‘There’s Penshaw Monument!’

Parkrun

When I first looked at parkruns up north, there was a choice of two: Silksworth or Riverside. I settled on Riverside as my northern go-to parkrun, even though the car park costs 80p: no hills!

I never looked at parkrun locations again until relatively recently, when I discovered there was one in Herrington Country Park. I investigated: there were hills, but parking was free. And there was one huge benefit: you could see Penshaw Monument from the park. I would give it a go.

It was really friendly, even more so than the Riverside one.

This lovely family took me under their collective wing. One of their little girls made me a little ‘knitted grass’ thing (a blade of grass with a knot in it; see extra). The three kids were full of beans before, during and after the run. They all finished ahead of me.

I chatted to a woman for a while, but I felt she was going too slowly for me, so I sped up until I caught up to a woman pushing her grandson in a three-wheeler pushchair. She was doing a pace that was maybe a little bit fast for me, but we got chatting and I stayed with her till right before the end.

She asked me at one point if she was slowing me down – I told her quite the opposite: she was keeping me going. If it hadn’t been for her, I might have slowed to a standstill going up the banks.

I finished in a better time than I’ve been finishing my usual flat parkrun in, much to my delighted surprise. (See extra.)

Birthday bash

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m up north for a birthday party.

I mainly giggled with my favourite little sister, drank gin, and heard my cousins’ latest theory on certain recent events.

There were lots of young people at the party. I remember when we were the youngest generation. Now, we just feel old.