29th November 2014
Southwark Park 5 k Parkrun
My friend across the road mentioned these park runs to me. Amazingly I had never heard of them despite the fact that 60,000 runners run them every Saturday morning at 9 am. Yesterday I gave it a go and was really impressed. To enter you go online to http://www.parkrun.org.uk and fill in a simple form. It is FREE! You then need to print out your personal barcode. They advise that you laminate them and keep various ones in handy places (on your bike, glove compartment, under the insole of your trainers etc). Once you have your barcode you can turn up at any of 3,500 parks at 9 am (9.30 in Scotland). No need to book. They give a little briefing for all the first timers. At 0900 they set you all off. You don’t need to show your barcode to enter. There were 89 people running in Southwark Park. After three laps of flat tarmacked paths you enter the finish funnel and are given a barcode chip. You then take this chip with your personal barcode to one of the many volunteers who logs your result. Later in the day you can see how you did by going online. Brilliant. I managed 22 minutes 23 seconds and 70.98% age grade which wasn’t too bad. Coupled with a swim in the local pool it is a good way to kick start your Saturday. Give it a go!
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