A little parkrun tourism

21 January 2017

We keep saying we’re going to be parkrun tourists more often but we never quite get round to it. Not that there’s anything wrong with Southampton Common of course, it’s one of the biggest and best parkruns in the country after all. It’s nice to have a change once in a while though and to see other parks, even if it does mean getting up extra early on a Saturday morning and possibly getting lost. Anyhow, this week we did go to a different park, although not an entirely unfamiliar one.

Big Dave (there are so many Dave’s in this world, every one of them has to have a nick name and this one is extremely tall) was running his two hundred and fiftieth parkrun at Netley. We went along to cheer him on and make sure he didn’t ditch his balloons. Big Dave organises all the pacers for events like the Southampton Marathon and the Winchester Half and normally runs at Netley rather than Southampton. Commando has run at Netley many times too so it was hardly an unknown course for him and, as it’s held in Victoria Country Park, it wasn’t exactly foreign soil for me either. Still, a change is as good as a rest…

The grass was white with frost when we arrived and, once Commando had dumped his bag by the Netley bag tree, we went in search of Big Dave. He wasn’t exactly difficult to spot with three colourful balloons tied to him. Despite the cold he looked fairly cheerful, even when he’d taken his tracksuit trousers off. Personally, I was glad of my Arctic coat and nothing would have induced me to take it off and strip down to my undies.

There was a bit of posing with Iwan Thomas, who’d come along to wish Big Dave luck but, sensibly, wasn’t running himself. Iwan probably thought I wanted a picture of him but, to be honest, his sweet little dog stole the show. I was tempted to put him in my pocket and steal him (the dog, not Iwan you understand).

For me, it’s the sea, visible through the trees at the side of the path, that makes this a lovely place for a parkrun. The course itself, at this time of year three laps of the main part of the park, isn’t exactly inspiring, at least not according to the Southampton runners. Sometimes it’s even five laps of the cricket pitch, which must become tedious fairly quickly. I’m pretty sure I’d lose count.

The early morning light and the long shadows made for some lovely photo opportunities for spectators like me. Big Dave was easy to pick out in the throng due to those balloons. His entourage, included Commando, although I didn’t quite manage to capture him in the crowd.

Once they’d all gone past, like a very colourful two legged stampede, I wandered up towards the chapel to cheer them on as they came past at the end of their first lap. The chapel is, of course, still cordoned off for renovations. It’ll be late 2018 before we get the chance to see what has been going on behind those blue hoardings. Today, there wasn’t even time for a sneaky peek because, by the time I got to the top of the hill, the first runners were already dashing past.

Once again, Big Dave and his large entourage were nice and easy to spot. Commando noticed me taking photos as he passed and gave me a quick wave. Pretty soon they were powering past the chapel and then round the corner and down the hill towards the sea.

With no way of keeping up with them I stayed where I was and watched as they ran along the shore line. The balloons made it easy to keep track of them, even when they were little, ant like, dots in the distance.

By the time I did get back down the frozen, grassy bank, they were long gone but I knew they’d be coming round again soon enough so I tried to find a good position to capture them. In the end I decided to stand by the D-Day memorial where I’d have a good view of them coming down the hill. It took a while to get across the steady stream of runners, including a very determined looking Rachel.

Eventually I did get across, just in time to see Kim come past. Somehow I’d missed the front runners starting their second lap but luckily I made it just in time to see Commando, Big Dave and his retinue coming down the hill.

As they turned the corner again it looked as if those balloons were causing a few problems for the runners behind Big Dave. Later Commando told me they’d been bashing him about the head for a while, until he put on a turn of speed and overtook.

The Big Dave posse was a little more spread out by the time they came back down the hill, with a bit of a gap between the fast boys at the front and Commando and Dave himself. Apparently, Commando, who’s pretty quick himself when he wants to be, was trying to keep Dave back so the others could cheer him over the finish line. For his trouble he got a few slaps in the face by those balloons and I got a ‘royal wave’ from Dave.

There was nothing left for me to do but stroll back towards the finish line and try to find Commando in the crowd of runners getting their barcodes scanned. Then we went off to the cafe for a nice cup of hot chocolate and a warm up. As Parkrun tourism goes it was hardly breaking new ground. It was a nice change of scene though. Maybe next time we will go somewhere really different?

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