Crichton parkrun, Dumfries, 24/2/18

No parkrun for me and many others this past weekend thanks to the snowmaggedon event that seems to have slipped the country on it’s head. No problem with the cancellations, that’s part of life and is it fair to pull people out to volunteer – regardless of how keen they are just to allow me to parkrun? Don’t think so and that’s before we talk about those hardy souls who might have to help us out on the day to and from the parkrun if we get stuck. A morning in bed was very welcome thank you.

Thankfully I had this trip to reflect upon from last Saturday. A journey down to the South West corner of Scotland to Dumfries to take part in the Crichton parkrun in that fair town. I’ll let you follow the link to their parkrun site for all the usual logistics you would need if you were to visit. Parking and toilets were not a problem for me as I spent the previous night in the Holiday Inn. This is the closest I have ever stayed to a parkrun start. I could have got out of bed, put on the running clobber, jumped out the window, 50 metres warm up and off we go. I didn’t do that as I had a contact lens malfunction that required attention. The remedy being running parkrun in my glasses. A first for me and a whole set of statistics beckons, with and without eyewear runs.

I’m joking.

The course is set in the grounds of what used to be the Crichton hospital.

Thanks to the Wellcome library for that link to the information. You can tell by the environment that the belief was to have the patients out and participating in activities within the hospital grounds. How full circle is that when one of the main tenets of parkrun is to encourage activity for the health and well being of those participating?

The red stone buildings are now occupied by a combination of private business and education and very quiet on a Saturday it seemed to me. A great place for a stroll or a parkrun.

It was a lovely clear, blue sky that met us last Saturday, it was cold but refreshingly so. Sadly I couldn’t hear the notices from the run director, primarily due to chatter – a bit rude that, and partly the gentle breeze that was taking his words in the opposite direction. The course consists of a run into two smaller loops before peeling off into a different loop to take you to the finish. It has gentle decline’s and incline’s but that last one when you leave the tarmac to run on blaze is a bit nippy.

I had the body cam, strapped to my…body, well my chest. It still does not accept my changes to time but never mind, it will soon be time to change the clocks and hour forward.

Once I was done it was a bit of a sharp stop to collect the token and be scanned and then I made this as I caught my breath.

After the run they meet in the Neuro’s just across from the start/finish, this venue is so compact. I didn’t go for coffee as my breakfast as waiting but we had dinner there the night before and it was very tasty, special gluten free people are catered for too!

So job done it was back to the hotel for breakfast and I bumped into a couple who were parkrun tourist veterans, with over 200 venues visited. It sounded a great way to spend your retirement, visiting tourist venues and the planning for the adventure that each one surely is. Where do I sign up to that retirement plan please John and Joanna?

Another run done and venue 48 for me, faster than the course average which is my goal at this stage of my running life and 138 in total.

Thanks for the effort Crichton core team and volunteers appreciate it.

Where next?