West Midlands parkrunathon

8 parkruns

George Nicholson

Each year for the Great North Run I try to think of some new and different ways to boost my fundraising. Based on Paul Smith’s idea of running several parkruns in one day I opted to run 8 of the West Midlands parkrun courses on August 10th. My chosen Charity ACORNS have 3 Hospices in that area – Selly Oak nr Redditch, Worcester, and Walsall. It was also their 25th Anniversary. So with a quarter-mile warm up and then 8 x 5k ( 3.1 mile ) separate runs, 25 miles for 25 years took on much significance and would be an obtainable target for me.

George's Tour of the West Midlands ... well done, mate!

With the help of Jane Niven ( Sunderland parkrun’s Event Director ) I was able to make contact with these 8 parkruns, get them to spread awareness and ask if some of their regular runners would run with me on their respective courses.

Julian Hart, my Son-in-Law, who lives near Dudley, and is a member of the Cobra Running Club, also spread the word. I was also extremely grateful to Phil Owen who contacted his network of friends on FETCH. Further help was provided by a couple of my 2012 Torchbearing Friends who lived locally – Tony Worth and Anne Barnes. ACORNS are very well known in the Birmingham area so their assistance in promotion was also invaluable.

The Timetable was set and at each venue and I was greeted by sizeable groups of runners and supporters. The warmth of the reception Anne and I received was truly remarkable. Not only was it a very emotional day, but a productive one too. Their generosity, as well as Striders’ , has been wonderful and I currently have approx £900 in my fund so far, and there is still 4 weeks to go before the main event – the 2013 GNR J

As regards to the runs ? Well the pictures ‘Tell the Story’. All lovely parks to run in and lots of happy smiley faces around me. I started at 7:00 am at Leamington, then Bananaman made his appearance in front of the assembled 295 Coventry runners – the only official 9:00 am parkrun of the day. Brueton Park, Arrow Valley, Worcester, and Wolverhampton all started bang on time and we kept close to the 30 mins run time. Walsall also started on time at 5:30 pm. This is a 3 lap course but the hill at the end of each lap began to take it’s toll as I could feel the tiredness creep in. Run time here dropped to 32 mins. Traffic was horrendous getting into Central Birmingham and this was the only time we were late, arriving at Cannon Hill park about 7:15 pm.

By the end of their 2nd lap the nightmares of my VLM 2011 were looking a very real possibility. Cramp and sickness were coming to me a lot quicker than the finish line. The pace dropped dramatically, but I never stopped to walk, and failure was never going to be on the agenda with the 7 running buddies alongside constantly urging me on with their words of encouragement. We turned the last corner and at long last the finish line with another dozen so supporters turning out to cheer me home, came into sight. How could I possibly fail? 8:00 pm by then, a long 13+ hour tiring day, but a Magic One. One with many new friends made and 25 miles run in a total time of 4 hours 08 mins 30 secs , plus a lot of money raised for a wonderful charity – Job Done ! J

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