Another Saturday morning, another parkrun! The warnings were all there before I went to bed last night: Fountains Abbey was cancelled and Harrogate was looking doubtful. But still, I set my alarm, hopeful that my plans for hitting my 100th parkrun in 5 weeks time wasn't about to be derailed! Unfortunately for me, the news on waking up was what I had feared - Harrogate was also cancelled!! A quick search on Facebook informed me that Wetherby was going ahead, so I jumped in the car and off I went!
Having never ventured over to the Wetherby parkrun before, I didn't quite know what to expect. Now I do... At this time of year, you should probably expect mud! It was definitely a challenge, what with the gale force winds, a bit of rain and all the mud, but I did it and I am still on track for the big 100 in a few weeks time!
Needless to say, I wasn't the only Harrogate parkrunner who had made the journey over to Wetherby this morning. During the pre-run briefing, the question went out: "Any visiting parkrunners?" Many hands went into the air and there was a loud chorus of "Harrogate!" in response to "Where are you from?"
The experience of visiting Wetherby parkrun this morning was really enjoyable and as usual, I found myself making friends at the beginning - Classic parkrun! We also caught up at the end and had a chat. Both of us being Harrogate parkrunners, we were used to the 3 lap format of Wetherby, and had actually run very similar times this morning so it was nice to have someone to share the parkrun ritual with even if my usual crew were M.I.A. We also shared some of our running experiences and discussed my upcoming marathon. I welcomed his advice, and he was very honest about his own marathon experience. We agreed that respecting the challenge of a marathon is vital and that the training is not to be overlooked!
I also took the opportunity to speak to my new friend about why I am running the marathon and what The Trust does for Stu. This is something I have to do periodically, and not just to try and get people to sponsor me (even if it may seem that way sometimes), but because by articulating how important this charity is in my family's life I am able to dig that bit deeper and run that bit further or faster than I thought I could. I'm doing this for Stu and to say thank you. So when I come and chat to you about it, which I inevitably will, please listen and offer words of encouragement as they mean so much and really do keep me going!
The rest of the weekend holds more running (of course!). Another 14 miles tomorrow, which I am hoping will feel easier than last weekend's 14 miles, which was accompanied by an unforgiving coating of ice on all of the paths. This is the excuse I am using for why it felt so difficult anyway! I will therefore be going along the same route as last weekend in the hope that I can see and feel an improvement in more favourable weather conditions! Although if Storm Eric keeps doing his thing, then I'm not sure just how 'favourable' the conditions will actually be!
Wish me luck!
OR...
Head over to my JustGiving page and leave me some sponsorship and a message of support. It's been a while since I had a "Someone just donated!" email and I would love to see a few more coming in, small or large; they all make a massive difference to the lives of the people The Trust support.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fiona-kitchingman
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