A is for Avondale, Australia and Anna
I landed in Sydney on the last day of August, and hired a car to drive a couple of hours up the coast to visit my Dad. The season was just turning from winter to spring and — unlike the UK — this year in NSW has been the wettest on record. I had left behind a parched brown landscape and arrived in a verdant green one!
The Friday night the weather forecast was dire — low pressure and storms were approaching — with what turned out be be 40mm of rain in the Lake Macquarie area on the day of parkrun. Jet lag meant nights of broken sleep, and I vividly remember lying awake at 3am listening to the wind and rain hammering down. Was the Avondale University parkrun going to be abandoned on the one and only day that I was available?
The day dawned without much let up in the weather, so I really wasn’t confident as I made the short drive to the venue. I parked up and with some relief saw the parkrun branded flags and hi-vis marshal jackets in the distance. We were on.
On a normal event at Dinton Pastures we get between 200–300 participants and the Avondale website suggested 50–60 was a normal turnout. Well the weather had certainly acted as deterrent, and I counted 11 of us plus a dog lined up on the start line. The course was originally marked as a single loop around the campus grounds, but heavy rain in July had washed away a bridge crossing the Dora Creek that bisects the grounds, causing some amendments to be made. We started running with me tracking the leader — good job really as I had no orientation of where we were going. Then the guy in front started to slow, and I was on his shoulder. A quick exchange with the marshal and I was told to “follow the cones” as I slipped into the lead.
The revised course was an out and back along a soggy trail, and then a separate loop avoiding the river crossing. The saturated course resembled a UK winter’s cross country as I splashed through the puddles. And then I realised it had been about a mile since I had seen any cones, and my mind starting wondering if I had led everyone astray. Imagine the headlines — UK runner leads locals into the rainy Australian bush!
Fortunately at the next turn point the cones reappeared and the finish came into sight. I glanced behind and realised I had a good enough lead that despite the best efforts of the second placed runner, I wasn’t going to be caught. Now there are no “winners” at parkrun, you just get a position finish. So the letter A in my parkrun Alphabet Challenge was the never to be repeated position one overall and position one in age group. The latter could be something that I aspire to achieve again in the future, but as for leading the field home in the UK — no way!
Fast forward one week and I was back in the UK with a running diversion to my parkrun challenge — and that was support my daughter Anna. Some six months earlier she had texted me to say could we go for a run, and wondering what the catalyst was, I found out that she had a charity place for Cancer Research at the London Marathon in October. So on my return from Australia, her training plan called for a 21 mile long run.
It has been a fascinating year for me observing how she has been tackling the training aspects of her first marathon. She started from a position of being gym fit — strong and lean — and had found a 16 week training plan that meant that ‘proper’ training only needed to start in June. Now I figured out that if she could complete a spring half marathon in advance that would set her up nicely for the challenges ahead.
So we entered a series of races together culminating in the Bracknell Half Marathon in May. What a great day that was — Anna cruised off into the distance within the first couple of miles, I managed to catch her just after half way which was just the spur she needed to up her pace for the second half. For the first time she had beaten her Dad, taking 6 mins off her PB. Amazing result, and one that meant that the metaphorical marathon batten was passed from father to daughter.
Getting back to September, and her long runs worked out better for Anna if she had company. Her husband Mark is also doing London — but is likely to be 30–45 slower than her — so that’s fine for a long slow run, but she wanted more for the 21 mile training ‘biggie’. She planned three times around a seven mile loop on local roads and cajoled some running girlfriends to join her for up to a lap each. I was marked down for lap two and in total joined her for 12 miles door-to-door.
The other point that has been impressive is the way that Anna has tackled the fund raising aspects of having a charity place for London. She’s supporting Cancer Research which is a cause very relevant for our family, and as I know from first hand experience it can be like having a second job. She works in a local school, arranged several events through her network which were so effective that by the time school broke up in the summer she had nailed the £2k target.
As the event is getting closer, she is now into doing a last minute push to collect some additional funds. It’s not too late to sponsor her at https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/annas-london-marathon-2
Great achievement!
