Princes Parkrun, Liverpool... 2 Race Reports over 2 weeks
On Saturday 24th November I decided to run
Princes Parkrun in Liverpool. The weather
was bitterly cold, the ground was
covered in frost and whilst I was making my way to the start, was doubting whether
the event would go ahead. My doubts were raised more as I entered the park and
slipped several times due to the ice, which unknown at the time, actually
turned out to be the runs closing straight.
Surely enough, with the volunteer’s words of caution, the
run did go ahead and 122 runners completed the frosty 5k route. The run starts
in the middle of the park before going anti-clockwise for two and a half laps
of the parks loop path before returning and ending again, in the middle of the
park. I almost slipped on one of the first corners, but the ground held its own
and I had no other issues, nor did I thankfully hear of any injuries after
speaking with other runners after the event. The temperature actually seemed to
warm up quite quickly, and conveniently for the runners seemed to do so shortly
after the start of the run.
Parking is no problem at all and as the race starts in the
middle of the park. The atmosphere, as with every parkrun I’ve completed or
heard about, is very friendly. I’ve been told the nearby Sefton, Otterspool and
Caulderstones parks are more picturesque, but the run does pass a small lake. I’ve
heard the fewer dog walkers and tourists at Princes than the other nearby parks
were the reasons for its location, which definitely weren’t an issue at Princes
during the run. It’s not flat, but Princes is certainly not as undulating as the
Hanley parkrun. I’d like to think it was due the frost (and partly due to my
hangover) that I finished in a time of 21:33; a more positive spin is that I finished
27th out of 122. This was certainly more about enjoying the run
though (and staying injury free) than the time though and it was indeed, a very
enjoyable run. Would I do it again?... Well, I actually did it the following
week too and persuaded our very own club chairman, Michael Escolme, to join me.
I met Michael before the start. As usual, we were both
coming out with reasons for our pre-empted poor performance and excuses if the
other one wins. I had my usual and exaggerated Saturday morning hangover excuse
and Michael had apparently consumed his bodyweight in chips at our quiz night
the evening before. The ground was not icy this week and there seemed to be a
few less runners. I managed to finish in 11th out of 99 in a time of
21:07. Michael finished not far behind in 23rd in a time of 22:23.
We also had a quick chat with Vicky Unsworth, winner of the Crewe Déjà vu, who
runs this as her local run; it was a pleasant change to not have her powering
past me twenty odd times on this run as she had done a few weeks ago. We had a
coffee at Otterspool Cafe after where the sausage butties were self proclaimed
to be “the best in Liverpool” (I’d have to agree they were pretty good) and we
could have a chat with some of the other runners.
Thanks to Karen Schofield for the pics.
For more information visit the Princes Parkrun website.
Paul Barnett
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