My parkrun Journey and a New Side Mission

 Apologies for my lack of blogs on project Road to LA 2028, an update on that will be incoming in the next week or so.  In the meantime I bring you a blog inspired by a message I got off Pete, this blog will take a look at my parkrun journey so far and my next stupid idea.  Trying to win a parkrun.

Before we get into the parkrun victory blueprint, lets run through some of my parkrun numbers.

• parkruns run - 61
• Different parkruns attended - 11
• Fastest parkrun - 19:21 - Albert parkrun Middlesbrough - 19th March 2011.
• Highest parkrun placing - 5th - Southend parkrun - 30th March 2013 

Here is a summary of those 11 different parkruns and my best finishes and times at each:

Event	Runs	Best Pos	Best Time
Southend parkrun	31	5	20:13
Albert parkrun Middlesbrough	16	17	19:21
Basildon parkrun	5	10	21:55
Brighton & Hove parkrun	2	21	20:14
Bromley parkrun	1	24	19:58
Milton Country parkrun	1	53	21:13
Parramatta parkrun	1	19	20:57
Clare Castle parkrun	1	53	24:31
Alness parkrun	1	20	26:17
Lowestoft parkrun	1	109	24:12
Chalkwell Beach parkrun	1	80	24:38
	61

I have enjoyed running with various friends and family throughout my 61 parkruns.  I don't want to miss anyone but here is the list as far as I recall.  Pete, Luke, Joe, Dad, Becky, Amber, Gareth, Amy, Graeme, Ross and Matty P.  I have made parkrun part of birthday celebrations, a weekend away with Lauren, trips to see friends and holidays abroad.

I ran my first parkrun at Albert Park in Middlesbrough on 31st October 2009 through to my 61st parkrun today at Basildon.  I have enjoyed all of them despite the suffering you endure during a full effort 5km.

As I said at the top my new goal is to win a parkrun, this is something both Pete (18:18 23/02/13) and Luke (18:58 30/03/13)  have achieved with me in attendance, and which Ross has also done elsewhere while flying solo.

Parkrun has really developed over the near 16 years I have been running them.  This is illustrated by the fact that Luke and I had to head to Bromley in October 2011 for our parkrun fix.  A journey of an hour each way on a good day.  Now you are spoilt for choice for parkruns to do locally to us, with 10 or so parkruns within half an hour of home.

Luke and I managed to duck under 20 minutes that day, as was our target.  I have only achieved that on three other occasions and all of those were at Albert Park in Middlesbrough.  

• 19:42 - 12/02/2011
• 19:21 - 19/03/2011
• 19:59 - 24/03/2012

Now to the victory blueprint.  If I am to win a parkrun I fear that PB from March 2011 of 19:21 will have to go, and in all likelihood I will need to go sub 19 minutes.  Where abouts will I target victory? Here are the local contenders;

• Hockley Woods - Most local to me, hilly, off road, slow going and tough.  I really should get to it, to tick it off the list, but it's too tough for me to make it a regular.
• South Woodham Ferrers - Another one I need to check out.  Has been known to be boggy.
• Hadleigh - A hilly painfest.  Tick it off and move on.
• Wickford - Don't know much about this one.  Add it to the list.
• Basildon - Will be my regular as I look to take time off my current 24:15-24:45 range of finish times.  It is very convenient, right down the road from my weekly weigh in, and a good flat course, just the one little bump, will be tougher in winter when the grass section gets muddy and so may need to look for a new home at that point.
• Chalkwell Beach - Expensive parking but along the seafront and pancake flat.  Would be very fast on a windfree day.  I have only done it once, when not very fit.

I will need to do some in-depth research into the results history for the dozen or so local events as well as some on the ground course exploration.  Looking at the times of recent winners I can tell you one place I won't be winning, Chelmsford Central 915 entrants and a winning time of 15:33.

My best chance of victory may require some driving on my part.  Last weekend I went to  Clare Country Park, it took me an hour to get there, but it is near my parents house and we were up there for Easter.  Another one close to them is Haverhill and that had 64 runners last weekend and a winning time of 19:12.  Reading the course details  it is round fields and gets a bit cross country in winter, but there were just 20 runners in attendance as recently as 22nd February, so has sneaky win potential.

Another back door route to victory is waiting for a snowy day, bad enough to mean only the hardiest of souls make it to the start line, but not so bad that they decide to call the event off.  I have no shame, a win is a win, even if parkrun isn't a race, it's just a nice community run, etc etc.  It is whatever you decide it is, and it goes on my Fetcheveryone as a race.

I do understand that talk of victory when you are north of 40 years old and bobbing around the 24 minute mark is crazy talk, but that is what you came here for.  Wildly unrealistic targets and fighting talk.  I'm really going to focus my running over the rest of 2025 on getting myself faster over the 5k.  I have the occasional race outside of that (24 hour and 10km within a week of each other at the end of June) but those aside I really want to get the interval sessions in, and will be attending parkrun most weeks.  Look out for more parkrun updates soon.