For those of us missing ParkRun

I suspect it's not the actual running we're missing; since many of us can just go out and run when the mood takes us so long as we are fortunate with our health and the COVID-19 restrictions in our particular part of the world allow us to do so. It's possibly not even being able to run in a group; since as much as I enjoy the social side, I tend to be a solitary runner.

For me, what I actually miss is being able to have something to judge my performance against. Not my overall position on the weekly email (although that has its own value), but the arcane calculation that is the age adjusted performance and how it varies from run to run.

Then I discovered that Running Heroes has a weekly 5k challenge. OK, so it's on a Sunday rather than a Saturday, but it gives you a leader board and age tables and all of those little things that turn a run into a "non-competitive" competition. It's not really the same, but it is nice to feel that you are part of group, doing something we all "enjoy" and providing something a little more than just comparing our own performance run after run.

If that kind of thing appeals, it might be worth checking it out while we're all waiting for the real thing to start again. If it's not your thing, then just keep getting out there and running anyway.

Stay safe.

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Finding My Inner Runner

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