Thank you

I got asked to do a small presentation about parkrun to a community organisation. A small casual Saturday morning chat for 30 mins.

They wanted to understand parkrun and the community feeling of how anyone and everyone is included.

Especially with a focus on mental well-being. 

It was a fun 30 mins and generated some great questions.

They gave me a small gift as a thank you, totally unexpected.

However, what made it even more special is the lady that organized it, via someone else, took 5 mins to ask the other person about me.

And what did she discover...

1 - I don't like coffee

2 - I have a sweet tooth

So, my little thank you gift was not a voucher for a local Cafe to get a coffee, but a box of homemade brownies and biscuits.

Taking the time to find out one or two small things is all anyone wants and it makes a huge difference. 

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year 2025

Welcome to a new year. A year where things are exciting and I have plans, not that I didn't have plans in 2024, but they went a little square and sideways and the year didn't go to plan, quite!!

I don't have too many set plans for 2025, just a few things that I want to achieve, and I am happy to go with the flow. If they don't happen then I won't beat myself up about it, but I do want to do them, so will try my hardest to achieve everything.

Looking back on 2024 then it was hard!

My marriage being officially put to rest, although we were both happy about this.

My work got out of hand, and I let it! It caused trouble in the middle of the year and stress leave is not fun at all. But I survived, I went back, and I tried again and finished the year but there are many changes being made and I am stronger, and I am actually looking forward to work in 2025 and being able to have the time and space to achieve what I know I can do and offer.

So how did 2025 start?

I am not a midnight person. I was actually in bed by 11pm. Yes, I know, that is only 60 minutes from midnight, but did I really want to stay up an extra hour, just to say 'Happy New Year' and then go to bed? I only had Steve to say it too and it was not needed, so to bed I went.

However, I did get up at 7am to go and complete parkrun at Cambridge.

It was a special event for me as it marked my 50th event 🎉

This means I have walked at 50 parkruns, which is an achievement to be celebrated. Majority of them have been at the same event each week but a few have been elsewhere.

At parkrun we celebrate all achievements, the next is my 100th event, obviously with parkrun only happening weekly then it will be December at the earliest that I can achieve this and that will mean attending every Saturday! I already know that won't be happening as I have a few Saturdays when I can't attend so it will be the beginning of next year for sure.

Whenever it happens, I will be celebrating it.

Christmas Day parkrun

Yes, parkrun even takes place on holidays, not just a Saturday.

In fact, parkrun takes place 98% of the time on a Saturday, but there are just a few odd days during the year where countries will hold an extra parkrun. If you live in a more accessible country, like Great Britain, then you have the added bonus of a few European country's special extra days too, so you can always do a few cheap trips into Europe and then you can collect a few more parkruns to add to the potential 54 minimum that are available.

Sadly, here in New Zealand, it takes a little bit to get to any other country, well we have Australia close by, but it is at least a 3–4-hour plane ride and that just gets you to the airport!

So, for us, well we will just be grateful for the extra one on Christmas Day and New Years Day.

This year the sun was shining, and it was warm at 8am. There were 341 attendees today and it was a lovely morning to run/walk before the potential madness that Christmas day can bring.

Just a beautiful start to the day with lots of red and Santa hats in sight.

parkrun Crazy

 As you may have gathered by now, or maybe you haven't! I like to complete parkrun. A free 5km run, walk, hop or skip held every Saturday morning. In New Zealand it starts at 8am but I know in the UK it starts at 9am, so always a good idea to check for each country. You can check out parkrun to find out more details about one local to you.

I walk it, I am not a runner!

It takes me about 40-50 minutes to complete, depending on the course and how I feel on the day, if I am walking with someone or if I am on my own.

Someone at my local parkrun decided that she would plan to complete 4 parkruns in one day! (Last year they did 9 in one day!!) Now you can only officially complete 1 parkrun on a Saturday morning but there is nothing to stop you going and completing the course of any parkrun at any time you wish, you can register this as a freedom parkrun, but it does not count towards any milestones you are working towards. The plan she came up with was to complete 4 of them by lunchtime!

1. 6.30am
2. 8am (official one)
3. 9.30am
4. 11am

Followed by lunch at 1pm

1 and 2 were very close together and so with me walking in 48 mins then I was able to get to them both easily, however, number 3 was 25 mins away and then number 4 was then another 25 mins away from number 3! There was no way I was making it to number 3, so used this time to grab some breakfast and be able to get to number 4.

The sun was shining, it was warmer at the first than the second and very hot at number 4 as it was close to midday.

Just finished the first one (7.20am)

Just finished the second (8.50am)

 

Just finished the fourth one (12pm)

Lunch was being held at a bar/restaurant about 25 mins away and I had to pass by the house to get there, so I nipped in really quick, grabbed a shower and changed clothes and still made it to lunch only 5 mins late!

It was a fun day, and I am so glad I pushed myself to do the first one, as my original plan had been to only do number 2 & 4.

Roll on next year and whatever crazy she comes up with

parkrun weather

 Saturday morning again and parkrun day

This was the weather across the countryside as I drove to parkrun at 7.30am!

Think we are in for some gorgeous sunshine today when this all burns off, which is does very quickly and easily at this time of year here in the Waikato.

Oh, and yes, I was stopped on the side of the road to collect these shots.

Saturday

 In the last 2 years I have marvelled at the wonder that the world gives us every day. I am appreciating all that I see, all the beauty and the shear wonder of colour and pattern.

Today the clouds had an awesome pattern effect with the sun shining

This was at 7.30am on my way to parkrun (31)

Yes, it was a hot morning but so much fun to be out in the fresh air, setting me up for a great day ahead, refreshed and exercised.

Parkrun Volunteering

parkrun runs on volunteers and couldn't survive without them. There are many different roles to play, and they do not all involve large amounts of time.

Obviously one of the biggest roles is that of Run Director. The person who coordinates the whole morning, looks after all the volunteers, starts the event and generally is in charge making sure everyone has a good time and achieves their event for that day.

I never dreamed of becoming a director but less than a year after returning to parkrun I got asked if I was interested and so today, with a little supervision, I undertook my first solo director role. Everyone there was amazing and very supportive, the sun shone and the rain stayed away.

Everyone successfully completed the course and the results got submitted on the computer with no hiccups or issues on my part.

These pictures make it look so easy, but I think my heart was racing the whole time!

Parkrun

Or should I say 'parkrun' as there is no capital letter at the start of the word!

parkrun is a free timed 5 km event that is held all over the world on a Saturday morning. If you have never heard of it, then go check out the parkrun website and see what all the fuss is about.

In short, it started in Oct 2004 in Bushy Park in London. A group of 13 runners all got together on a Saturday and ran round the park for 5 km. Then they had the great idea to have one of them casually time the others to keep track of how they were doing. Not a race or a competition, but more to assist with their training. This one event grew and now 20 years later there are parkruns held on Saturday mornings, in local parks/beaches all over the world. At the last count, there was just under 2000 of them around the world. There are currently 43 in New Zealand, I have done 2 of them but have only just started back today so one day I might have plans to travel around and complete some others that are not so local.

Let me get one thing straight away, I am not a runner!

I have no aspiration to become one either, I leave that to my baby brother who does do that and does it well. Me, I am a walker, a fast walker but a walker.

You can hop skip, jump, run or walk your way round the 5 km track.

parkrun is entirely run by volunteers, so there is a real community feel to it and without the volunteers then the event wouldn't run each week. In NZ we start at 8am but I am aware that in other places around the world, they start at 9am or even 9.30am (it pays to check the website for each event before attending if in a different country)

Today I made the decision, as part of this get moving campaign, I have put myself on, to attend an event again and give it a go. I last did an event back in October 2017 (I completed only 3 weeks and then life got in the way) It was awesome to see someone there that I know, so it didn't feel so uncomfortable standing at the start listening to the briefing and having no idea what was happening.

I am proud that I got up early, got moving and went to parkrun. Always easier to move when you have others around you all aiming for the same thing, managing to cross the finish line.

Think I will be definitely going back next week.