Parkrun WAG – first published 20 July 2013

The Saturday morning after the getting hot and bothered in Winchester and not finding a rhino,I got up early to go for a walk. Once again it was hot and muggy, although maybe not quite as muggy as it had been. So commenced the usual pre walk routine, granola, shower, dress. There had been no route planning, I had zero idea of where to go for my scheduled short walk. As I sipped my breakfast smoothie I went through possibilities in my head but I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for any of them. For once, I just didn’t feel like going.

20 July 2013

Commando got up for his park run and I made a snap decision. There would be no walk, I’d go and cheer him on instead. He’s always saying I should go and watch a park run, see what it’s all about. I think he’s hoping I’ll get the running bugs and join up. No way Jose! Maybe he’ll get the walking bug and join me one of these days.

So we drove over to Southampton Common and parked up then started off down a little cut through the trees towards the Hawthorns Centre. A woman in running gear was coming the other way. “I suddenly realised it probably wasn’t very safe to walk along a path like this on my own,” she said as she turned round and joined us. “A woman was mugged on the common in broad daylight. I was going to go the long way round but I’ll walk with you if that’s ok?” Of course it was ok but she was probably talking to the wrong person about walking on quiet woodland paths alone.

Undoubtedly the mugging story was true, I don’t really read the news. One person mugged on the common, compared to the number of people mugged everywhere else is pretty low odds as far as I can tell. This is why I don’t read the news. The press sensationalise things to the point where people are afraid to go out for a walk. We’re held to ransom by scare stories just like children afraid to go into the woods because they get told the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. If I’m going to get mugged it’ll happen, no matter where I walk. Having said that, I am always aware of my surroundings when I walk and who else is about, mostly that’s no one. Someone always knows roughly where I’ll be going too, well, as much as I ever really know myself.

Some time ago I read an article about women who get attacked. This wasn’t a sensationalist thing, it was more a ‘tips not to get mugged’ thing. Apparently, attackers are cowards, if they weren’t, they’d pick on someone their own size. They don’t pick their victims on some arbitrary basis, if they did, they’d probably get caught a lot more than they do. They go for safe, easy targets, women who look like they won’t fight back or give any trouble. This means women who already look nervous and scared.

If you look secure, confident and aware of your surroundings, chances are you can look after yourself and are likely to fight back. That scares them because they could get hurt, or visibly marked which would be hard to talk their way out of later and could get them caught. If they make a mistake and attack someone who does fight back, or makes a lot of noise that might attract attention, they tend to run off in search of an easier target. They also like women with long hair they can grab. I really don’t fit the bill at all and I would fight back, those self defence lessons weren’t for nothing. Prospective muggers, you have been warned!

The runners were congregating by the ornate wrought iron gates of the Hawthorns Centre. This is an urban wildlife centre, somewhere I really should visit one of these days. You can find out all about the wildlife of the city, plants and animals and how the council manages the open spaces. There is also a wildlife garden. They even have a cafe and Commando suggested I go and get a coffee while he was running. That sounded like a good idea but, bearing in mind he’d get from start to finish of the 5k course in a little over twenty minutes and the finish line was a little way along the path, I decided against it.

More and more runners arrived and Commando chatted with a few people. There was a briefing, none of which we really heard as there were about three hundred runners there by then. Still, Commando didn’t really need to hear, he’d done it enough times before. They all lined up at the start. Commando gave me a little wave so I could see him then they were off and, as usual, I lost him in the crowd.

Once they’d all gone past I set off too, on a stroll towards the finish line to wait. I stood by a big old tree they call the bag tree because everyone leaves their bags against it. Then I waited. It wasn’t that long before the first runners came past. These were the teenagers in the main, with the energy and speed of youth. In fairness to Commando, it was hardly a long wait before he came into view. He’d told me to watch out for a bearded gentleman who is, apparently, in his seventies, he’d even pointed him out to me. “He’s my pacer,” he said, “he always comes in just ahead of me so, when you see him, I won’t be far behind.”

Sure enough, I saw the septuagenarian and, right behind him, there was Commando, looking pretty comfortable. He’d said at the start he wasn’t going for any personal bests today, it was too hot for that, but he finished within about thirty seconds of his anyway. In all the excitement, I managed to press the button that turns the camera round for self portraits, I didn’t notice because of the sun in my eyes and on the screen so took an accidental series of photos of myself, thereby missing the moment he crossed the line. Still, I got him running up to it. He came first in his age group too, maybe I was a good luck charm.

After a nice cool strawberry smoothie at home it was time for the food shopping. Well, I thought it was time for the food shopping anyway. Commando said he’d come with me but he had an errand to run first so we’d have to go in the car. Now, I kind of expected the errand to be to do with Commando Senior because we had a list of shopping to get for him. After we’d been driving for a bit I began to wonder where we were going. When I asked Commando was evasive, “can’t you guess?”

How was I supposed to guess? It could have been anywhere, or at least anywhere in the general direction of Portswood or Eastleigh. A few more clues and I got it, he was driving me to Winchester to find the rhino I didn’t find on Tuesday. Maybe it would be cheating to drive to the Holiday Inn but I had already walked fifteen miles along the Navigation to find it and, had it not been for time, weather and getting lost in Winchester I might have done it too. It was a lovely gesture because he knew how annoyed I was at missing it.

The sat nav took us along the M3 towards Winchester but, once we came off, it seemd to be taking us off towards Petersfield. Turned out the sat nav knew its stuff. It was avoiding the narrow, congested streets in the centre of Winchester and taking us there from the opposite end of the road. We actually drove past it once and had to find a spot to turn around.

Driving into the hotel car park I was on the lookout for a rhino. There wasn’t one. Commando parked up and told me to walk around the hotel grounds and see if I could find it. They really hide some of those rhinos. After almost a complete circuit of the place, with no sign of a rhino I was beginning to wonder if there was one? What to do? When I walked past the big glass fronted reception it looked pretty empty. What would they say if I went in and asked? What was the worst that could happen? They could tell me to go away because I wasn’t a guest but that wouldn’t be so bad would it, except I wouldn’t find the rhino.

In I went, feeling a little silly. Still it isn’t as if I haven’t walked into hundreds of strange hotels in the past, just for a look around. When I worked for Dream Factory it was part of my job.
“This might be an odd question but do you have a rhino here?” I asked the receptionist.
She smiled and said, “yes, it’s downstairs in the bar.”
“Would you mind if I went to have a look?”
“Not at all, lots of people have come to see it, you can even have a drink if you like.”

A second receptionist said she was going that way anyway and she’d show me. They really were very kind. I felt quite bad I wouldn’t be stopping for a drink because Commando was waiting in the car. If I’d made it there on foot I most certainly would, well, if they served coffee anyway. As we walked I told her about my failed attempt on Tuesday, the long walk and the getting lost. She was shocked I’d walked all the way from Southampton. What would she have thought if she knew I’ve walked there and back on more than one occasion?

The rhino was there in a sunny outdoor bar area where people were sitting on rather swish furniture having drinks. No one took any notice of me taking photos of her. I wonder how many other people have done exactly the same thing? I’m not going to share her with you today because she is rhino number thirty five, you’re going to have to wait quite a while to see her. Who knows, I might even walk the navigation and visit her again when the weather is cooler. If I do I will definitely have a drink.

For anyone who is mad enough to want to run and likes the sound of the Parkruns, I should probably tell you a little more about them. They are chip timed, 5k runs (three miles to people like me who don’t do metric), held in parks all over the world every Saturday morning. They’re also free. You simply sign up on their website, and you can run in any one of them whenever you like. You might even bump into Commando.