It was a boys night away. Me and Gordon jumped into the campervan and headed east towards Otley. It was the first time that I had been away in the van without my lovely wife, Helen. We stayed in a perfectly adequate campsite with electric hookup. The campsite was small and mostly filled with D of E tents. I took Gordon for a couple of walks, cooked tea and settled down with my Kindle, before climbing into the top to sleep. naturally, without Helen, I couldn’t sleep. Helen was back home having a Baby Reindeer festival!
I made myself a brew at about 5 am and then took Gordon for another walk. A little later we packed up and headed to Chevin Forest, the main reason for staying near Otley. The parkrun website suggests parking a 20 minute walk away from the start. There were a couple of other people also walking/running towards the parkrun, although it did appear that most people had parked in the car park closest to the start.
The run briefing and start was delayed as the lively woman conducting the newcomers talk wanted to know exactly where everyone had come from, which did take a while as there were a lot of tourists. What I took from the briefing was that the route was two laps with a steep hill and the potential for it to be muddy.
There were also a few other dogs lining up at the start, one of whom was incredibly vocal. Gordon doesn’t bark or fuss too much while we were waiting. Unfortunately, when we did get underway, Gordon was a pest. He doesn’t like the lead which prevents him from pulling and he tried to remove it almost constantly. On top of that, the hill at the start was a beast.
Slowly we overtook a few people and gradually Gordon realised that simply running beside me was much more pleasant. The second lap was much better than the first.
We finished in a respectable 43rd position out of 98, and considering that this was only Gordon’s second parkrun away from Morecambe, he did very well. Everything is exciting for a one-year-old pointer.
I have to say, that like the previous week’s parkrun in Muncaster (read about it here), Chevin Forest was one of the best and friendliest parkruns that I have ever done. Maybe its all about the smaller parkruns.
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