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 …
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 …
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 …
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 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 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 …
This race had gone unexpectedly well for me in 2018. I knew this year wasn’t going to be a repeat of that, as my Footers clubmate Tracy Paterson was signed up, as was Dundee Road Runner Gillian Sangster. I’m well-matched with both of them pace-wise for 10 milers, but both of them are much faster …
Ian picked this Saturday for another tourist parkrun. This was largely because it was a milestone for him (his 50th) and he didn’t want to have to run around our local parkrun wearing a cape: he wanted to fly under the radar, and the kind of cape you have to wear at Parkrun isn’t the …
After the success of the summer tourist runs, including one to St Andrews Parkrun, the Footers decided to do some Parkrun tourism this year on one Saturday of each month. With it being the start of the year, Ian picked Stonehaven Parkrun partly due to its relatively close proximity. Unfortunately the weather turned wintry a …
Happy Double Parkrun Day New Year’s Day is a time for contemplation. For reflecting on the previous year, and deciding what you want to achieve and prioritise in the coming one. For setting goals and making plans for how to achieve them. And maybe for eating a lot and recovering from the excesses of Hogmany. …