What happened after Mortimer? I looked back at my parkrun stats recently and I didn’t do another parkrun between the end of September 09 and June 2010. The kids went back to school and back to swimming lessons on Saturday mornings and I went back to cycling to work and playing midweek football. Basingstoke and Reading parkrun were too far away to cycle to and Frimley Lodge hadn’t started up yet and, as we are a 1-car-family, I couldn’t get to a parkrun. So I spent Saturday mornings being one of the few dads who went to watch their kids taking lessons at Bracknell leisure centre. Running slipped into the background.
Forward to May 2010 and I think I was getting a bit tired of having lumps kicked out of me playing football and I realised I hadn’t really got good value from the purchase of my trainers. As a rule of thumb I like to think of good value on anything I buy as getting at least as many uses out of it as it cost in pounds to buy. Spend £100 on a cheap suit for a funeral and never use it again = poor value. Spend £500 on a really nice suit and wear it to work every day for a couple of years = good value. I don’t think I had quite got there with my £80 shoes in the 6 months since I bought them so it was worth me getting out on the roads and trails again.
I usually like to plan things and know what I’m going to do ahead of time, saving frustration and accidents. That works pretty well when you’re doing a plumbing job or changing the brake pads on your car. Like many people who run, however, as soon as you put on a pair of trainers all sensibility leaves you. How many people have finished a race in pain and injured, but you just had to finish coz you damn well spent money to enter! You know everyone would be sympathetic to you pulling out injured and applauding your good sense in doing so why put yourself through that much pain? Sometimes running is more like an addiction or a mental illness.
I had the use of the car for a Saturday morning so I decided to go to Reading parkrun. I had done no running in nearly 8 months except trotting around the 5-a-side pitch once a week, but still just went for it. 8am Saturday 19 June 2010, I put my trainers on to the sound of a chorus of angels and an ethereal glow coming from around my feet.
It was sunny but not too warm by the side of the Thames. Reading parkrun is a nice flat and picturesque course by river and woodland along grass and gravel paths. It has a long straight by the river before crossing a narrow bridge and sweeping round a bend and into woodland trails. I was a bit caught up in the thrill of it all and set off a bit quick and by the time I had got into the woods was being passed by a few people. I hung on, resisted the urge to walk a bit when I felt totally spent and tried to at least look good crossing the finish line: 79th out of a field of 118 runners in 27:56. The running bug had bitten again and I was born again as a runner.
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