King’s Lynn #parkrun

An early start this morning to attend, for the first time, King's Lynn parkrun. It was a very cold and misty morning at The Walks in King's Lynn.

Today's route was changed slightly from the normal one due to a bit of flooding across the main path, although it was still around the 5km, apparently about 60 yards shorter than the normal route. The course is roughly made up of three mile laps, all run on Tarmac, so a reasonably fast course, despite the couple of 180 deg turns. As is normal for parkruns, it was well organised, with plenty of friendly marshals and regulars.

I would love to have a closer parkrun that I could attend regularly, they are a great idea, not only do you get a good free timed 5km race, but the chance to chat to fellow runners over a coffee at the end. And as well as emailing you with your finishing details, they text you your position and time within 30 mins of finishing….

 

Unicycle Day 14

It has been a while since I've blogged about this month's challenge. Mainly because I haven't really got anything to say. It has been a busy week at work, the weather has been a bit dodgy, the evenings are closing in and I've just lacked the time to put in any proper practice.

I've found that to show any improvement you really have to put the time in to practice. The first 30 minutes or so feels like you've never been on a unicycle before. It's not until the hour mark before you're feeling more comfortable. Hence why I've not really got anything to show from the week.

I'm hoping for a dry morning tomorrow. I was actually planning to run a parkrun, but decided to put that off until the unicycle is mastered. Now that's dedication to the cause!!

Although I could always make another purchase to help with the challenge….

 

Busy Weekend

The end of half-term has appeared incredibly quickly this time, and coincided with a very busy weekend.

First up was a trip to London late Friday evening to stay at Mums for a family gathering on Saturday. Brother Paul is home from China for a few days and my niece is visiting.

Saturday morning I went to Norman Park in Bromley to take part in my first parkrun, a free timed 5km run. It is a great idea and the race was great fun, three laps of Norman Park – finished in a time of 20.53. After the event you even get a text with your time and details of the race:

“Bromley results for event #130 – Your time was 20.53 – Congratulations on completing your 1st parkrun and your 1st at Bromley today. You finished in 41st place and were the 37th gent out of a field of 298 parkrunners and you came 5th in your age category VM40-44.”

AND they sent me a £15 off voucher I can use for my next pair of trainers from Sweatshop. Apparently these events take place all over the country at 9am on a Saturday morning. However, it would seem that my nearest ‘home’ parkrun is about 30 miles away! If anyone fancies running a parkrun near me, feel free!

Later in the day my niece came for a visit……

Grace is doing fantastic! I hope she enjoys ‘Discovery Bunny’ that we bought her. I drove back Saturday night to be ready for this morning’s Sleaford Half-marathon.

Initially I was not going to run this event but with the cancellation of the last two races due to snow, plus all the mileage I did in janathon, I thought I should go and run it. Firstly, let me just say it was a cold and very windy morning, when I say windy, think….

The Sleaford Half is an event I’ve done a number of times. A rural course, slightly undulating, and because it begins at RAF Cranwell, very open. So the wind was a big issue especially over the first half of the course. Finished in a time of 1:42.06 – pretty happy with that.

Next event up is a club 5-miler Frostbite followed by the Grantham Half-marathon.