Although I have lived in Sweden for over 4 years now, and am a regular parkrunner in Gothenburg, I have done very little in the way of parkrun tourism here in Sweden. It’s harder to do this than in Scotland, where there are maybe 40 or 50 within a couple of hours drive. In Sweden, …
Achieving my 100th parkrun – Or, how I settled into life in a new land
I did my 100th parkrun during the long Easter weekend on Saturday 8th April 2023, and I wanted to reflect again on the impact parkrun has had on my life. This is partially a run report. But it is also about the parkrun community, and how it can help make even emigrating easy as a …
Billdalsparken parkrun on a wintry morning. Or, how I learned to run on ice.
Cancelling parkruns There are always tough calls to make when you are a Run Director or part of the core team at a parkrun. Whatever you decide, not all participants will agree with the decision. When to cancel, and when to make that decision, are strongly debated. At Skatås, we made the decision on Friday …
Billdalsparken parkrun on Sweden’s National Day
Parkrun in Sweden After living in Sweden for 2 ½ years, I finally got to do a bit of parkrun tourism. Billdalsparken parkrun started up in September 2021, shortly after parkrun in Sweden resumed after a break of over 18 months due to the pandemic. However, due to a combination of being on the Core …
Christmas Parkrun at Hay Lodge – Wednesday 25th December 2019
Christmas morning. A time for getting up at the crack of dawn and experiencing the wonder of the season through the eyes of small children? A time for peeling sprouts? Visiting relatives? Getting stuck into the sherry straight after breakfast? I’m the youngest member of the household where I spend Christmas, and, as has been …
Hazlehead Parkrun – 19th October 2019
I woke up at 06:43am on Saturday 19th October, and immediately realised my alarm hadn’t gone off as I should have been woken up earlier. Six days previously I had completed the Chicago Marathon. It was raining cats and dogs in Aberdeen on the Friday night, and my body clock still hadn’t fully adjusted to …
Lochore Meadows parkrun – 14th September 2019
Why would someone get up earlier on a day off than they would for work? To indulge in a spot of parkrun tourism of course! Arthur Grant from Arbroath Footers has kindly organised a program of 12 tourist parkruns – one per month for a year – and the first one was Lochore Meadows, The …
Achieving a parkrun milestone – Or, how I learned to love running
I did my 50th parkrun on Saturday 20th July 2019, and I wanted to reflect on the impact parkrun has had on my life. This isn’t a run report. Or even all that much about running. It’s a bit of an incoherent ramble about my transition from a reluctant runner and exercise class aficionado to …
Skatås Parkrun, Sweden – 8th June 2019
Skatås parkrun was a lovely introduction to parkruns outside of the UK. I’ve done a bit of parkrun tourism around Scotland – most recently at Hay Lodge – and one in England at Brueton, but never further afield. So when my other half said he needed to go to Gothenburg for a work-related trip, I …
Hay Lodge Parkrun – 1st June 2019
Hay Lodge parkrun started up around 8 months ago, and is the first one in the Borders region. I’d been hoping to visit the 9th event, between Christmas and New Year, but arrived to discover it had been cancelled due to high winds. This time, thankfully, the wind was almost non-existent, and the event went …