M is for Maidenhead — the Midway point
Letter thirteen marks the midway point in my Alphabet Challenge and the first Saturday in March took me to the Berkshire town of Maidenhead. As this is a local venue, I was able to cycle to and from the event.
The day dawned chilly, but frost free, and you can really start to notice how the daylight hours are extending as there was no requirement for lights when I set out from home. It was an uneventful 50 minute ride to the venue at Braywick Nature Reserve, just off the A4 on the outskirts of the town.
Just like our local council in Wokingham, there has been a recent upgrade of the Braywick leisure centre facilities, and having locked my bike up in the racks outside the main building, I followed the other participants and walked through the leisure centre boulevard that dissects the facilities. All very posh!
Emerging out the other end of the centre and past the sports courts, the hi-viz heroes were all congregated — getting their instructions for the day — meaning that I was in the right place. As a “tourist”, I joined the first timers briefing and was relieved to find that the furthest place that people had travelled was in fact outside the county of Berkshire — star prize going to the family from Capetown, South Africa who were regular parkrunners back home. We truly are part of a global movement.
The most memorable part of the day was the welcome briefing given by RD Kate. As I have commented in previous posts, I do like to find something new about the venues that I visit. Whilst it is an operational phenomenon that a team of volunteers can stage a pop-up event in a local outdoor park so consistently across over 2,000 locations at 9am every Saturday, there’s always something which is a personal touch.
And today was my first briefing that included poetry. Adapted from the AA Milne quote in the Winnie the Pooh stories “the wonderful things about Tiggers”, poet Kate replaced the friendly tiger with references to parkrunners. It was amusing, touching and captured the ethos of our community brilliantly. Well done and thank you for sharing your script:
Before I describe the run, I need to fill in on how injury very nearly ‘got in the way’ of my challenge. A moment of potential jeopardy, narrowly averted.
Last weekend I cycled on Saturday with my triathlon club TVT ahead of the Wokingham HM on the Sunday. Just before returning home I felt my lower back spasm, and even after a warm shower I could tell that I had restricted mobility. Spending a couple of hours in the car in the afternoon didn’t help to loosen things up, so I was unsure what to do.
On the Sunday morning I was up at first light and did a fitness test run of a couple of miles around the local green area — called a SANG which stands for ‘Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace’ and is part of local planning regulations when larger housing estates are built. They are popular with dog walkers and runners alike.
The good news was I could run without discomfort so decided, after breakfast, to do the HM. There was really no way I wanted to DNS given that my daughter Ana was also running, along with several team members from TVT.
The difficultly was always going to be if there was some skeletal misalignment as that can lead to leg muscle tensions, and having ‘cruised’ the first ten miles — feeling great — as I tried to up the pace in the latter stages I could feel my right calf tighten. I slowed the pace, managed the discomfort, and finished without issue, well inside my target time of 1h 50.
But that left me with an underlying injury that needed treating, and I was very fortunate to get a chiropractor appointment on the Monday evening, where I was clicked back into alignment. After a few days of stretching and letting things settle, I had a gym class on Friday that proved to myself that all was sorted.
But standing on the start line at Maidenhead, this was my first run of the week and so again I just needed affirmation that all was okay. I started steadily on what was a two-lap clockwise loop around the nature reserve. Apart from the start/finish straight across the grass, all was on paths and the decision on running shoes — rather than trail shoes — was the right decision, given how dry the past month has been.
At the far end of the loop was a very friendly marshal, who even had his own sign. It read “Malcolms Corner”. How cool is that to have a part of the course named after you — that guy must be a true legend.
After the second climb of ‘the hill’ — that had it’s own sign as well — the finish funnel appeared in view as I watched a young female athlete (in black) chase down another female runner (in red) in the final few metres. I know park run is a “run” not a “race”, but I do like to see the competitive spirit come out to play!
I crossed the line in position 46, second in age group, in a remarkably consistent time of almost bang on 24 minutes. And thankfully, confirmed as injury free.
As I travel to each venue, I’m always on the lookout for what the word association will be for that letter that I can use in the blog. As I was pedalling back home, I thought that “Malcom from Maidenhead” had a certain ring to it, so I decided to check the results — 339 participants today plus 26 volunteers — and see how many first names start with the letter M.
And the social history lesson for today is:
• Top spot goes to 8 x Mark
• Tied in second are 5 x Matt/Matthew and Mike/Michael
• And bronze goes to 3 x Michelle and Martin
• With a roll call to 1 x Mairead, Mochi, Melanie, Molly, Mariia, Marta, Max, Monty, Margaret, Mila, Mia, Mariette, Malcolm, Megan and Mary
Well done all — Maidenhead you didn’t disappoint.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, then I should just let know that my alphabet challenge is also raining money for charity — British Heart Foundation — and any donations would be welcomed. I may be half way through the running aspect of the challenge, but I have some catching up to do with the fundraising.
