Saturday 12th January 2019
parkrun #53 – Congleton parkrun
Time: 22:18
Tourism event #22
On Friday evening I was in the strange position of not having decided which parkrun to do in the morning. I normally have some sort of an idea at least five days in advance, but since I’ve knocked off nearly all of the parkruns that are relatively close to home I’m having to decide which ones further out I want to do.
On the spur of the minute I went for Congleton. This is the second furthest south in the North West region after Crewe.
Congleton parkrun is three laps on gravel and tarmac paths round the outside of Astbury Mere. Parking is 50p for four hours, although I put £1 in without seeing the ‘no change given’ sign…! There’s a visitor centre, toilets, and a very small cafe.
I used to have earphones in so I could listen to Strava updates on my phone giving me distance run every half kilometer, total time, and split pace. I left the earphones at home this morning so recorded the run on my watch instead. I was interested to see how my pace would be affected by not getting updates every half km. In the end I ran a second faster than the hilly Ormskirk last week, which leads me to think I was running slower than normal. I’d like to re-run this course with earphones.
Congleton parkrun also has pacers from a local athletics club once a month so I might come back and see if I can get a PB while trying to keep up with the 20 minute pacer (or 21 minute pacer if they have one).
My first time wearing a cow cowl!
