Strathclyde parkrun with Abradypus

A few weeks ago I had a DM on Twitter from Abradypus; Ultra runner, blogger, ‘Athoner and parkrunner extraordinaire. She was planning a trip to Scotland and did I want to meet up? I certainly did and offered her a bed for the night prior to a trip to Strathclyde parkrun. 

It is possibly weird offering a bed for the night to a complete stranger but fellow bloggers are not really complete strangers are they?! I don’t think so and to prove the point I had no trouble spotting Louise when I met her at the station, even though her skin was not quite as yellow in real life as it is in her Twitter avi.

We headed to Strathclyde parkrun this morning. My last visit was in January 2014 and provided my first lesson in parkrun tourism: Always carry warm clothing for after the run. Today, however, it was mild and overcast but dry. Louise paced me for the first 2/3 of the run, asking me questions that I strongly suspect were more to test my effort level rather than satisfy her interest in the difference between physios and occupational therapists. I couldn’t keep with her for the last third, but I still took a minute off my previous Strathclyde time.

Apart from it being lovely to meet Louise in person, she has re-sparked my enthusiasm for parkrun tourism and I have started plotting my tours of the last 5 Scottish parkruns still to be crossed off my list…can I manage it before the end of the year?

Abradypus and me (I need to practise standing up straight)

Strathclyde parkrun & the end of my dry streak

Today saw the true start of my parkrun tourism as I ventured for the first time outside the four walls of Glasgow to Strathclyde Country Park. The parkrun route is an out and back course along the edge of the artificial Strathclyde Loch.

It was wet. It was very wet (except for the middle bit where it actually stopped raining for awhile). I live in Scotland so it is really a miracle that I got to this point in January without getting wet on a run!

There were lots of rowers on the Loch as well as the usual loch inhabitants.

The course is along a tarmac path that is quite narrow in places but the only congestion was at the start of the course, with the group needing to spread out on the sodden grass.

I started at what felt like an easy pace and just aimed to stay with people until the turn when I started to find myself overtaking people. One man I passed with less than a mile to go asked where I got the kick at the end from. I replied that I start very, very slowly! But actually when I checked my garmin just now my pacing was very even throughout with mile splits of: 9:37, 9:28, 9:28 and 8:31 for the last 0.1. My official time was 29:59, which doesn’t tally with the splits, but never mind.

It was a picturesque course (ignoring the traffic roar from the very nearby M74) and one that I might have to repeat in sunshine.

Stats: 

Running – 49.45 miles

parkruns – 3/12 Scottish parkruns and my 10th in total

Happy Burns Night (and happy 5th Birthday to my niece, Esther), I’m going to a friend’s this evening for vegetarian haggis neeps and tatties. Yum!