Wall art

I'd narrowed down my parkrun destination for the day to two and set off from home at around 7.45 for the fairly short journey.

The promised wet weather appeared to be holding off but having had a lot of rain the day before I decided, on route,  that Burnham on Crouch would be the least muddy of the two courses for my 7th different Essex parkrun.  With my less than great navigational skills, there was the added bonus of knowing where I was going as I'd volunteered there last year. 

I arrived really early and was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces from my volunteering stint already hi-vizzed up and drinking coffee,  having already put up the signage and finish funnel.  

After a quick stop in the facilities I grabbed a couple of pictures of the park signage and headed back towards the start area as the set up volunteer from further out on the course returned.  There was some general discussion about the puddles and mud on the course and whether the runners should be directed through a large wet area on the final lap.  I was offered a pair of wellies to run in by one of the volunteers which I declined with a declaration that I'd been overtaken by someone running in wellies before.  Explaining that he'd been in full RNLI kit and promoting an open day at the Burnham lifeboat station I was quite amazed when the man standing beside me told me that had been him.  There was no chance that I'd have recognised him with his kit off.

I then had a chat with a lady who was about to do her first ever park run and learned about her motivation and expectation for the run.  I love these conversations.  It was just me and her for the first timer briefing, expertly delivered by Carly who I'd met during my last time in BOC and who we learned was also our tail walker for the day.

Then it was on to the main briefing where we had hands raised for dogs, children and tourists.  I was 'beaten' in tourism effort by a man from North Yourkshire and we were off.

The playing field was quite squishy underfoot as we headed off towards the sea wall  but the rain was holding off, there wasn't too much mud. and the wind was also being kind.  I always enjoy running along the sea wall near home so the chance to look at the houseboats moored along the path and then at more boats in the marina was a good distraction.

The route wound round back along some more muddy paths and then we turned back across the playing field and into the wind.  I was running close to a lady with fabulously styled and coloured hair for a while which was another welcome distraction from the mud I was collecting.

I've noticed recently that I do spend quite a lot of time looking at my surroundings and the other runners and not at what I am doing.  It's probably why my finess/speed appears to be decreasing and probably quite dangerous in terms of increasing the chances of going over but it is what keeps me going.  Today I spotted the husband of someone that I knew as I was partway into my second lap.  He was heading back to the finish and, knowing that she does also run sometimes I was then looking out for her and the lady I'd spoken to at the start for the rest of my run which, helped by my nosiness and lots of encouragement from the marshalls out on course, went surprisingly fast.

Before I knew it I was being handed my finish token and offered mini eggs/cookies by some very cheerful little helpers.

I stayed by the finish whilst I cooled down a bit, congratulating the people behind me and was happy to see both the people I'd been looking out for coming in.  Jo was running and her daughter Poppy raced off ahead of her for a fantastically strong finish.   The other lady (who I'm guessing (having looked at results was called Jayne)  came running in just after them and told me that she had exceeded her own expectations and managed to run the whole way.

I'm hoping that she enjoyed her first trip to the event as much as I did and that like me, she will be back.