The sun was out, the temperature was rising, the marshalls were smiling and the chicory was thriving. Chicory is a perennial herbaceous plant from the Asteraceae family with a surprising amount of uses. It has bright blue flowers and is native to Europe. Today was a perfect day to be at Burgess parkrun to see the chicory in all its splendour.
I had completed a 28k marathon training run on Friday and therefore was happy to be walking with the awesome company of Michael Welsh. Starting back in August 2013 Michael has amassed 306 parkruns and volunteering 82 times to date, Michael is a Burgess parkrun OG.
Michael was park walking as he readies himself to complete a half marathon run on Sunday. However beyond racing Michael has found a way to combine running and doing good in the community by being a regular member of the Lambeth Goodgym. At Goodgym members meet up their ‘HQ’, they then run together to wherever they’re providing help, be that to a community organisation or providing assistance to older people, enabling them to continue living in the community. They also do other organised runs for members wearing their distinctive red shirts, it’s a genius idea. I follow Michael on Strava and I always enjoy reading his accounts of work done in the community as he clocks up his running mileage for the week.
Whilst today’s weather was lovely it’s been a patchy summer at best so I’m very excited to share news that the Facebook parkrun World Tourist Group is arranging a meet-up in Africa next year. Members of the group are planning to meet up on one day to do the Eswatini (previously Swaziland) parkrun, followed by a parkrun in South Africa on the next day as this is South Africa’s special event day. Two countries in two days! Add in some amazing National parks, beaches, mountains and as close as you can get to guaranteed great weather. Then the following Saturday the group is proposing doing the Windhoek parkrun in Namibia. This trip is therefore intended to be 3 parkruns in 3 countries over 10 days 😀 The group is helping people coordinate flights and coaches with local support and hotel recommendations. You can join online to find out more.
Anthony Maddon and his son Nigel visited Burgess for the first time today. As we were talking they shared how they’d run every parkrun in the Republic of Ireland raising £11,000 for Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. You can read more about here: ithttps://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/anthony-madden2 I’ve heard many good things about the parkruns in Ireland and now I’d met the person who could provide a comprehensive guide to the best events. Anthony’s answer though should have been no surprise, he said I needed to visit them all. 🙂
I walked home with ideas about how to up my parkrun tourism game and thoughts on how I can secure more sponsorships for Become - cause I’m running the Burgess Marathon for, (you can read about it here). Attending parkruns gives me so much positivity and in the summer months chicory.
Next Saturday we’ll be off to Squerryes estate home to Squerryes Winery parkrun, one of the events in the Great Grape Challenge which is completing all the parkruns in vineyards around the world.
Happy running
Brilliant