Le Tour de parkrun – Finsbury Park

I think I heard dawn crack this morning – I was cycling to Sharon and David’s house at 6.45am! We then drove to Osterley Station and then went 472 stops on the Picadilly line to Finsbury Park station, which is a very short walk to Finsbury Park itself. Simples!

The first thing to do of course was find the toilets and hope they were open (they were), the second thing was to play in the playground… but then some children arrived so our plan was foiled. Ah well, some other runner-types turned up too, so we worked out the details of where to leave our belongings, where the start and finish are etc.

It was sunny but very chilly this morning, acclimatising the limbs to the cold air was not pleasant! However we were soon down to 100 club tops and shorts and ready for the start. There was a brief description of the route, I pretty much switched off at this point – big mistake! I’m not very good with directions (understatement) and just assumed I would use my usual strategy of *follow the person in front*. It has never failed me before…

We set off down a hill, round the corner then up a hill, where I was pleased to overtake three or four people. Down another hill, up a more evil hill, wiggled round some corners and on to the second lap.

The man in front turned left, so I went left.  We went past the finish line, and then a bit later the finish line people started shouting to us. I thought we’d gone slightly wrong, but when I turned the corner and saw David just ahead, I knew we’d gone *very* wrong!

Now the sensible thing to have done, in retrospect, would be to run back to the finish line and find out the correct route. But when I’m running, I find my brain tends to melt down into my trainers, and logical thought is not my best area.

So I kept going, and got to the finish area again having run 2 and a half miles. I didn’t cross the line, asked them not to click my time, and asked if it was ok if I did the other half mile and then finished for a time and a place. They said yes. Yay for nice parkrun organisers. And thank goodness for Garmins!

I ran round in circles for another half mile then finally finished from completely the wrong direction. The organisers were very apologetic, but I think it was my own fault really, I should have paid more attention to the pre-race briefing. A few blobs of flour on the ground wouldn’t go amiss though…

I laughed at my muppetry, but did then get a bit upset about it. I’ve never gone the wrong way in a race before EVER, and I’ve done a LOT of races, including ones which include navigation! Ah well, I think I’m over it now.

I will definitely make a return visit, because I think it has the potential to be a lovely parkrun, I’m just not really in a position to comment right now!