Study period 2 (November and December) is my busiest in terms of teaching, and this year has been the busiest so far, due to several reasons. I’ve worked every weekend over the past two months, and should be looking forward to some rest and relaxation. I started this period of rest and relaxation by getting up at 3:49am the first morning after the students left for Christmas break, in order to make a round trip of around 600km to run a 5km parkrun. The main reason for heading to this particular destination on this particular date was because it was their fourth event, which meant Henrik could increase his Wilson Index. At least I have the opportunity to catch up on sleep tomorrow.
To be fair, I could have slept until closer to 5am. I had a run of just under 3km to get to the car park where we were meeting up at 5:30am. I like to have my overnight oats though. And just a bit of time to be able to start processing what it means to be alive and awake.
The drive to Malmö involved listening to some great 80s music, napping through an episode of Dead Ringers (me, not the driver!), and a quick coffee stop. We arrived almost an hour early, so had plenty of time to get acquainted with the area, and to meet some of the volunteers. We discovered that, unlike at Skatås, parkrunners were not allowed to use the toilets in the motioncentrum. Thankfully there were public toilets only around 100 metres away, and the Run Director helpfully showed us the way. Whilst queueing to use them we saw two people heading towards us who could only be parkrunners. One was wearing a santa coat and the other a large box covered in wrapping paper. The present was volunteering – fortunately so as the box made it difficult to move her torso, which seems a problematic restriction when running.
The first timers briefing was given by the Run Director, who explained where we could leave personal items, the route, and also how the timing and scanning work. There weren’t a huge number of visitors, but slightly over half of the attendees were there for the first time, so the briefing was well attended. It was shortly followed by the pre-event briefing, which covered all the usual things, such as milestones, sharing the park responsibly, and a notification of how many laps around Uranus’ moon Portia Bulltofta parkrun will have completed by the end of the fourth event.
Briefing over, we headed to the Start area, on a large circular path. Bulltofta is a two-lap course which begins with a loop-and-a-bit around a big circle. You then head out from that area to the right, along a gravel path which takes you alongside trees to the edge of a small lake. You then turn right, cross the bike path, and run up the hill. We had been warned about the hill in the first timers briefing, and were given to believe that it was steep. It wasn’t a gentle incline, and it has a sharp turn near the top, but it’s only about 8 metres elevation and Brian enjoyed the hill so much that he accelerated up the hill and increased his stride on it. This was in part motivated by the desire not to get caught by me, but there was no chance of that happening this morning. The route takes you along a cycle path and asphalt sections, with other sections back into the forest paths and alongside the small lake. It even conveniently takes you past the toilets. Twice.
After the first lap you must run around the circle again before setting off on the second lap, and the volunteers from the start/ finish area come along to block the path to the finish and to cheer you on. The marshals on the course were also playing Christmas music whilst cheering us on and directing us. I lapped the Tailwalker at around 4km. The route is well signposted, but one thing I noticed was that there were no kilometre markers – which are always a bit awkward to set up on a multi-lap course. My watch does of course buzz each kilometre, but it is rarely completely accurate, and often measures short. I knew my first lap had been 5:22, and so thought a sub 26 was unlikely, but it all depended on watch accuracy and how much I could speed up in the final kilometre. At 4km when I passed the tailwalker, my watch had buzzed at 21:19, so if my watch was measuring correctly, I needed to run a 4:38 final kilometre to go under 26 minutes. That seemed unlikely so I didn’t push it. I had been looking to see if any women had started in front of me or overtaken me, and I thought I would probably be the first female finisher mainly due to the fact that there were only a handful of female participants, one of whom was the Tailwalker and two of whom were dressed up for the Christmas event in a way that suggested they would not be attempting any sprints.
Approaching the end of the second lap I was not sure whether we needed to run around the circle again before heading to the finish, so I tried to keep the guy in front in sight, which wasn’t so easy as he was starting to accelerate. Thankfully I was able to keep him just in sight and his direction of travel, plus the fact that there were no other runners on the circle, assured me that there was no third loop. On realising this, I attempted to sprint for the finish line, crossing it in 26:03. Brian had finished a minute ahead of me, and Henrik took it easy but still finished in under 30 minutes. We spoke to a couple of local runners, and to the parcel lady, who moved here from Australia. The RD was wearing a santa hat and offering finishers pepparkakor (ginger snap biscuits).
We headed to the motionscentrum for fika and were surprised to see that no other parkrunners were there. Brian and I ordered cheese and turkey toasties (which were nice enough) and we were joined by Dario, who was another first timer at Bulltofta, though he has run the Malmo Ribersberg parkrun a couple of times too. It turned out that he was a fellow academic, so we discussed video games, funghi and archaeology. It’s always interesting what random conversations you can have at a post parkrun fika.
The volunteers arrived in the café just as we were leaving. We had a quick chat with them, but soon needed to head off for the long drive back.
Bulltofta parkrun was a pleasant experience. There were 32 runners, so it is definitely the smaller of the two in Malmö. At least for now. Hopefully the word will spread. And attending a smaller, newer event does have advantages. It is easier to find people to talk to, and you are more likely to be identified as newcomers and receive all the important information like where to leave your things. It also means shorter queues for toilets if you’ve travelled some distance to get there. The course at Bulltofta parkrun was pleasant, with a mix of wooded areas, bike paths and even a small lake to run alongside for part of the route. There is a plenty of parking within a few minutes walk of the start area, and the hill is nothing to be concerned about – Strava said that my total elevation was only 15 metres. So, if you’re looking for a small, friendly parkrun in a pleasant setting, Bulltofta is worth a visit.
