After the last two weeks of Olympic action and the fantastic success of Team GB this had an immediate impact on parkruns up and down the country. Our road from Rio lead to Lee on the Solent along with 364 others. Club runners, unattached runners, parkrun tourists and most importantly “first timers” all assembled on the promenade by the waters of the Solent. The Olympic enthusiasm was clear to see what with union jacks and various groups of people chatting away excitedly. The humidity may well have reduced peoples chances of pb’s but today was all about simply attending and soaking up the atmosphere.

As ever the marshals did a fantastic job so it’s hats off to Rebecca and her team. Parkrun marshals are always top of the medal table. I have chatted to Rebecca on twitter but we hadn’t met in person. Her passion for the event and humour were clear to see from the briefing that she gave before we all set off. Pacers were introduced and as the 3-2-1 “Go” was announced you really felt part of the Olympic legacy. GB balloons, boards and the red, white and blue colours were much in evidence. Balloon lady Louise from Fareham Crusaders was one of the many volunteers. Thanks guys.

 

I recognised a number of runners, Andy, Dave & Phil from Stubbington Green, Nick from Absolute Running, Linda and Richard from work and then Auz along with numerous Gosport RR’s & Jez along with lots of Fareham Crusaders. The route is out and back along the waters edge either side of the amusements. There was hardly any breeze coming off sea and this combined with the 22 degrees and rising temperature meant we all worked hard for our times. Some people, like Jez, had already run to the start as well !!

The nature of the course is great for “name checking” people so I shouted out encouragement to a variety of people as well as thanking the marshals. The first 3 runners were well clear and all pb’d at around the 18 minute mark. I was happy with 113th and 25 1/2 minutes at this stage of the year. I’d been trying to catch Hattie that I know and just managed it in the last 200m but when she said she’d run a pb I felt much better 🙂

With so many people it’s hard to name check too many in this blog but it was great to see Ian and Kirsty Edwards with little Ava who Ian was pushing in a “go faster” pram and still ran 21 minutes !! So it’s goodbye Rio and we all look forward to Tokyo. Three cheers for the National Lottery, all our superstar medallists and everyone that ran today.

Together #WeWereTeamGB by the sea !!