What a fine day

With the forecast of heavy rain all day, at 4.30am, I was wondering about the sense of my decision to travel around 3 hours each way for a 5K run. The day however exceeded my expectations, reinforcing that parkrun is, to many, so much more than a 5K run. The hosts of the ‘with me now’ podcast (Danny and Nicola) had organised a powwow at the 1st anniversary of Dishley parkrun in Loughborough and around 100 parkrun tourists from all over the place descended on the event to celebrate all that is fantastic about parkrun. The rain held off and there was chattering, coffee, fancy dress, a parkrun quiz, wonky bear, every conceivable parkrun related t-shirt (including the most 500’s I’ve ever seen), parkrun tattoos, milestones, Dolly and Bev, arbitrary milestones, a happy bell, selfie boards, dreamies, tiny Steven, photographs, more chattering and more cake. There was, amongst it all, a 5K run where I shared waves with a canal boat crew, stopped for a selfie with a Winnie the poo marshal , ran through bubbles, walked and chatted (about skorts and how I don’t like running ) for a bit, was cheered on and whistled on by the volunteers, having just the best of times

My day couldn’t be dampened by almost being beaten to the finish by a tiny child wearing a full length, Spanish inspired skirt or by losing an entire tooth on a slice of cake and we headed home, sharing our stories from the day.

Arrived home to some post that I’d been expecting next week and a weakening Roo. Got to the vet after it closed to pick up a prescription and wasn’t unable to use a gift card in the shop I thought that I could but otherwise a mighty fine day.

The temperature has dropped to something way more bearable too.