Coburg parkrun event #517

This morning I was one of the 283 finishers at Coburg parkrun event #517, and K was one of the 14 volunteers.

From last weekend’s post and the previous weekend’s post, it may seem that I only go to parkrun to participate in challenges, but one of the biggest influences as to where I’ll parkrun is where my friends are going. And this was the case today as a bunch of friends, including one from overseas, were headed to my home event at Coburg parkrun. This meant that I could sleep in and cycle to parkrun.

It was great to be back at our home event and to see folks I’d not seen in a while. The plantar fasciitis that has been plaguing me for the last couple of months seems to have largely subsided, so I was able to run quite comfortably with my friend from overseas for about 4 km, laughing and joking all the way. At the base of the hill, 4 km into the course, I ran out of fitness and slowed to a walk.

At this point I got chatting with the parkrunner who’d been behind me and who was also walking the hill. There’s something about the parkrun environment that makes this introvert very chatty, which meant that my new friend and I had crested the hill and were running together towards the finish in what seemed like no time at all.

It was the fastest time that I had clocked on that course since 2024!

I’ll be back at Coburg parkrun in a couple of weeks as timekeeper for the eleventh anniversary. Perhaps I’ll see you there.