Bushey Parkrun



Hampton Court Palace



Today's run, once again had me taking part in the Parkrun 5K events taking place nationwide (and Denmark!) every Saturday morning at 9am. I usually run my local event at Frimley but today I was at the original and biggest Parkrun at Bushey Park, London.

Bushey Park is one of the Royal Parks that sits proudly to the front of Hampton Court Palace former home of Henry VIII.

"No I am not joining in with this mornings activities"
One of the many wild deer that roam the park

I went along with friend Bob who the Race Director at the Frimley Park Hospital 10K run. The Bushey Park team are going to be doing the timing at the Hospital run next month and Bob wanted to talk through some final preparation with the organisers. This was not a problem for me though as I listened in and enjoyed the early Spring sunshine and fantastic surroundings.
 

The Park is soon filled with early morning runners

The great thing about the Parkrun series is that once you have downloaded your barcode (You use this at the end of the race to log your results) you can just turn up at any event and run for free!



Mid Run



Along with the 690 other participants we were gathered at the start line ready for the prompt 9am start. The claxton sounded and we were off. I was towards the back of the crowd, I hadn't really thought about positioning and in my mind today was just going to be a pleasant jog around King Henry VIII's front garden.

But amongst the fellow runners and a good atmosphere, my race instincts took over and the chance of a PB on a flat course was now the focus of the morning. The paths are nice and wide so it was not long before I was able to move up the field. I took off too fast, but my thinking was that it is only 3 miles and the pain would soon be over. I managed to maintain the pace, although the legs were feeling quite tired from the previous days 12 miler into work.

I finished a respectable 198th and managed a new PB of 23:02. My official time on the website results is 23:08, but I started my Garmin once I started moving across the start line. The great thing about the system is that once you have scanned in your personal barcode at the race finish the results are waiting for you once you get home on the website, and all of your previous times are kept on the data base too. This is how my results look to date:

A great mornings work at this great organised network of events, as with both locations of the Parkrun I have done, another 10 out 10 for this free event :)