STORMS have been the feature of my parkruns in recent weeks. Rain, rain and yet more rain. And then gust after gust of wind, hurling in from the Atlantic at a pace not seen since Usain Bolt retired. First, Storm Ciara began to rear its ugly head just as I finished wading through the challenging mud of Wanstead Flats in East London (8 February). Then, seven days later, Storm Dennis was in full force as I  was blown around Sandwell Valley Country Park in the marvellous Black Country. Never have I been so wet and sodden for so long – it rained cats and dogs all weekend. Although rain spared ..read more

Grey skies, more rain – it’s getting hard to remember when we last saw some sun or felt its warmth. It has certainly been a dreary time weatherwise since Christmas (and I do appreciate that we’re lucky living where we do, we certainly haven’t seen the worse of it). The feelings are not helped when I hear from my son who lives in Madrid that the sun is now shining and the temperatures are creeping into the early twenties! At least we’ve got Malaga and Madrid in April and Mallorca in June to keep us going. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a fairweather runner – constantly saying that I’ll ..read more

RUNNING is rarely straightforward. Yes, it’s the simplest of sports – one foot in front of the other and away you go – but it’s never without its complications. Never short of its drama, twists and turns, hills and bumps and grazes. Sunday 15 February was one of those ‘complicated’ days. Having dealt with the onset of Storm Ciara while slogging our legs through the cloying mud of the Wanstead Flats parkrun in East London (February 8), Valentine’s Day Plus One saw me and Leonie (Kate to my mother! Que?) be a little more adventurous.  We wandered away from our London (me) and Berkshire (Kate ..read more

Over to Jeff for this week’s blog – Slip slidin’ away Slip slidin’ away You know the nearer your destination The more you’re slip slidin’ away (Paul Simon, 1977) WELCOME to glorious Wanstead Flats parkrun in East London, 24 hours prior to Storm Ciara arriving to blow us all from pillar to post. Mud in places like porridge, capable of sucking running shoes from feet and catapulting the unwary into pools of freezing rainwater. ‘More like Tough Mudder than parkrun,’ said one runner afterwards who looked as if she had just enjoyed a mud bath. I couldn’t have agreed more. But I loved i ..read more

22 runs done and 8 at Dinton Pastures on a sunny Saturday morning. Hopefully, before the end of February, I’ll be a clear halfway to my 50 parkrun T-shirt. Not sure if red is my colour though. Dogs straining at the leash and snapping at each other in their eagerness to be away, plenty of mud (but less than last time) and a 3km sign in evidence to encourage us marked the experience this week. While overall my times are improving gradually, it is still a bit of a yo-yo, especially at DP. This week was 38.42 minutes, 43 seconds short of my PB there and nearly three minutes slo ..read more

A weekend break in Whitstable saw us being parkrun tourists again. Out of the 21 parkruns I’ve now completed, 13 have been at different venues. I’m not sure if this is good or not when you hear of some people completing 400+ at one place! We, however, like the opportunity to combine our Saturday morning exercise with exploring new areas. Saturday morning dawned dry but bitingly cold. A fact we weren’t aware of until we sallied out from a space-challenged weekend accommodation above a cafe on Harbour Road. In fact, I can safely say that by the time the parkrun started I was chilled to the bo ..read more

Our exploration of East London parkruns continued with a joyful visit to Peckham Rye last Saturday. It turned out to be more than just a parkrun but a ‘destination parkrun’. We travelled by train and after alighting at Penge West asked to be pointed in the direction of Peckham Rye only to be told that ‘it’s that way but too far to walk!’. Had our plans gone wrong? A quick check on the phone told us that no they hadn’t and that it was a mere two miles away, a stroll of around 25 minutes. It’s good to get a few steps under the belt before the run starts. Even if that involves a very (ve ..read more

This week’s running blog is a two-hander with contributions from both Leonie and Jeff. With my knee still twinging and a muscle-strengthening regime in place, I decided discretion was the better part of valour this week and volunteered at Mile End rather than running. Although it put my parkrun total on hold for a while it added a third outing to my volunteering tally. The morning was dawning sunny as we took the short stroll along the Regent’s Park Canal to Mile End Park passing a pair of cormorants, some noisy Egyptian geese who are ever hopeful that we’ve packed some bread or seed ..read more

ANOTHER year, another crop of runs already in the diary ready to be tackled. The undulations of Tunbridge Wells, four laps around the London Stadium in East Stratford (home of West Ham United), and 10 miles in Canterbury’s delightful countryside. Touch wood, all completed in style before February is out. Although the legs are a little less willing than they were a couple of decades ago, I’m determined to keep running. Three to four days a week with at least one glorious parkrun and a race thrown into the mix. A 10k here and a half marathon there. A minimum 10,000 steps a day. Of course ..read more

Christmas Day saw Cass and I up bright and early and heading off to Dinton Pastures for a seasonal parkrun. Burning off some calories before the excesses of the day to come. I was on parkrun report duty, so here is the adapted version! Mince pies and muddy dogs, Santa hats and springer spaniels, sunshine and speedy sprinters and … I’ve run out of alliteration but Dinton Pastures parkrun certainly hasn’t run out of steam. Well done, for making sure a run happened on Christmas Day and for organising the glorious blue sky and sunshine especially as I’m looking out at grey skies and rain as I w ..read more