Fingal Bay parkrun, New South Wales

I’ve still got a long way to go to catch Russell, but I finally made my parkrun debut in Fingal Bay, New South Wales. Hopefully it’s the furthest travelled parkrun by a Calderglen Harrier, so put that in your pipe & smoke it Russell. I suspect Malcolm or David Herbertson could maybe beat that though.

Several times I’ve been asked if I’d ever done a parkrun & I honestly thought it unlikely that I’d find the need to do one. There are so many good events on the calendar, that it’s usually a matter of which ones to leave out rather than looking for races to do. I’m usually trying to get the balance right between racing, training & recovery. It’s so easy to be tempted into doing one race too
many.

After competing in a couple of big events down under, I had the usual what's next feeling. You are still on a bit of a high after the races, which had been my goal for ages. Then there is the inevitable lull afterwards as, all of a sudden, it’s over with nothing new to aim for. The Oz tour to date has comprised of the World Duathlon champs in Adelaide followed by the Nepean triathlon in
Sydney, which, in it’s 34th year, is the oldest triathlon in Australia. The deal with Mandy was two weeks of events & city sightseeing followed by two weeks of chilling in the beautiful coastal town of Fingal Bay, 150 miles north of Sydney. Although Mandy does really enjoy the events, chilling out in her birthplace of Australia is every bit as appealing.

I had also been enjoying the chilling for a few days, but my mind started to wonder if a minor race might give me a gradual withdrawal from the thought of no more events for a while. Then a quick check on Google for events confirmed that the local parkrun started virtually on my doorstep. Perfect. I quickly registered with parkrun UK, then had a quick trip to the local library to print off my barcode & I was in.

The 5k itself fitted perfectly into the local park by going out along the coast, turning at the boathouse, which was at the end of the path, then passing the start/finish line before turning again at the other end of the path. A final turn again at the boathouse & then onto the finish. Myself & Mandy fitted in a recce run a couple of days before & the route felt fairly flat. It didn’t however, feel flat on race day. Mandy downloaded her Garmin from the recce run to reveal a significant amount of climbing. I’d hoped for a sub 18 min run, as my first 5k in the Duathlon had been 17.55. I felt I was moving well, so was slightly disappointed with a 18.46 debut parkrun. Maybe the elevation, three dead turns and coastal breezes played it’s part……..or maybe I’ve had one too
many holiday Castlemaine XXXX. While in Australia & all that. Overall I’ve got to be happy with a 2nd place & an over 80% age group score. I was beaten by another British glory hunter holiday maker.

You’ve got to be impressed with the parkrun set up. It’s so simple yet caters for accurately recording 1000’s of times every Saturday all over the World. I’m sure I read that it’s now the biggest running event in the World.  Now that I’ve got a time to try & beat I’m sure I’ll give another one a go.

This must also be the first Harriers' parkrun race report to be sent before the parkrun races back home have started.

Cheers
Martin & Mandy