| Having seen on the Twitter-vine that today was a day for celebrating ParkRun volunteers, I realised that there was only one person I know who leapt to mind when prompted to consider the most selfless and supportive amongst the running community. as I knew he would be Race Director at Oldham ParkRun, I decided to hop on the bike and indulge in a little ParkRun Tourism to say hello. Having Excelled myself but failing to become lost in Failsworth, I arrived at the beautiful, sunny (always helps) Alexandra park with a spring in my step; or a spin in the tyre!? |  See; no diversions or loop backs! No getting lost! |
 Kinda like Heaton Park... But more manicured...  Even the run route was smiling... | Simon, today's race director, (yes, that's him there in the hi-vis!) is a long standing 'run buddy' who I first met at the Southport Sandgrounder in May last year. he runs for Royton Road Runners and it's difficult for me to get through a conversation with him without hearing about one runner or another who he is helping to get up to speed (literally) or coaching to achieve their goals. He's a very regular volunteer at ParkRun, often directing in Oldham and has been very supportive of me personally, especially at the start of this year when I was struggling to maintain my mojo while struggling with ill health. All this, whilst managing his own injuries which have prevented him from running as he'd like to and knows he can. Most runners who have been sidelined for any reason (myself included) know only too well that when injury strikes and you cannot run, the last thing you want to see is other people merrily plodding, trotting or speeding past. It certainly wasn't me who coined the term 'runvy' but I know exactly what it means and to even maintain contact with other runners is tough. That Simon can continue to support and encourage others with a genuine grin is admirable quality, not to be overlooked. |
| I didn't really have any expectations today for my own run, after all, it was only yesterday that I chanced my first post TrailBlaster12 run and while it went well and I felt good for it, I didn't want to push my luck. Having cycled mostly up hill to get to the park as well, I wasn't too sure what my leggies would have in 'em! Nevertheless, once you get the wind under your tail it's hard to hold it in the tank (it's only 5k after all!) and as i said yesterday, it feels very good indeed to be able to crank the speed up a little having been deliberately going slow for a few months. I don't think an average of about 7:20 minute miles is too shoddy. A reasonably respectable 30th place at 22.42? Yep, I'll take that, thanks! An unexpected pleasure was bumping in (not literally) to another running friend Mike, who was handing out the tokens at the funnel. I wasn't expecting to see him at all so it was good to catch up there. Mike's got a few impressive accolades of his own, not least of which is that he's the European Indoor 400m Champion for 2015. I don't do sprinting. I don't feel warmed up until I've done 10k. How someone can drive themselves round a track in 50 seconds is quite frankly a bafflement to me. Thankfully, he seemed equally impressed that I'd managed to plod along for nearly 12 hours last week, so I guess we're semi quits but I'm not a champion of anything so kudos still owing! Of course, hanging out with the crew meant I got to go 'back stage' and went for coffee at the parks little caff with everyone while the results were uploaded, actually really interesting to witness that process in action as it's not something I've seen before. Ahha! so that's how the token scannery gizmo-me-widget magically telecommutes the magic numbers to me as a text message? Interesting! I was a little sorry to tear myself away but with other commitments back in town for the afternoon, having rehydrated and fuelled up on a drop of caffeine, it was sadly time to trundle back down (thankfully!) into Manchester... and today the Garmin Recovery Advisor told me I was back to 'good'; well I could've told you that! |  ParkRun HQ; where the magic happens!  Yay I found a Mike!  And of course, Simon, the man who makes it all happen! |
