’s something about a mass of little sailing boats that always makes me smile. Before long the runners were coming past again and pretty soon I spotted Commando in the distance. I’d lined up a really good shot but my phone picked that precise moment to act a little odd and, by the time I’d fixed it, he was more or less on top of me so all I could do was snap wildly and hope. As it happened, it might not have been the shot I wanted with the chapel in the background, but it turned out quite well. This was obviously the optimum spot to stand for good action pictures.

For good measure I fired off a couple more shots as Commando disappeared up the last hill then I made my way back across the grass towards the finish line. It was a bit of a sprint to get there before he did, no actual running you understand, just very fast walking. Seconds after I’d taken up my position just before the finish line he appeared behind the trees. He was powering through the last few yards and I had to be quick to capture him before he’d gone but I managed it.

All around people were gasping or stretching out but Commando looked fresh as a daisy. Of course, 5k is a walk in the park for him these days, or maybe that should be a run in the park. All that was left to do was put his hat and jacket back on, get his timing chip scanned and walk back to the car. The whole thing from start to finish had taken less than half an hour, including the waiting around and the walk back to the car but it was well worth getting up early for. Besides, next weekend he will be the one getting up early for me because I shall be off on my fifteen mile New Forest hike.