As I get back in to running, training and racing I’ve discovered there are things that had become commonplace which are now once more ridiculous. In a short series of posts I’m going to remind you, fellow runners, of the once unusual things you now happily do to yourself.

#4 – PARKRUN IS ACE!

Okay, so it’s unlikely you’ll actually have forgotten how ace parkrun is.

But if you are training for a specific run, especially if it’s any longer than a 10k, then it’s equally as unlikely that parkrun fits in to your training schedule. I’m yet to see the marathon schedule that says “Saturday – run really fast around a lake with a couple of hundred others for only 3 miles”.

Of course it can be incorporated. With a little creativity and planning it can form the middle 3 miles of your long run for the weekend, or maybe you can forget the time and do 3 miles of interval training over the parkrun course instead.

I’ve already talked about how much I love our own Cheltenham parkrun (and as one of the Run Directors I do think of it as ours because we would turn up in the middle of an apocalypse to make sure the event happened. But it fills me with immense pride that so many people want to share it with us!) This weekend we had a visually-impaired runner being guided by volunteers, a gentleman with 3 hours to kill before his wedding and 200 other stories all turn out in the rain to run, that’s what makes parkrun great.

So don’t forget about it. Just because you can run further than 5k, or you are entering big races or any other of a myriad of excuses, don’t stop going along and supporting your local parkrun because I’m sure it will be your most fun run of the week.

(this post is dedicated to the memory of Nikki Herbison, a member of the parkrun family who collapsed at Rushcliffe parkrun last week and despite the best efforts of fellow runners (including doctors) and marshalls sadly passed away the following day in hospital).