Dancing At Lunacy

I’ve met Tim Page a couple of times before – he’s working his way round all the Norn Irn parkruns raising awareness and funds for leukemia and lymphoma.  He was due to run at Colin Glen this week, and was feeling a bit nervous of its reputation as a tough one.  I’d managed to be first lady the  last time  I was here, and it holds a special place in my heart as it completed the NI set for me last year.  But Minnie had managed to hurt her paw, so there was no barkrun for her, and no way I could better my previous time without her assistance on the hills.  So I volunteered to keep Tim company on his run.

I arrived in good time and parked up, just before Tim himself appeared, and in between his stretches I got him to pose for the traditional “Cracker Says” moment.

A few other people recognised Tim, and we were also joined by parkrun Jim.

He famously came home from holiday in Spain in order to continue his parkruns, and was the first man in Ireland to complete 250. He’s recently added a second tattoo on his other calf to celebrate this achievement.

There was a good turnout, as a recent Steps to Health group were making their graduation run, and the spread of post run goodies looked very tasty indeed.

It’s a beautiful course,

winding its way through sun dappled trees,

across bridges,

and past some Gruffalo statues.

 It’s a gradual climb up to the lake, which you run round twice,

before a great downhill stretch all the way home.

Tim had been worried about various niggles, including an achilles problem, so we agreed we would roughly run for 4 minutes, walk for 1. I acted as photographer and now and then I’d sprint ahead or stay behind to get a good picture.  Even if it was just of Jim’s tatts!

We smiled and laughed our way around the course, sharing stories about previous runs, jobs, and writing.

There was great cheering as we crossed the finish line, and I know Tim was relieved to have that one ticked off.

Thank you to the super volunteers for their sterling work today, and well done all the first timers!

Filed under: Parkrun, running | Tagged: colin glen, Fit for Life |