Puffing at Pollock

On the trail again with the “parkrun caravan” turning up at Pollok parkrun within the leafy space that is Pollok Park in the South West of Glasgow. For you cultured types the park is the home of the Burrell Collection, but don’t go hoping to be a culture vulture as the collection museum is being refurbished until 2020.

We got a bit lost getting there and we arrived later than planned but thankfully we got there in time to bag a parking space. For the first time in my experience, this particular parkrun had a “parking marshall”. Great idea but don’t worry there are lots of places to park but the closer to start time the more pressured you and the spaces are. As always the Pollock parkrun web page has all the details for parking, toilets and where they go after for their cup of tea and coffee.

If I’m correct this variant was the first parkrun in Scotland and still remains very popular with over 400 folks regularly romping along the tree lined paths every Saturday morning. If my mind hadn’t been so concerned with hauling my body around the course I’m sure I would have been more impressed with the sun streaming through the tree tops, it was a lovely spring morning.

The pre-run briefing is different at every parkrun and here it caught me a bit by surprise.  We had a few announcements and then without explanation, we went straight to ” Ready, Go!”.
Keeps you on your toes!

After the first Km the runners spaced themselves out once they had found their individual place and pace with most of the run being held on wide park roads.

The route had it’s peaks and troughs as you can see from my Suunto watch altitude graphic. It looks a bit like a deranged ECG but thankfully not mine. I was happy to stay at the puffing and puggled state. The finish line snuck up, appearing amongst the trees around the final bend.

So another parkrun adventure, for me event 114 at venue 36 with a time of 24:19. Happy with that as you can see from my smiley face and the unseen inner glow similar to the one you have after a hearty bowl of porridge.

A final thanks to the race director, the core team and the volunteers for this well organised event.

And the video reflection.