Gunpowder Parkrun
At some point last week, my wife, sister-in-law and her husband decided that we would all drive up to Northampton to see my father-in-law; knowing me too well, my wife pointed out that I wouldn't make the trip unless I got to do a parkrun on the way (I sound like right git reading that back...). Anyway, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to bag a new parkrun. I opened up the parkrun map and looked for one close to the M25, but not so far from home that we'd have to leave at a stupidly early time...that's when I noticed Gunpowder. With a name like that, I'd already made my mind up.
Now, as you may know from my previous post, I'm a stressy sort and as I wasn't driving I wasn't in complete control of the time we'd arrive. We left Kent a little late and the sat nav listed our ETA at 8.59 - not good. If we were to hit any traffic on the way it would be a disaster. Anyway, remarkably, Dave managed to shave over ten minutes off the ETA (legally, I presume) and the traffic at the Dartford tunnel seemed to part like the Red Sea. We almost missed the junction for Gunpowder as we were too busy commenting on how quickly we'd done the journey.
After a friendly and informative run briefing, everyone filed down to the starting point. Bang on time we were off. I took the lead but was soon overtaken by a female runner; she was running with a lot of confidence and I quickly realised that I wouldn't be able to keep pace with her. Instead, I ended up trading 2nd/3rd places repeatedly with an older (but very good) male runner (Paul Reddaway, I later found out).
The course is a wide-looping clockwise route around the former munitions testing site. There's only one or two sharpish corners, making it for a very fast course. I noticed that the course undulates a little on the outer edge, but with every incline there was a steady descent too. As I completed the first lap, Dave stood on the grassy bank telling me to get a move on; in hindsight it was probably more to do with getting back on the road than me getting a PB.
Paul seemed to just have the edge on me during the second lap and I was all but ready to concede to 3rd place until the final corner where I realised that if I had a little explosion of speed I could catch him. I did just that, pipping him metres before the finish funnel. I apologised to Paul at the end as I felt slightly guilty about bagging 2nd place; he told me he'd have to done the exact same thing!
18.28 was my time. I later found out that the female runner who claimed 1st place was actually Lucy Charles, a professional triathlete and ironman Lanzarote / South Africa winner - that explained the confidence with which she ran.
I had a very enjoyable visit to Gunpowder. Although it is easy to get to, has free parking and toilets, there's more than that; it's friendly, well-organised and the course has PB written all over it.
Now, as you may know from my previous post, I'm a stressy sort and as I wasn't driving I wasn't in complete control of the time we'd arrive. We left Kent a little late and the sat nav listed our ETA at 8.59 - not good. If we were to hit any traffic on the way it would be a disaster. Anyway, remarkably, Dave managed to shave over ten minutes off the ETA (legally, I presume) and the traffic at the Dartford tunnel seemed to part like the Red Sea. We almost missed the junction for Gunpowder as we were too busy commenting on how quickly we'd done the journey.
After a friendly and informative run briefing, everyone filed down to the starting point. Bang on time we were off. I took the lead but was soon overtaken by a female runner; she was running with a lot of confidence and I quickly realised that I wouldn't be able to keep pace with her. Instead, I ended up trading 2nd/3rd places repeatedly with an older (but very good) male runner (Paul Reddaway, I later found out).
The course is a wide-looping clockwise route around the former munitions testing site. There's only one or two sharpish corners, making it for a very fast course. I noticed that the course undulates a little on the outer edge, but with every incline there was a steady descent too. As I completed the first lap, Dave stood on the grassy bank telling me to get a move on; in hindsight it was probably more to do with getting back on the road than me getting a PB.
Paul seemed to just have the edge on me during the second lap and I was all but ready to concede to 3rd place until the final corner where I realised that if I had a little explosion of speed I could catch him. I did just that, pipping him metres before the finish funnel. I apologised to Paul at the end as I felt slightly guilty about bagging 2nd place; he told me he'd have to done the exact same thing!
18.28 was my time. I later found out that the female runner who claimed 1st place was actually Lucy Charles, a professional triathlete and ironman Lanzarote / South Africa winner - that explained the confidence with which she ran.
I had a very enjoyable visit to Gunpowder. Although it is easy to get to, has free parking and toilets, there's more than that; it's friendly, well-organised and the course has PB written all over it.
