Digested read: parkrun tourism took me to Conkers parkrun this morning. It was great, one of my favourite events to date!
Undigestible Unabridged Read: (also time vampire, recommend wine and comfy chair, read on at your own risk)
It’s been in the diary since last year this one. Me and Smiley Selfie Queen, co-ordinating our diaries and finding a mutual window for the 19th January 2019 months ago. Crazy really. I can’t even remember why we picked Conkers parkrun specifically, except it has a reputation for being lovely, it will help contribute to my pirate challenge (seven cees and an R as in aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarr) see what they’ve done there?
Did you know there were lots of women pirates as well by the way. Maybe not lots, but here are eight female pirates you should maybe know about if you want to excel in pub quizzes and feel a bit smug about your pc general knowledge too.
Conkers parkrun is sort of within range of Sheffield, by which I mean, it’s actually quite a long way, but doable in the interests of parkrun tourism. We are running out of nearer options that one or other of us hasn’t already done. I don’t mind the distance in terms of early departure as I have lost the ability to sleep entirely, but do mind in terms of what if it’s icy or still dark on departure. Plus there is all the inevitable angst about how long it will take to get there. Unknown territory. Oh well. It will be an adventure we thought. Me and Smiley Selfie Queen have form going on adventures together, it’ll be fine…. Conkers parkrun it would be.
Except, that the night before DISASTER, snow falling from the sky, messages popping up everywhere on Facebook pages for local parkruns basically doing the Facebook equivalent of sucking in air through your teeth and saying ‘looking doubtful’. Me and Smiley Selfie Queen independently contacted the Conkers team to check out the lie of the land their end. I was being confused about a note saying to everyone ‘remember we are starting at the Discovery Centre, not the usual Waterside’ and giving a new postcode so I had a momentary doubt about what to put in the satnav. She posted on their Facebook page for weather check. Well, dear reader, have to say, both of us got almost instantaneous and friendly responses. How impressive is that. The event team/ social media communications manager are on fire in terms of their reflexes. I learned that yep,
you will always get an answer. We are currently operating from a different car park but they are connected by a tunnel. If you are going to join us in the cafe use the 6GA one. Otherwise it doesn’t matter. It will be chilly here tomorrow but no rain expected. Safe journey from up north.
Roger x
and she learned that it might be nippy in the morning, but no snow or ice was expected:
How kind and awesome is Roger to soothe our worries last thing on a Friday night! (Rhetorical question, clearly very kind and awesome, and more of this later).
This was reassuring, but blinking out through a gap in the shutters the night before the morning after it wasn’t looking good. It might be the case that Kilian Jornet can skip up Mount Everest twice in a week with nothing but a 2 litre bottle of water ten energy gels and some mittens but I’m not venturing outside my house if it’s icy. I’m near the top of a seriously steep hill, it can’t be done. Kilean Jornet is clearly some sort of enchanted sprite that’s taken on mortal form. Dual ascent of Everest is taking hill reps a bit far in anyone’s training plan surely, even for an ultra?
Fretful that Sheffield weather might yet mean our target parkrun trip might not happen, I treated myself to a night nurse capsule to get some slumber and resigned myself to the hands of fate que sera sera as Doris Day would coin it. Isn’t she marvellous?
after all, you can’t risk death on the roads just in the name of parkrun tourism… actually though, I said that line out loud to my tourist buddy after the event in an ‘I’m glad the weather was OK as ultimately, can’t really justify going to a parkrun as an essential trip if it really was a white out‘ and she definitely hesitated and couldn’t bring herself to speak agreement out loud. What’s more, she may have a point… it’s so hard doing the right thing sometimes.
Anyways, woke up at stupid o-clock, peered out the window and …. hurrah! Although there was snow on my car, the road was clear, and closer investigation reassured me that the road was ice-free and snow could be just wooshed aside and we were on! As I said in a message to Smiley Selfie Queen pre 6.00 a.m. it is testament to her parkrun commitment that she replied immediately, can’t remember saying what exactly, but it was along the lines of ‘yay!’ So all good.
It was dark and cold though. Seriously dark. I was relieved that my satnav was operational, the weather was in our favour and off I chugged on empty roads until I was parked up outside my Smiley buddy’s house at stupid o-clock. The lights were on, so that was good. We left bang on our estimated departure time. For the record, left mine at 7.00 a.m. and hers at 7.15. It was an easy run, using the postcode DE12 6GA though the traffic was slooooooooooooooooow, and I was extra cautious. There had been an earlier quite nasty looking accident leading to speed restrictions on the M1 and I’m cautious anyway. Lots of other vehicles had proper snow coverings, so we got off quite lightly.
I didn’t get lost, but I did get confused at a couple of almost intersecting mini roundabouts almost on arrival. Weird layout. The only confusing thing, directionally, is that the Conkers Park, where the magic of parkrun happens (I know, a happy coincidence that the parkrun’s chosen name is the same as that of the actual park – what were the chances? (rhetorical again) – must be mahoosive, because there were loads of signs to the park pointing in different directions depending on which bit or activity you were heading off too. So if you are touristing, check out the map and satnav to avoid parking up the other end of it. It was easy to find though.
On arrival, just after 8.35 ish, we were greeted by an enormous car park with ample free parking. There was a huge centre with loos and you could spot the hi-vis heroes gathered together in an appropriately penguiny huddle (more of this later) at the far end of the car park. This boded well. I love a parkrun with easy access to facilities for a precautionary pee, and good parking if touristing. Top marks for Conkers parkrun and its host venue Conkers park for seriously ace facilities.
I say easy access, but actually, it wasn’t as easy as you might think. We made our way to the Discovery Centre, pausing for the obligatory location-based photo ops …
and then stood blinking with incomprehension outside the door to the centre. It had a sign on it saying ‘automatic doors’ but nothing happened. We kept trying to activate the trigger by walking towards it at different angles. Other parkrunners appeared behind us, and joined the non-plussed attempts to gain entry. I’m not sure who it was who had the bright idea of just pushing the door to get in. It opened inwards without resistance! That was embarrassing. Top tip for other visitors who might come in our wake. Just because it says ‘automatic’ on the outside, doesn’t mean you can’t get in by just opening the door in the old-fashioned manual way using a handle and a bit of shove inwards. Good to know. Humiliating it took us quite so long to work out!
Possibly even a bit more embarrassing that we then did a reconstruction of this incident in order to document it for this very blog post, causing a small queue of bewildered fellow parkrunners left wondering why it was exactly we needed to take a picture of one of us failing to get through a door. Sometimes though, I think a little mystery in life is a good thing, we didn’t take the time to explain ourselves. After all, the lovely other people were all fellow parkrunners, all signed up to the code to ‘respect everyone’s right to participate in their own way‘. Phew.
Once inside, I can report fabulous loos, lots of them. However, in the interests of transparency I must report that one unlucky occupant was caught unawares due to a malfunctioning lock – not by me but in an adjacent cubicle – so just a quick heads up to check you are properly secured before settling in for whatever business you require pre- run. Also, the doors in the Discovery Centre are hilariously tall. I felt like Alice in Wonderland mid-shrink. They tower over you. I thought this sufficiently odd that it required a photo to indicate scale. Having subsequently come to see just how tall the hi-vis hero doing the parkrun first timers’ briefing was, I wonder if the height is by way of being accommodating to all users. It’s a thought.
Smiley Selfie Queen doesn’t always stand like that, by the way, her pose was on account of the Penguin Challenge… She’d come tooled up for business.
So, about the penguins then. Long story short, my Smiley Paces running club is once again doing a Smiletastic challenge, splitting members into teams to take on various running activities and challenges to help motivate them to get out and run during the long dark winter months. This year the teams are walruses, seals, penguins and reindeer. I’m not taking part this year, but lots of my running buddies wisely are. This week’s challenge, is to do something to mark Penguin Awareness Day, which is actually tomorrow (at time of writing) 20th January 2019.
Hence my buddy, who is a seal (not an actual seal, but in team seal obvs) was on a quest to do something running related that would help raise necessary awareness of the plight of penguins. Clearly, once alerted to this great cause, I was on board to help as best I could. Hence we had along with us penguin companions as emotional support animals, and a mission to raise awareness as best we could to all and any present by whatever legal means we could. First off though, we needed to carb up. You can’t take on a mission like this without a bit of pre-run sustenance, so we’d p.. p… p… picked up some penguin biscuits to fortify us for the adventures ahead:
We had ample time to faff about and wonder what to wear, and then dumped unneeded stuff back in the car before heading to the hi-vis cluster. This was a busy parkrun. A very busy parkrun. A very, very busy parkrun. But you know what, it managed to be incredibly user-friendly and welcoming as well, which is no mean feat.
We made our way to the hi-vis mob, where there was a welcome sign for new parkrunners from various GP surgeries- there has been a recent drive to get new parkrun/walkers along and I think today was their launch. It’s a practice parkrun initiative, of which Conkers parkrun is apparently one. This doesn’t mean you have to practice before you can go there or indeed any other parkrun au contraire, it means GP practices in the area are proactively trying to get their staff and patients to come along and give it a go. Splendid! Lots of smiley faces too. Also splendid. I do like a well-judged emoticon.
There was a token table set out in anticipation of finishing runners handing back hundreds of tokens. Although, actually it may have been an unofficial swingers system or some sort of roulette/ bingo system, as at intervals people had left keys on certain numbers. Sometimes best not to ask. Good system though. For sorting tokens I mean, not for arranging swingers parties. They also are in possession of a yellow wheelie bin, the existence of such a thing of which I was previously unaware, and an item which now I covet. Shallow, but true. Also, I know in my heart of hearts it wouldn’t make me happy even if I got one, it would just be the gateway acquisition that made me long for ever more ostentatious waste disposal/ storage solutions. It is pretty cool though isn’t it? It didn’t give me quite the elevated heart rate I experience on entering a really fine stationery shop, but I had a momentary flutter I must concede. No defibrillator needed on this occasion, but lucky they have one thereabouts if they are going to shamelessly flaunt their yellow bin every week
We weren’t quite sure at what point to enlist others in the penguin awareness raising challenge. We went to the first timers briefing, which was helpful welcome and course description. It was organised so after that bit for tourists, he did a more details intro for first time ever at parkrun, which was all very reassuring, mentioning tail walker and it’s OK to run/walk/jog whatever you like. He seemed friendly and approachable and important looking, what with his authoritative air and placard holding technique. He’d do. Smiley Selfie Queen made the approach, well, it was her challenge after all, and I’m happy to report dear reader, that it took very little persuasion to get him on board with penguin related posing. Result!
As Smiley Selfie Queen remarked afterwards, that’s one of the many completely brilliant things about parkrun, you can rock up wearing penguin pictures and ask to be photographed with people eating penguin biscuits, or indeed posing as penguins, and that’s quite acceptable. Expected even. Today at Conkers parkrun, there was a guy wearing half a suit of armour, and we didn’t even comment on it particularly… though I regret not getting a photo now, obviously, but then again, it’s only just occurred to me that yes, that is slightly unusual, even for parkrun.
Edit – don’t panic dear reader, the official Conkers run report writer was on it, and I’ve stolen the photo from them. Thank you! See, these Conkers people, they pay attention to detail. Epic.
More usual are milestone runs and pre-wedding parties and superheroes, but really anything goes. There were some of those two of course, and we had to get more of ourselves, because to be frank, what’s the point of travelling with Smiley Selfie Queen if you don’t make full use of her photographic talents?
From this gathering point, we followed the crowds through a tunnel (reminiscent of Bakewell parkrun) and alongside a mini railway line, over a level crossing (which had automatic gates again, they like them at Conkers apparently, and to the back of the start funnel which stretched seemingly for miles ahead of us (only not really).
Point of information, if we’d parked up at the other car park, which I think is waterside it is very literally the other side of the tunnel, so you end up in the same place though I think as a newbie, the assembly point was very much more visible at the Discovery Centre side, plus that’s nearer the cafe and loos, an important consideration in route planning methinks.
I was quite taken aback at how busy it was. It felt a bit like arriving at an organised event. They like their signs here. I do too. Volunteers held up huge brightly coloured signs with different anticipated run times to encourage people to organise themselves into appropriate speed groups. It was friendly, and not intimidating. You go out and back along the same mile at the start and finish, so some parkrunners left bags on railings or hung from trees where they’d be in sight of finish funnel volunteers. It was cold and grey and started to rain freezing, fat globules of water, but the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. People spotted we were a bit confused and helped us know where to leave stuff. We also very quickly enlisted participants to take part in penguin posing, always a win, thank you good people of Conkers parkrun, you are fabulous ambassadors for parkrun in general and Conkers parkrun in particular and I’m sure the penguins are very grateful too!
The starting area is in a dip, there are embankments on either side and a humongous ditch perfectly sited for inattentive parkrunners to tumble in to. Also, the bank was quite good for posing as a penguin in the background of a selfie shot.
The track was hard compacted path, with some surface mud, but definitely OK for buggies. It was fun milling around.
but the best bit was when I had the genius idea of clambering up on the muddy hillside of the embankment to try to get some shots of the whole snake of starters. I was spotted and people all waved en masse as I clicked away. It was hilarious, I felt I was recording an epic moment of history, which in a way I was, because parkrun is always epic, and for some this would have been their first brush with it. How there lives will change from hereon-in. Unfortunately, my camera can’t really cope with this kind of sweeping panoramic shot, also it’s broken, I’m trying to ignore this fact, but it keeps jamming, or not working or creating a blank picture, this injects an element of surprise into any photo taken. The pictures aren’t that good therefore, but they are still memories, and maybe some people will enjoy playing ‘Where’s Wally?’ and trying to spot themselves in them, so I’ll post them all anyway, and that’s hours of your life you’ll never get back dear reader, if you should choose to peruse and pore over them all…
Now might be a good time to mention the course. Increasingly I find the running component almost incidental to the parkrun fun package, but I daresay purists will want to know more. I didn’t know anything about the course before hand, the Conkers parkrun course blah de blah is, pretty minimalist to be fair:
The route is best described as an out and back loop but it is very scenic and takes in the Ashby Woulds and Donisthorpe Woodlands trail paths with a small section running adjacent to the Ashby Canal.
Location of start – The course starts and finishes just beyond the train track crossing at Conkers Waterside. Address: CONKERS Waterside, Bath Yard, Bath Lane (B5003), Moira, Swadlincote, Derbyshire DE12 6BA
There is a very nice parkrun profile all about Conkers parkrun on the official parkrun pages. Most impressive.
and it looks like this:
So hard to get lost, but will have to witness faster runners thundering home whilst still heading out potentially. Not necessarily a bad thing, who knows, some may even be up for a high-five…
The map of the route makes it look a little on the ho-hum border line dull side, but it really wasn’t, it was fab!
I’m not going to lie, the start was very congested, and when the cry went up for ‘awf’ or ‘go’ or whatever it was, absolutely nothing happened, and then there was a slow trudge forward. You can’t overtake for the first few hundred metres because there is a huge bank towering over you to the left hand side and a deep ditch to the right. There was also the RD standing atop of, well I’m not sure what exactly, but he basically shouted ‘you can run from here’ as you passed him, and indeed you could. The route is on good terrain and for speedier runners could potentially be a fast one, but you’d need to position yourself toward the front. I’m happiest pootling, so didn’t worry me.
You head out, you really can’t go wrong, there aren’t any alternative options. You just follow the path, there are trees on either side, there’s a tunnelly bit, then you emerge onto more open ground where you can see runners ahead snaking round, it was really lovely, though astonishing just how far ahead some were.
Towards the top of this hill, where the route bent round, there was a full on paparazzi squad with the most enormous telephoto lenses I’ve ever seen, all set up on tripods. I presume this was part of the practice parkrun rather than we were all photo-bombing a twitcher who’d seen an extremely rare rainbow unicorn stork on a wayward migration stop or something and was trying to frame the perfect shot before we all came storming through, but I didn’t actually stop to ask so can’t be sure.
EDIT and update: just seen on the Conkers parkrun Facebook page that the man with the impressive lens was a certain Darren Cresswell. Ensconced with his camera equipment at the top of the first slope, Darren was taking photographs and some footage for the National Forest for a future article about National Forest activities in the Winter, and what better than a Conkers parkrun. So now we know. And here are some of his shots by way of illustration. Somewhat better than my own offerings I concede, I can be gracious like that…
The route then went through some trees and we all yomped on puddle jumping when necessary.
After a bit, we were rewarded with the first of the sign-bearers. These were cheery, helpful sign brandishers, not doom-laden bad-omen mongerers warning us to beware the ides of march or anything like that. The first sign was advising us to keep to the side of the cones, now remember this man, because he does something really unexpected later on.
And it was indeed good advice to keep to the right of the cones, because very soon, the front runner was storming back. Impressive. It’s about a mile out, then you do the looping the loop bit by some water, and then you rejoin the trail for a mile back in.
There is a sort of three-way junction point where runners coming back emerge and slower runners are still heading out. Fortuitously, another friendly marshal is sited there to keep an eye on proceedings and ensure all runs smoothly. Loving your work hi-vis hero, good job!
STOP PRESS EDIT: So, bit of insider info for you hear dear reader, you are rewarded for being a later arrival at this post with an added morsel of information. I have it on the considerable authority of a former core member of the Conkers team that, and I quote:
each of the major points on course has a name, as per tshirt we did years ago (attached). The ‘three-way’ point as you call it is ‘Stephen’s Gate’, but as your photos show there is no longer a gate, and I’m very rarely there, having been on the Core team for five years I shuffled across to the new (at the time) Rosliston – very much as friendly and welcoming as Conkers!
Now, clearly it’s a bold claim about Rosliston, and I shall be sure to add it to my ‘to do’ list of parkruns so I can go check that out for myself, but in the meantime, we can all benefit from this photo of the T-shirt map, and be enlightened. Hurrah! I feel much better informed now! Thank you fellow parkrunner, for coming forward so graciously!
Shortly after this, you run on a bit, and the… and this is really excellent… there was another sign, warning you that you were about to encounter cheeky hill! This is genius dear reader, informative, but also entertaining and motivating, very considerate hosts these Conkers parkrun people.
So you go up the Cheeky Hill, which I can confirm is a bit deceptive, as it isn’t that long, well not by Sheffield standards, and not even all that steep (Strava said the elevation on this route was 38m) but it was puff inducing for me anyway, and although many gamely hoiked themselves up, there were a few wise power walkers who were no doubt saving themselves for a sprint finish. What about me? Well, I had to stop and document the course didn’t I, so that necessitated a stop start strategy, which I like to think of as a sort of hybrid between hill training and interval training and ethnographic research.
At the top, there is another marshal, to congratulate you on your efforts, and direct you round. Again, some exemplary sign sporting in evidence here, they must train them. It’s actually quite hard, and quite a responsibility to brandish a sign for any length of time. I know, I’ve been on loads of demonstrations.
Then there was a watery bit alongside, and an al fresco pee point, judging from the person or person(s) unknown who took a little detour into the woods… Also ducks, and dear reader, if you have been loyal to me over the years you will know that these have a soft spot in my heart. Gotta luvva duck.
You then see another cheery marshal – lawks a lordy then were everywhere on this route, to stop you heading off to infinity and beyond and send you back en route, and, just in case you are flagging at this point, there is yet another genius sign pointing out you are lapping everyone on the sofa, as indeed we were. They were very much into their motivational signage here. Well judged lovely Conker parkrun people, well judged indeedy. I thank you.
Then, to me unexpectedly quickly, ‘suddenly’ you were back round at the three-way meeting point and about to be heading homeward. Recognise this cheery hi-vis hero?
You may well do… but the next volunteer marshal along was more challenging! More challenging because? Because, dear reader, he’d metamorphosed into a completely new incarnation, and was brandishing a different sign entirely! Wow, that’s upping the placard bearing stakes. Has to do a quick change at a critical point in the parkrun pantomime of runners. Genius. I spotted what he’d done though. What I don’t know, and didn’t establish, is if I’d run back later to retrace my steps whether the sign would have been changed again. I like to think so. He probably had a whole stash of purple placards there, ready to brandish as appropriate on any or all occasions. Sorry, out of focus, this is my camera in its death throes for sure, there is a fair amount of operator error I know, but not to the extent in evidence today…
The surprises weren’t over though, oh no. If you could but resist the temptation to nip into the open cafe and carry on
you’d get to my favourite sign of the morning. You are awesome! It proclaimed. And yes we are! I paused to take a photo and demanded a high-five – it was very uplifting. At this point on the course, other runners who’d already finished had come back up to cheer in fellow runners still out there, it was all extremely friendly and supportive. I genuinely got the impression that if this was your local parkrun you could get involved and meet people really quickly if that’s what you wanted to do. It was a great event.
and then, seemingly we were nearing the finish, through the tunnel and the end was in sight!
Smiley Selfie Queen, long since finished, was there to cheer me in, as were a load of friendly and feisty hi viz heroes. They were like a well oiled machine, moving me through the funnel, anyone would think they’d done this before. Fantastic experience!
but you know what, that wasn’t even the end of the excitement. Oh no, there were further climaxes to come!
We were still on a quest to do more for penguins, because whatever you do is never enough what with their habitats so threatened and all. Then we were distracted by the sight of a parkrun bell! Now, I have seen these before, but usually the ringing of these is reserved for those who have achieved PBs (or believe they have) and I haven’t for many years, and indeed expect to PB approximately never again. I therefore reluctantly concede that bell ringing at parkrun was alas to be an activity that did not include me. Well, dear reader, Conkers parkrun is most liberal in its offer to ring their bell. You can to it for a PB if you wish, but also for being a tourist, or being at your first parkrun, or for being happy, or pretty much for being whatever! How very inclusive, and how very inspired. Surely we could ring the bell for penguin awareness, it would be most apt. However, much as a run on strava never happened, and a barcodeless parkrun disappears into the void of invisibility, a parkrun bell rung without being captured in a photo similarly never came into being. We’d need to interact. Well, I haven’t quite got enough effusive words to communicate what happened next. Long story short (not that short to be fair, I don’t really do concise, which may come as a surprise, or may not, depending on how good you are at skim reading…), we made a brilliant discovery! Casting around for someone to act as official photographer, we settled on someone who asked directly ‘what’s with the penguin’ well, clearly this was just the shoo in we needed, we were able to give a brief lecture on the importance of raising awareness about penguins and it being part of a running club challenge and all, and many further brilliant things tumbled forth. It was a positive embarrassment of riches. First off, turned out, this was the fine person who’d replied so promptly to our enquiries the day before. Then, he submitted agreed to be videoed by way of evidence of our penguin awareness activities (though I don’t know how to upload the video here so you’ll just have to take my word for it and make do with this rather inadequate screen grab)
and best of all, revealed at the end that his son actually, my gawd, I can’t believe this really happens SPONSORS AN ACTUAL PENGUIN, and what’s more, hard to believe I know HIS SON WAS THE RUN DIRECTOR OF TODAY’S EVENT! What were the chances – clearly photos were needed:
and what’s more (yes there is more) his penguin is called Pedro, which is an excellent name for a penguin and his dad, who we’d just been talking to, is Event Director for the whole shebang. Basically dear reader we were hobnobbing with the elite of Conkers parkrun, and I would say it’s not beyond the realm of possibility penguin awareness day might yet get a mention in the Conkers parkrun run report for today. Fingers crossed. All in all, one of the happiest parkrun days of my entire life, and there have been many!
He even agreed to get us a few decent bell ringing snaps, and executed them amazingly. We played it cool with the ding dongs, but I think the perceptive reader will spot we were secretly pretty goddarned chuffed!
All in all, we had an amazing time.
UPDATE: Seems the event director was today completing his 300th run, so I hope he got to have a good ding dong with the bell once we’d vacated it, and I’m sure his hi-vis comrades would have carried him aloft to the Discovery Centre for celebratory coffee afterwards, but we missed that display of celebration unfortunately, preoccupied as we were with our own adventures.
Bell ringing done, we crossed to the other side of the tracks, espying an unexpected train as we did so
and then you walk down the path, under the tunnel, back to the gathering place, where a squad of hi-vis scanners formed a guard of honour to greet you and scan your barcode. I’m quite surprised that they don’t lose a lot of tokens between the end and the scanners, but then again, they were quite a visible if not formidable presence blocking the exit route, so perhaps hard to dodge.
Also, despite their barcode scanning efficiency, they weren’t agin doing some penguin posing for the cause, so another good result there. Thank you accommodating barcode scanning team. You make a fabulous penguin colony you really do. Which is a good thing to be, and you huddle beautifully, which is an excellent way to keep warm in inclement weather, so well done all of you!
So we passed on by the token table, which incidentally subsequently teleported to the cafe where everyone could take a turn at the token sorting, a little like doing a large communal jigsaw each week.
and we went to the cafe for post run pee and then re-hydration with coffee (me) and hot chocolate (Smiley Selfie Queen). I can report it was good coffee, and there were also jugs of water on hand too. Only negative comment was that they use disposable cups and I regretted not having my reuseable one with me. Oh well. The culture is changing. We had a post penguin parkrun debrief and felt happy.
So that was that, job done.
A grand day out indeed!
Thank you Conkers parkrun, it was a lovely, memorable, welcoming and hilarious at times morning. You will have a special place in our tourism hearts and hope to be back soon.
Be sure to wish Pedro a happy penguin awareness day from we two Smilies.
For all my parkrun related posts click here. Or don’t. It’s up to you. You’ll need to scroll down for older entries though. Bit of a time vampire, if you do, you might be stuck on the sofa for a while, ‘just researching options’. Hmm.
Happy parkrunning until next time!
🙂
PS Thank you lovely Conkers parkrun people for the comments on my blog after you shared it on your Facebook page. I am hugely grateful to anyone who stops by to read my posts, and elated if you comment too. However, there is a special place in my heart for the penguin puns and penguin emojis and penguin wit and wisdom many of you took the trouble to include in your feedback. No wonder the penguins in Conkers park are dancing!
Running Scared 
I love all the penguin love here- and like you say you can just turn up at parkrun like that and people just are perfectly happy with it.
If you like the pb bell, you should head to Rushmere because they have a proper gong, and you can bang that for whatever reason (good hair days were mentioned in the brief)!
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Ooh, now that’s a good call! Love the idea of picking tourist destinations on the basis of bell ringing opportunities. Thanks for the tip off, I don’t think I’ll ever get to ring it on account of a good hair day, they are as rare as pbs but I’m sure I could come up with something. I’ll add it to my aspirational destination list! Happy parkrunning! 🙂
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Was trying to work out which parkrun near-ish Derby to do some tourism at when I’m in the area and read this after finding it on Google. Wow! What a thorough review, absolutely brilliant!
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Aw thanks for the lovely comment, and for taking the time to read my blog – I know my posts are not for the faint hearted! I think all parkruns are uniquely magnificent in their own way, but you certainly won’t go wrong with this one. Happy parkrunning!
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