10 Runs that Made Me #4 - Frimley parkrun 26/6/2010

Wow, there was a big gap between September 2009 and June 2010 when I didn't run. No parkruns, no events. I don't really know why. Now, I couldn't imagine not running, but then I always have a goal - look at my list of future races and I have stuff planned or even bought and paid for right up to October next year. 

So, I wasn't fit enough for a 10k and couldn't get to a parkrun due to transport issues. I think I spent time cycling to work and didn't see the need to run and kind of had the attitude that, though I may not be fit looking on the outside, there was definitely a fit person on the inside just waiting to get out. I was what I liked to call "latently fit". 

So, mid-June 2010. I think there was just a day when the running shoes that had been sitting by the front door unused for months had worn me down with guilty looks. I didn't have a running goal and thought that was what I needed, so I looked around for a local run to do and booked Mortimer 10k in September. That mid-June Saturday I had a car available. I looked up the parkrun website, found that there was one at Reading, by the Thames and decided to give it a go. No training, just turned up and ran round in 27:56. Under 30 minutes, I can still do this! 

The next weekend, no car available, but I found Frimley Lodge parkrun had started up and that was under 6 miles away, just a gentle cycle ride. So I arrived at about 8:30 in the park, found where the start was going to be and the briefing, then lined up and did the run. It's a two lap course partly round a few football pitches, but also along a canal towpath and some twisty sections through woods. A lovely course with only a shallow gradual rise round the first field to contend with for a hill. I finished in 27:50. 

After the run I offered to help tidy up, take down the finish funnel and the start line tape. I met the Event Director at the time Steve Osbourne and a few of the other volunteers and offered to come back next week and help set up the finish funnel. That turned out to be a key event in my running life. From making good friends with the core volunteer team, to being introduced to my local running club and local races, it all stemmed from running and volunteering at Frimley parkrun.