Sadly my brother and his family are moving back to Dubai. In a trip home to say “bon voyage” I managed to slip in a bit of parkrun tourism at the Rosliston Forestry Centre.

It has been a while since I have run a parkrun “fresh”. I normally do it after a BMF session, so I was excited to see where I was with my training.

This was the 25th event at Rosliston and around 150 runners turned out. The race director provided me with a very thorough brief on the course, which was useful as it  turned out to be a tricky one!

As I walked down the hill to the start that I was due to run up again a few minutes later, I mentioned the dramatic start to a fellow runner and she said “it’s tough, don’t get too down if your time is a little slower”

The course was different to what I am used to at Bushy Park with its flat, circular course. Here, there were hills, U turns and switchbacks, but the setting was scenic and picturesque.

Being new to the course, I knew it would be difficult to gauge my effort. I went off in my usual quick manner, and nearly regretted it when I hit a long hill in the middle. Through the middle, I kept pushing and picked a few people off over the last km and drove up the switch backs as I sprinted upto and across the line.

I had come 17th and 2nd in my age category! This is very different to the normal 250th placing! I also PB’d by 3 seconds, taking my parkrun PB to 22:12.

Very chuffed with my run. I felt strong, on a tough course and it shows the training is going well with 3 weeks to go to the Ealing Half Marathon.

It’s really interesting to try a different parkrun and see how they are done elsewhere. The race was very friendly with the finishers clapping in the other runners behind them. A nice touch.