S is for Sandhurst on a Sunny Spring day
It’s starting to feel a lot more like summer is on its way as I set out on my bike for the 40 minute ride to Sandhurst for the latest instalment of my Alphabet Challenge. This is the last weekend of April which is actually the first of three long weekends in May as the month starts on Monday. It was a bright morning, with pleasant temperatures.
My bike ride felt good — although that was probably down to having had it serviced this week, with a lot of new parts fitted to replace worn out chains, bearings and gears. I randomly met another cyclist en route, and we rode together for a couple of miles. It was one of those lovely moments of human connection — for my PR challenge for British Heart Foundation was his training for a ride from Edinburgh to Oxford this summer for a kidney charity.
I arrived at Memorial Park in Sandhurst in good time, and parked up in sight of the hi-viz heroes getting their volunteer instructions from RD Patrick.
This week’s roster of thanks goes to Sarah x2, Aditi, Kay, David, Lysanne, Jodie, Rachel, Sam, Roger, Angus, Andy, Andrew, Sue, Grant, Emma, Bhavini, Peter, Maisy, Claire, Jonathan, Catriona, ably led by the aforementioned Patrick.
The letter S always was a target event for Louise’s sister Sara, and she was down from Cirencester staying with her Mum in Wokingham for the weekend. The sisters drove over together and were able to grab a parking spot in the main car park which was handy.
Emma did the first timers briefing, and it was immediately apparent that the tourist numbers today were swelled as Sandhurst Memorial parkrun event #97 was a prime number. This is another PR challenge you can do, to collect the set of event numbers that are prime i.e. a whole number greater than 1 that cannot be exactly divided by any whole number other than itself.
And helpfully for those where maths isn’t their strongest skill to immediately recognise that ninety-seven is prime, and that this week is that number for Sandhurst, there’s a PR app that lists all the venues and dates. But I think I’ll stick to the letters of the alphabet as that’s definitely easier to follow!
Waiting at the start I was standing next to a parkrunner where today was his 500th milestone. That’s a lot of running dedication, and by his own admission some PR obsession as this was his 272th different PR venue. That’s 2.7 Cowells, and 10 alphabets! And for the record he was a tourist from Nottingham visiting Farnborough for the weekend — and another moment of human connection to share his achievement.
In the weekly notices was confirmation of the ‘state’ of the course.
Sandhurst weaves in and around a series of lakes, using a short loop and a longer loop that you run twice. Each lap contains the famous Memorial Park water feature, which today was measured at a depth of 4 inches of standing water. Luckily I had seen the pre event instructions that had advised trail shoes, which was also handy as there was some muddy terrain to tackle crossing some fields. The seasonal weather might be improving, but today definitely ticked the box as multi-terrain.
The second notice was about one of lakes that had been drained due to an oil spill — presumably an unexpected discharge from a local business into the water streams that feed the lakes. Unfortunately this pollution had impacted the local swans where the lake is their home, and so the request was made to raise some money for the local charities who are helping to clean up the birds so that they can be returned to the local habitat. Please support the Swan Sanctuary or Swan Support to add to the £90 cash collected from Park Run participants today.
And bang on time at 9am we were off. The run was exactly as described, with a real mixture of hard and gravel surfaces, puddles and a section of sticky mud. Not a day for PBs, so to complete the course in 24 and a half minutes in position 25 (third in age group) was absolutely fine. And, with some experience of cross country, I loved the water feature — high knee repetitions were the order of the day — and the off road sections. My seven year old self made me go straight through the middle of every hazard!
I waited at the finish for Louise and Sara to complete the course, grabbing some photos of them on the finishing straight.
And being a proper tourist, Sara had taken some wonderful shots of the water feature that makes the most amazing collage.
This is the view as you enter the waterlogged section, one submerged foot at a time. Epic!
And for today’s roll call — out of 136 participants — of people whose name starts with the letter S, the gold medal goes to the four Sara / Sarah’s; the silver medal is shared by the three Simon’s and the three Steve / Steven / Stephen, with the bronze medal to the two ladies Sam / Samantha. Also not forgetting the one Stefan, Shylan and Suky.
The cycle ride home was uneventful. I returned via Crowthorne — passing by the bike shop that had serviced my bike — enjoying the feeling of seasonal warmth that is beginning to come through.
So thank you to the team at Sandhurst for a great event. And a big shout out to all of the others S’s.
It also stands for Sponsorship — whether that’s my charity support to British Heart Foundation in memory of my father-in-law Ken, or the Swans (that also need your support) plus the welcome guest appearance today by Spring Sunshine.
Enjoy the Bank Holiday long weekend folks!
