Sunday 27 November 2016

Birthday Parkrun!

Hello blog lovers.
Me and Matthew.....and cake!

Saturday morning gave us a rather misty, foggy start to the day! NaggyNeighbour headed out on foot to parkrun while I took the car with Tracy and Ade.  Ade, incidentally was doing his first parkrun.  I wasn't feeling too bad that morning, although I went out with the Old Boy and my sister in law the night before, we had a rather nice leisurely curry and just the two beers,  I wasn't tired, I may have been a bit stuffed from over eating but deffo no hangover!
Foggy by the woods


We made our way over to the start on the other side of the park to where the gathering masses were.....well..... gathering! I looked out for my pals, I couldn't see them.  We stood at the back of the pack, where we always  put ourselves and then I heard them!  "#Happy birthday to you#" came the chorus behind me!  My pals had found me, J.J. LittleJ, Wendimoo and Carole.  I  also looked out for little Matthew, he did his 150th parkrun on this day too.  This little lad is still only 14!  How did he rack up that many parkruns!  Totally impressive.  I run with this lad and his dad on Track Thursdays, he is fast,  really fast! Of course when I say run, I mean I am on the same track as him as he flys by me!

So my plan for this parkrun was to just get around as fast as I could, comfortably.  Not eyeballs out like in August! So I didn't  run NaggyNeighbour or with Tracy, or J.J., or my other pals.  I had planned to try do this solo!  We all started off together, then I  started to do my own thing, try and just get into the zone and do well.  Just then Ade started running by my side.  We started chatting.  He was feeling the cold, so I told him not to speed up, he needed to warm up first. There is nothing more that cause injuries then trying to push hard while you are still warming up.   About half a mile or so should do it.  I ran along next to him, telling him to not run fast yet, until we got just past the football pitches near the finish funnels for the first time.  Carole came past us at that point, I could tell Ade wanted to run off, I had a feeling that she would be his race!  So I told him to go, but still don't go too fast, it was a blimmin cold morning!

I was on my own again, for a while anyway.  Then one of the newbies to our group 1 saw me!  We started to run along together.  She kept me going the whole way round.  When I felt like I wanted to stop and take a walk I couldn't do it! How could I, I was supposed to be a leader!  I had to lead by example!  We were running at a good pace, not record breaking stuff, but enough to get us in under 40 mins at least!  We chatted all the way round, just keeping each other going! We had a couple of walks.  I still don't know why I do that!  I am really going to have to work hard on that!

As with all parkrun sessions, the friendliness came from everyone "Keep going" "Not far now!" said the runners flying by, "Come on Petts Wood".  Now those that said that either knew me or saw my buff, as I was wearing my club colours! I was half expecting the Matthew or Stephen to pass me by!  Maybe they did and I was grimacing and didn't notice them.  Of course there were quite a few people that passed by us!  But as there are only two a bit laps of Bromley parkrun only the really fast ones go past.  Still, I half expected the little lad to fly past.

Running up to the funnel I was beginning to lag, but I knew I didn't have to save anything back,  I just needed to get through to that funnel......and to cake!  Young Matthew and his dad had bought cake along to celebrate his 150th and they had promised they would be saving me a piece of it!  It had my name on it!  I checked the time, I was slow, I started to think about how long could they protect that cake for!  With all the celebrations going on and the congratulating, they were bound to take their eye off that piece of cake and some of the other faster parkrunners, who don't even know Matthew would get their sugar rush from my piece of cake, they would be diving on it like seagulls after your chips!  I began to get faster, building up to the sprint finish.  NaggyNeighbour and Chocolate were there waiting by the last short straight "Come on Old Girl, you can do it!" she said, "Go on push, push get to the end" she said to me!  I sprinted faster and faster pulling away from Kelly by just a couple of feet.  I could here her running behind me.  All I kept thinking about was "That's my cake"  through the cones that guide us into the funnel, the time keeper ready to push the counter, everyone standing watching, walking, chatting.......eating cake! Could that be my cake! Bam! Done it.  It's not the quickest, not even the quickest this year. But still, I did it.

As I was walking through the orange netting of the funnel I was thinking, "I pushed it a bit too fast again, I'm gonna chuck up!"  But then Stephen called me from the side, "Well done Old Girl" he said and then put a lovely piece of chocolate cake on my hand!! Oh yes!! CAKE  I did it! I got the cake!  I saw little Matthew as I came out of the funnel, "How did you do?" I asked,  "I did it in 19 something" he said! Nineteen something, 19 something, one nine something!! Can you believe that "I was taking it a bit easy today!" he said with a broad smile!

Mind you, I think the hardest bit for him, I have to hand it to the little lad! It was keeping guard on my cake for almost 20 minutes while hungry parkrunners came in looking for the delicious scrumptiousness is amazing!  Well done Matthew! Oh and Absolutely well done on your 150th parkrun!  And so, here is to the evening!  The Petts Wood Runners 10th Anniversary black and white ball!  What a fantastic birthday I was having yesterday!

Geekys stats and some random photos!



My birthday pressie from the girls!

Me and The Girls!
It could get messy!
Thanks to Stephen for top first picture!

No comments:

Post a Comment