It was absolutely freezing this morning but very beautiful – sunny and frosty. Ralph and I arrived at Gunnersbury Park at about 8.30, and braved the cold to find the start and introduce ourselves to the organisers. They told us about the route which sounded a lot more interesting than we had anticipated when we first arrived. At first glance the park looked incredibly dull in the style of Old Deer Park, but it turned out to have trees, a duck pond, a cafe, a folly and all sorts of interesting features. Couldn’t find the loos unfortunately, but it wasn’t necessary luckily.
We did a little warm up around the duck pond and headed back to the start area in time for the announcements. A reasonable crowd had gathered by this point and we assembled at the start. If there is no handy tree, how do they know where the start is? This was just in the middle of a bit of grass.
We set off across the frosty grass and soon headed on to a tarmac path which was not in great condition but was not icy thankfully. The grass was very frosty and crunchy. The path went round the edge and we turned right now and then. I’m not too sure of the route really, the sun seemed to be in my eyes the whole time! After a mile or so a voice behind me said ‘are you Kirsty?’ I admitted this truth, and was then congratulated on my 250 parkruns and welcomed to Gunnersbury. It was very exciting to be recognised due to my parkrun fame!
After a mile I slowed down, and then just before halfway remembered I was supposed to not slow down til 1.1. Then there was a bit of downhill and I sped up anyway. The times were called out at halfway by a marshal, 12.19 for me. I was hopeful of maintaining that pace. Overall the event was extremely well marshaled, signposted and arrowed. I particularly liked the km markers chalked on the path.
The final push was uphill on grass back to the spot where we started. I struggled a bit with any kind of sprint finish but was really pleased to finish in 24.25, and a nice negative split. Even though my watch reckoned the course was a bit short.
After replacing several layers of clothes we headed to the cafe for tea and cake. The lady who had spoken to me on the way round came to say hello, she was Arlene, the race director at Gunnersbury. So we congratulated her on a successful event.
I was fifth lady and 45th overall out of 136 runners.
