There were extra opportunities for a parkrun over the Christmas period in Eastleigh.
As well as the standard Saturday morning events, runs were also organised for Christmas and New Year’s Day mornings. In addition, the New Year’s Day events in Winchester and Southampton started 90 minutes later.
This gave the truly dedicated a total of five parkruns in nine days. I managed three of the five – so I must be semi-dedicated.
The Eastleigh parkrun makes three laps of zigzag circuit around the old golf course.
Three laps is a good number. As you pass each landmark on the second lap you can tell yourself “I’ve only got to pass this once more, then I am done”. And on the first lap you can tell yourself “next time I am here I will be thinking that the next time I’ll only have to pass one more time”. It works for me, anyway.
There is also a wonderful point just after you get to the top for the second time: not only are you thinking “I’ve only got to tackle that hill once more” but you pass the 3 km mark – unequivocal proof that you are over half way.
Very very muddy
OK, I really should say something about the current ground conditions.
You may have noticed that there has been a lot of rain over the last few weeks. On Saturday morning there was even standing water on the adjacent football pitches. Were it a horse race the ground would at best be described as “soft”. Actually, that’s not true. It would be “race abandoned – course waterlogged”.
It is muddy. It is very, very muddy. Don’t turn up if you adverse to running through puddles or having your legs splattered with mud. But it’s fun – even if you do have to stand in the garden to hose yourself down when you get home.
Eastleigh parkrun meets at the Old Golf Course at Fleming Park at 9:00 every Saturday morning. Run briefing is around 8:50, with a First Timers briefing about five minutes earlier. Register at the parkrun website and print of a bar code before coming along. More details at Eastleigh parkrun.
Finally, you could view hundreds of brilliant photographs of Eastleigh parkrun by Paul Hammond on his page.
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Mud is fun?
I love the photos – showing great spirit, happy people, happy dogs. What a fun way to start the new year! Good luck to you and Eastleigh parkrun. It’s such a fab organisation. To run parkrun weekly without fail involves so much determination. Well done to you all!
Is there a park run for 1k? I think 5k is too big of a challenge to some people. 🙂
If I do 1k run, and 4k walk, is it still ok (forgive this embarrassing question) to join?
How do you encourage people who can’t do 5k to join you?
Thanks.
There are 3 laps at Eastleigh and you would be most welcome to just run /walk one or two of the laps until you get upto speed.
We do wait until the last person is finished and only give support so no one needs to be scared – as shown above, we have people of all abilities taking part.
Just out of interest, for those of you who have very active children, there is a ‘2k Junior parkrun’ in Southampton on a Sunday.
You would be surprised how much the other runners and supporters help your motivation and stamina. You might well find that you can run further than you thought you could.
I really love what I see in Eastleigh parkrun. The energy of the people is very powerful.（Don’t we all need positive energy?) I play table tennis and badminton, and also swim regularly, but I just worry that running may be too challenging as it uses different parts of the body that I’m not very used to!
For a start, the SHOES!!! I have different shoes for badminton / table tennis – and they shouldn’t be worn outdoor, and I bet running involves different ‘gadgets’ – looking at the mud, what kind of shoes do you need?
There are some specialists running shops (one at Central Precinct, Chandler’s Ford), and it just makes me feel that ‘running’ is probably a more serious sports than one might think. For ladies, we also need more ‘support’ – as running without proper support can result in very painful outcome (running in high school without proper support perhaps has had lasting impact on me.) Well – chippy you need to write another post to reveal the secrets to successful running (painless).
Thanks.
And a big thank you to the organisers and volunteers who turn up each week with the stop watches and finish tags and cones and finish funnel, and who mark out the course before we runners get there, and clear up afterwards, and upload the results to the computer, and generally keep the whole thing … er … running
It looks great fun if you have a mind for it. Nice to see everyone joining in, experts, the fit, the perfect physical specimens, the young, families, dogs and I guess even walkers rather than joggers.
For me, enough exercise is to keep my kinetic watch ticking. I note you can now buy a device that will exercise your watch for you to keep it going. How sad is that?