G is for Guildford and an award nominated event director called michele Glassup
My second November parkrun took me over to Guildford parkrun, which is a very popular event in the leafy Surrey suburbs. This was their event #450, which must make it one of longest duration venues in the parkrun schedule.
It takes place in Stoke Park, with plenty of parking just over the road at the Guildford Park and Ride. As it was out of range for an early morning cycle — 22 miles away would have a meant leaving home in the dark — I took the car instead arriving in good time, 30 minutes prior to the start.
The weather was a typical autumnal day — cloudy and chilly — but thankfully dry and frost free. It’s a two lap event around the perimeter of the park on a combination of grass and pathways. Given the amount of rain we have had lately, there was definitely some mud underfoot, so once again trail shoes were the best option.
We started at the top end of the park and the runners were able to spread out, probably 50 abreast, as we jogged off down the hill. The event is very well supported by the hi-viz hero volunteers, and it was a nice touch the Run Director called them all out by name over the PA as part of her welcoming address. This event also had pacers, and so I made sure to keep the number 24 blue vest in my eye line throughout.
This week was also the first time I was able to run in my new fund raising uniform, a very smart — and highly visible — red British Heart Foundation top.
This should hopefully make me stand out from the crowd at ParkRun events, so don’t forget that you can sponsor me. The top is also a cycling jersey, which means it has a number of useful pockets that will come in handy when doing longer events that a 5k run on a Saturday morning.
Anyway, back to the event, and by the end of the first lap I knew the pacer was doing his stuff, as a volunteer called out “11m 45s” as we passed through. The other advantage of a two lap identical course is that, for first timers, you now know what’s in front of you for the second tour of the park.
As the pack had started to thin out by now, I also started to notice who was around me. And just like the previous event at Frimley, there was a very speedy parent-child combination. This time it was a Dad with his 10 year son Peter. As we made our way around what in summer is the cricket pitch, the pacer started to ease off and let runners by. I finished just in front of Peter, and the pacing was so precise that my finish time was 23m 55, five seconds under the target. Overall I was 85th finisher (out of a field of 360) and third in my age group. I’ll take that!
And looking at the results then it was clearly a day for juniors to shine, as position #1 was a sixteen year old Daniel, who was over 70 seconds ahead of the field finishing in 17m 39 — Britain’s Got Junior Talent for sure.
And my other ‘G’ is an inspiring lady called Michele Glassup, who is the ParkRun Event Director at Feltham Young Offender Institute in West London, seeking to reduce reoffending and rehabilitate ex-offenders through sport. She was nominated in the 2022 This Girl Can Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year by setting up the event in the prison three years ago. In her application, Michele has said of her sessions: “If success was measured in smiles, we’d smash it every week.”
When I read about the awards ceremony — by following a tweet this week from ParkRun COO Tom Williams — this resonated with me from a charity event I did five years ago: the Lands End to John O’Groats cycling challenge.
On a chilly February night, I vividly remember attending a Q&A evening put on by the event organisers, at the London offices of the Princes Trust. I met one of their ambassadors Aaron and heard first hand of the amazing work that they do to help young people — who have fallen on hard times — to turn their lives around. It was truly inspiring and meant that my Ride Across Britain had found its true purpose, to fund raise for that cause. Through the power of digital blogging, you can read more about that adventure.
But going back to Michele’s recognition, the juxta position of my event today in affluent Surrey with the wider movement to bring ParkRun to prisons across the UK, just shows how diverse and inclusive our community is trying to become. Amazing to see it all in action!
