Dancing At Lunacy

parkrun #226 event #56 Letter K

I go to Perth every year for the Scottish dancing society AGM. The Perth parkrun is lovely, by the banks of the Tay, and I’ve done it a couple of times now. It very handily takes place right beside the Bells Sports Arena, where the dancing happens. But I like to take the opportunity to visit other parkruns when I’m away for the weekend, and I’d managed to do Camperdown in Dundee 2 years ago. When looking at the possibilities this year I whooped with delight when I found that Kirkcaldy was in reaching distance, and would give me a letter K missing from my alphabeteer collection.

Access:
I was staying in close proximity to Perth train station, and bought a return ticket for £19. The journey took around 40 minutes. The walk to Beveridge Park was about 10 – 15 minutes. If I had run at super duper speed I might have made the 10.15 train back, but I didn’t, and had to wait for the 11ish one.  At which point I couldn’t find the return portion of my ticket, and had to buy another single at £14!

Crowd:
There were almost 250 runners when I was there, including a couch-to-5k graduation group. I was amused by some of the names of local running clubs such as Scrambled Legs, and the Kirkcaldy Wizards. There’s a Wizard’s Walk in the park which prompted that one.

The volunteers were very friendly and encouraging, and I particularly liked the Tail Wagger.

Facilities:
I passed loos on the way to the start – there was a notice on the door saying a charge of 30p, but I was able to open the door without having to part with any cash.

Not sure about car parking, and coffee afterwards is in the Morrisons. I wandered through the rather empty Postings shopping centre, and found a cafe for a bacon butty and cuppa. There’s a nice museum beside the station should you find yourself with some time to kill.

Gear:
For the first time in my life I ALMOST forgot my barcode! I was halfway from the hotel to the station when I remembered, and had to weigh up whether to sprint back and get it, appeal to the mercy of the RD, or find an internet cafe and print off a paper copy. Sprint it was, I wasn’t taking any chances on missing a K!

My Garmin watch gave up at 30 minutes, I was using plug-in headphones rather than bone-conducting ones, and I wore my increasingly out of date 50 shirt. It was a chilly morning so I also had a long sleeved base layer, gloves, and my cow beanie.

Course:

The course is 2 laps, all on tarmac.  There’s an added loop around the duckpond on the second lap, and a rather testing hill.

Start and finish are not in the same place, so there’s a bag system for leaving tops/ keys/ cow beanies which is transported to the finish line.  I was there just after Hallowe’en, and the colours of the trees were magnificent.

Strangely Appropriate Song on Shuffle:

I was taking a different approach this time, and listening to the marathon 2 hour long episode of With Me Now.  I’ve always found this annoying as a listen when I’m JUST sitting and listening, but I’ve now discovered that it makes the perfect soundtrack to a train ride, stroll, and parkrun.  And I did shed a wee tear at the end when PSH was chatting to Danny.

Time:

A ridiculously slow 37 minutes, due to stopping and photographing.  But who cares – letter K!

All My parkruns:

NI (and other) parkruns: summary list

Filed under: Parkrun, running, Scotland, Scottish Country Dance, Uncategorized | Tagged: alphabeteer, Kirkcaldy, parkrun |