Plym Valley Parkrun

As anyone who reads Dave’s entertaining minutes or VFTBOTP will know, Martin and I have been on a 5k-fest over the last 2 months in a bid to regain my race fitness whilst recovering from a long term Achilles injury.  We’ve become Park run junkies and have added quite a few new races to the list of Park runs that we’ve completed.

Each Parkrun has its own character and they differ widely from anything between 1 to 4 laps of parks, sports fields, tow paths, cycle paths, tarmac, mud, stones, the list is endless. The three things that they all have in common is that they take place at 9am every Saturday morning, they’re free and they’re great fun.

Last weekend we headed down to Devon to take part in the most westerly Park run in this country – Plym Valley. Of the ones we’ve done to date it’s also probably the most scenic and rural.  After a night spent “wild” camping at Cadover Bridge we arrived in the National Trust car park at Plymbridge Woods at 8.30am, bright eyed and raring to go......Well that’s not strictly true, Martin had a splitting headache, a strange numbness to various parts of his body and a strong conviction that he had suffered a mild stroke overnight.  I was definitely raring to go -to the loo, if only there had been one................

The start is in a lovely flower meadow between a cycle path and the river Plym. A large clockwise lap of the flower meadow takes you back past the start and onto the canal tow path before a short steep climb onto a cycle path which leads you back to the start and a further, smaller anti clockwise loop of the meadow.  Simple right?

By 9am a (what is the appropriate collective noun?) pack of Parkrunners had gathered on the vaguely defined start line and it was apparent that we were not the only Plym Valley Parkrun virgins as we jostled for prime position (which meant trying to find the least rutted piece of grass to run over to the start of a well trodden path).  Some Parkrun announcements and jokes followed and then we were off.

As usual I settled in somewhere behind Martin and followed my usual strategy of judging my pace off him.  Unfortunately this didn’t work as well as usual – either he was taking it easy or I was going way too fast.  The field spread out as we reached the end of the meadow and turned back on ourselves and my GPS confirmed that the first 1km had been completed slightly faster than was sensible but not fast enough that I should still be so close behind Martin.   As we neared the point where we ran back past the start I heard a man with a couple of young kids say “there’s Mummy” and thought that I had a rival.....but it turned out that he had said “where’s Mummy?” because he followed it up with the very unsupportive comment of “miles back I expect”!

We came out of the meadow and turned onto the tow path for a half mile of fairly level easy running (as long as you avoided veering off into the canal) and I focussed on trying to keep up with a figure slightly ahead in a familiar Grizzly t-shirt.  At the end of the tow path section there was a very sharp climb up onto a cycle path which bled the speed from our legs but was followed by a slightly downhill section on tarmac where I managed to throw in a fast km.

With just over a km to go it was back into the flower meadow to complete the second, smaller lap and as I reached the point where the route divided the two lead runners blasted past on their way to the finish, both recording excellent sub 18 minute times.  I managed to overtake a couple runners on this last loop and was pushing hard for the finish, my target being to beat the vet 45 age category course record.  A final push for the finish line, taking one more male scalp en route, to finish in 10^th place overall, first lady and a time of 20.36, beating the current FV45 record by a very satisfying 40 seconds.  Martin had also managed to set a new MV55 course record but was very disappointed with his time – 20.14, which was unexpectedly slow for him but at least he had got his excuses well publicised before the start.

As usual at Parkrun there was a lovely friendly atmosphere and we had a chat with the runner in the Grizzly t-shirt, who it turned out recognised our name and has been a reader of the MN blog in the past, and also a Poole Parkrun regular who recognised us and was also taking advantage of a weekend away to try out a new course.

Next week we’re off to Barnstaple for a second run round Rock Park, but if you want to do a Parkrun without the excessive travelling, don’t forget that Weymouth Parkrun starts on the 31^st August and Yeovil (at Montecute) have their first event the following week.  For those willing to travel a little further Parkrun is also coming to King’s Park in Bournemouth on the 24^th August.

All that remained on this lovely sunny morning in Devon was to find a suitable venue for our customary post Park run refreshment.......................................