parkrunning

After months of meaning to go but never quite getting round to it, Saturday morning at 9am saw me at the start line of the Bradford parkrun in Lister Park.

parkrun organise free, weekly, 5km timed runs around the world and the Bradford parkrun was set-up in April this year by one of our ERR club members. Several members, including Julie have volunteered at parkrun for sometime - it's such a great event to have for the community. Having run the Leeds Hyde Park parkrun several times, I was intrigued to try out the closer to home Bradford parkrun.

I arrived at Lister Park in Manningham at about 8.30am unsure where to go but soon spotted lots of runners milling about near the bandstand. A quick chat with several familiar faces and brief warm-up and we were lining up to start.

The course is three laps of a set route in the park which includes a bit of a hill at the end of each lap. Racing were children, older people and even a man running round with a pushchair and child. It has to be one of the most inclusive races in the world.

I'm not sure what it is about 5ks that make them so hard! I always think they're nothing, only three miles...well, I've run more than that but this was hard...and was certainly not helped by the three large glasses of wine I'd consumed the night before!

The equation is this:

3 x large glasses of wine + late night + 5k race = horrible race

Nevertheless, I managed a credible time of 27.49, which I was pleased with.

Now what does 0 x glasses of wine + early night + 5k race equal?

Guess, I'll have to go back shortly to find out...