Our first parkrun

Lily and I went to Bradford to do the first ever Bradford Parkrun this morning.  For those unfamiliar with the concept, parkruns are a series of free 5k events run in parks (which is handy, given the name) all over the country.  You just turn up with your personalised barcode, run, then get scanned afterwards.  The volunteers then produce the results which are on the website that afternoon.  The participants range from some very speedy athletic types to people taking their first steps in running - a great inclusive and friendly idea.

We went on the train at Lily's request, and warmed up by walking up to the park.  We met Linz, who was running, and Hinsley, who was doing a marketing exam (not in the park, silly - at Bradford Uni).  We set off with me carrying various items of clothing for Lily, and quickly realised we were going to be a very long way from last.  The course is three laps with a steep little climb at one end, and we covered our first lap in under 9 minutes.  Lily slowed a bit for the second and third laps, but did fantastically well to come 49th out of 82 runners in 28:29 and first in her age group (which bizarrely is U14!).  I was a second and one place behind her.

We then went for cake and coffee, before getting the train home.

I mooched around a bit looking at the glorious weather, and realising I still had my running stuff on, decided to make it my second ever "double" and nip out again.  A brilliant, briskish 6 miler over past Halton East, looking at the lambs and the wonderful views over to Langbar.  All very uplifting.  6m in 44:24, average pace 7:24 with a couple of sub-7 miles to finish.

Getting slightly concerned that we're not going to get to Mallorca next Friday - not content with buggering up our banking system the Icelanders are sending plumes of volcanic ash over that's grounded all aircraft.  It should hopefully be out of the way by next Friday - bloody hope so because the weather looks perfect!