Alderley Park
8 June 2024
You can so easily drive past this beauty of a parkrun
without realising it. Just off the A34
and head towards the lake and you come across (with the possible exception of
Lyme Park ) one of the most beautiful locations in the area for a start of a
parkrun.
Today was the 96th running of Alderley, I’ve ran it
9 times in all weathers and the differing seasons give rise to differing
challenges. I left it till the 5th event to let
the team bed in before I came here and was immediately taken by how well the
core team had mastered their brief so early on. 91 runs later, it is smooth as
silk.
Alderley played host to a wedding party today for Sarah and
Geoff and boy did they look fantastic in their ‘wedding running gear’ and
seemed to be having a lot of fun chatting and laughing with the tail walker
making their way around the course.
Here’s hoping tomorrow keep dry and is the start of many many years of
wedded running adventures.
One of the great things about parkrun and running in general
is the mates you make. Doesn’t matter
what you doing for a living, you can be butcher, baker or a candlestick maker,
if you’re a parkun tourist, an ever present, running your 1st, a
volunteer, a walker or your 500th you’re a parkrunner.
Before lockdown I was running marathons twice a year, clocking
up 50 plus miles a week and was ready for Manchester Marathon. I fell out of the habit of running during lockdown
and if it was not for parkrun, after it came back, I’d have probably stopped
running completely. Now with the help of
the wonderful Steve Hughes from Bramhall Runners I’ve got back into the groove
and instead of training for a marathon, for the first time in my life I’ve
training specifically for parkrun and trying to get my slow ass times back down
again.
What I have missed though is my mates from Bramhall, which
is why it was so lovely to see Richard Hall, Sam Blacow, Sarah Beatie and Adam
Bird again today. Ther running community is so special. You share experiences, Sarah and I are part
of the Welshie Crew up here and have proudly ran many races together including
the North Wales Half with the brilliant Welsh Dragon medal. You know when you run, you’ve always got
mates, you’ve always got someone you can go for a run with and blast away the
blues. This is one of the thing that
makes parkrun so special. It is so so
much more than a run in the park
195 walkers and runners set off this morning for a two lap
jaunt around the stunning grounds of Alderley Park by the lake. The first 200 metre or so take you slightly
uphill into the woods where you turn
left and into the woods proper.
You then have two laps of fun. This is what parkrun is about, especially on
a day like this. The sun was shining
through the trees and the lake looked spectacular. Perhaps even more importantly the run itself
is everything you want on a parkun. It’s
essentially, a trail run, with plenty of ups, plenty of down, plenty of trippy
bits, bits of mud and some of the friendliest marshals you’d hope to meet.
I don’t think they have pacers here and you can understand
why. It’d be impossible to do it, it’s
such a varied and brilliant course. I’ve
tried and there’s no point. My advice is
to just wing it. Run like no one’s
watching, laugh like no one is listening turn left at the end of the second lap
and sprint like a mad thing down hill towards the finish as there’s a brilliant
independent coffee van waiting for you at the end.
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