Parkrun 2023

It is the end of 2023 and many bloggers will be writing a recap of the year. For me and my wife it has been a funny year where we haven’t done as much as we would have liked, for a variety of reasons. However, one thing I have done almost every week is parkrun.

I ran a total of 47 parkruns in 2023. Just shy of the magical 50 mark. I missed two in January due to Covid, one in February due to ice cancelling the local runs, one in July when we picked up our new puppy, another in July due to injury, one in August as I was racing, and another in December due to ice.

I ran 14 different parkruns, with 11 new ones. As expected, my most popular run was Lancaster with 28, followed by Morecambe on 7. The 11 new events were Stretford, Crosby, Fulham, Philips, Myrtle, Heaton, Agnew, Letchworth, Croxteth, Monsal and Woodhouse Moor.

Over he course of the year, my overall position in number of parkruns completed has gone from 61791th up to 46553rd. As expected, the number of positions I move up with each run slows.

I have downloaded the 5km App, which gives me another set of stats to look at along with the Chrome extension – Running Challenges.

The Record Breakers challenge changed from 32 out of a possible 88 parkruns, to 39 out of 91. I increased my Wilson Index from 2 to 6, and my floating Wilson Index from 6 to 13.

In the UK the number of parkruns increased from 751 up to 789, while in the World it went from 1879 up to 2017. There were almost 100 parkruns in Russia, which were removed/halted back in April 2022.

With the number of participants increasing every year, parkrun obviously hasn’t reached its peak yet, which is great news.

Woodhouse Moor Parkrun

Two weeks ago me and my lovely wife, Helen, were in Glasgow to see Geddy Lee. (Read about it here). While Helen returned to Lancaster, I changed trains at Carlisle and took the scenic route to Leeds, up and over Ribblehead Viaduct. I was attending a work Christmas party, where we went to Tattu, a very fancy Chinese restaurant. The food was amazing and it was great to meet so many of the other people who work with me. The company is small and doesn’t have an office so I work from home every day.

Anyway, when the boss took everyone to a pub after the meal, I had one drink before heading back to my hotel. Third Premier Inn in ten days.

The following morning, with a slightly sore head, I slowly jogged to Woodhouse Moor Park. There are a number of parkruns around Leeds, but this was the one closest to my hotel. It was also the first parkrun outside of London, and it was their 783rd event. Quite impressive.

The course is three laps, with a small hill. The paths are quite narrow, so if you want a quick time, make sure you start close to the front. The whole event was friendly and fun, much like every parkrun. It was also busy, with 470 finishers. I crossed the line in 98th place in a time of 23:18. I was happy with that. I then slowly jogged back to the hotel, had a shower and jumped on a train to return to Lancaster.

Glasgow with Geddy Lee

My lovely wife, Helen, is a massive Rush fan and has been since she was young. Many of the bands that Helen likes to listen to were influenced by her older brother’s taste. However, neither her brother or sister particularly liked Rush, making the band her own.

When Helen found out that Geddy Lee, the singer and bass player from the band, had written a book and was performing a book reading tour, she immediately bought tickets. Rush were one of those bands that passed me by, and I remember that all I owned was the single Tom Sawyer. Admittedly, it is a very good song. Anyway, we were off to Glasgow a week after we’d been to Edinburgh to see The Darkness. (Read about it here).

We arrived in the city with plenty of time for a walk around. It was very busy with Christmas just around the corner. There was a big wheel, exactly the same as one that was in Lancaster. We didn’t go on as we weren’t sure how much time we had. Pizza and a beer was devoured in a busy restaurant, and then it was time to amble to the venue.

The Geddy Lee event was at the Royal Concert Hall, next to our hotel. We grabbed a beer and found our seats, which wasn’t easy as the tickets seemed to be numbered differently to how the venue was set out. We were in the stalls with a great view of the stage.

The event was in two parts, with a mock interview in the first half and an audience Q & A in the secind half, with each half bookended with Geddy reading a couple of passages from his book. Each event had a different interviewee. Glasgow was fortunate enough to have Phil Jupitus as the host, who was engaging and funny, putting Geddy at ease.

The Q & A was conducted by Phil Wilding, who used to be the producer on the 6 Music breakfast show hosted by the other Phil. There were some very good questions.

I have to say that the whole show was fantastic. Despite not being a fan, I really enjoyed it. The tickets also included a copy of the book, which I haven’t started to read yet, but I definitely will.

The following day we had a short walk around the city before jumping on a train home. Although I changed trains at Carlisle as I had a work Christmas party in Leeds, which is a whole other story.

The Drift by C. J. Tudor

I didn’t read the blurb on the back of the book in enough detail when I purchased this, which meant that I was a little confused when I started to read it. I had assumed that there was a murderer in among a group of people staying in a snowed in ski lodge. This was partly true. In fact, there are three stories, all with a murderer in their midst.

One group is at The Retreat, which is the snowed in ski lodge. Another group consists of the survivors of a coach crash who were on their way to The Retreat, and the final group are stuck on a ski lift, again, on their way to The Retreat.

This isn’t a simple whodunnit, especially with the three separate stories which don’t immediately appear to be linked. On top of the random murders, the whole world seems t have been impacted by a deadly virus. Not quite like Covid, as the victims end up almost like zombies, some of whom are violent.

I loved this book, although there were a couple of times when the plot fell apart a little. The motivation behind the actions of one or two characters isn’t fully developed. However, I gave the book four stars. I would have like to have given it four and a half. I will definitely be looking out for other books written by C. J. Tudor.

Spoilers

Don’t read beyond here if you’ve not read this excellent book.

The three stories are linked together, as there is one person in all three. While the book pretends that these stories are running at the same time, they are actually set many years apart. It s never explained why some of the murders at The Retreat occured, or why Nate was killed. Was it just for fun, in which case why hadn’t the murders happened far earlier? Also, what was Meg’s motivation? How did she go from nihilistic and suicidal to her former life as a cop?

Minor quibbles. The Drift was a very good thriller stroke horror novel.

Edinburgh

Me and my lovely wife, Helen, have just returned from a short break in the amazing Scottish city of Edinburgh. We arrived on the Monday afternoon, found our hotel and headed out for a short walk up and down the famous Edinburgh mile. We were both still feeling the effects of a bad cold and as it had started to rain we bought a couple of salads from Tesco and a couple of beers to take away from the Brew Dog pub conveniently located adjacent to our hotel.

The following morning, after a good night’s sleep and a sadly disappointing hotel breakfast, we headed off for a walk. Our first stop was at the Scottish Parliament Building, which looks interesting. However, over the road is the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is stunning.

It was too early to be open, but Holyrood Park across the road never closes. We followed the signs and the dozen’s of other tourists and made our way up to the top of Arthur’s Seat.

The weather was cold and cloudy, but it wasn’t too bad considering that it was early December. The views of the city were amazing, and never look as good in a photo.

Arthur’s Seat is the highest point in the park and was originally an ancient volcano, sitting 251m above sea level.

Back in the city we ambled about. For a Tuesday the city was busy. I imagine that it would be uncomfortably busy at weekends. We found a quiet cafe for a coffee, which was far superior to the coffee I had at breakfast.

We returned to our hotel and had a bit of a rest, before eating and drinking at the Brew Dog. We then caught a train to Slateford for the main reason of our trip. Helen had purchased two tickets to see The Darkness. They were brilliant.

It was 20 years since the release of their debut album – Permission to Land – so they performed every song from it. Justin, the lead singer, was on good form, railing against people using their phones as well as encouraging everyone to bounce! Definitely one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

The final morning we gave the hotel breakfast a miss, finding somewhere pleasant just off the mile. With a little time before our train we decided to walk down the famous Scotsman Steps, a flight of 100 steps that formed a turreted ‘gateway’ between the old town and the new town.

They were built in 1900 during the construction of the building housing The Scotsman newspaper, which became The Scotsman Hotel in 2001. The steps were built in a French style as a spiral staircase within an enclosed octagonal tower; the tower was decorated with wrought iron grilles and glazed tiles in the interior.

The 104 steps form a pedestrian link between the North Bridge and Waverley Station. The construction of the Scotsman building at the turn of the 20th century was part of a regeneration of the surrounding North Bridge area.

However, the steps fell into disrepair and became plagued by vandalism and antisocial behaviour. In 2010 they were revamped, with each step being covered in a different type of marble, with every major marble quarry in the world represented. The steps should be one of the most iconic features in the city, but they were dirty, covered in graffiti with rubbish strewn all over the place. It seems such a shame that either the city or the hotel can’t find the time or the money to keep them looking special.

Anyway, it was a brilliant and much needed short little break.

Wordle – Day 678

I’m still addicted to playing Wordle every day. This morning I was struggling, as I often am, and I tried a word that I was sure wouldn’t be a word.

NOUNY

Apparently, “nouny” is a real word. As expected it means a word which is like a noun. The only word like a noun I can think of is nouny.