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21 Sep
3:39pm, 21 Sep 2024
71,023 posts
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Velociraptor
You don't need a medical certificate to race in Spain.
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21 Sep
3:46pm, 21 Sep 2024
71,024 posts
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Velociraptor
I agree, Spain seems to be an obvious parkrun destination and it's a mystery why the organisation hasn't been able to get its feet under the table there.
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21 Sep
4:05pm, 21 Sep 2024
74 posts
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Cal Jones
Especially as there are so many expats there.
So, TIFU. I went to Didcot parkrun. Back in the very early 90s I spent three miserable years living in Oxfordshire as my (then) boyfriend got a job out that way. The second 18 months of that were spent living under a pylon on an estate in Didcot with the railway at the end of the garden.
On the other side of the line were fields, which is now the Ladygrove Estate, as well as the park which hosts the parkrun. I wasn't going out of nostalgia as it was a rather miserable time in my life, but more because the park is close to the station and I'd have a better chance of having a less painful run with my dodgy hip if I don't have to walk a couple of miles first.
My first mistake was not getting there early enough to deposit my bag at the finish. It's a course with three laps of the park followed by stretch along a path, so the start and finish are in different places. I ended up hiding it in a bush behind a dog poo bin and, happily, it was still there when I went to retrieve it later. However, worth noting if you are intending to do this parkrun and are going by public transport.
My second mistake was with the course. It's actually three and a bit laps, with the first bit (by a playground) done four times. I was chatting to another lady during the first mile and wasn't concentrating as well as I should've been. I told the marshal at the split point that I'd done the playground bit three times and she told me to go down the other path. I carried on but I was very aware that a lot of people who looked faster than I am kept going past me. I started thinking I might've missed a lap of the field and when I got to the finish funnel I only had 2.5 miles on my watch. I guess some people would've gone through and accepted their faster than usual time, but I just couldn't. I turned around and ran back up the path and then back to the finish to make up the missing distance, but even so, I am kicking myself. After paying £35 for the train it's not like I'm going to be going back so it'll have to do.
I wonder if anyone has made similar course errors and what they'd do under the circumstances?
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21 Sep
4:08pm, 21 Sep 2024
7,648 posts
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Metro_Nome
Oh that’s frustrating  I think I would have done the same thing as you!
My husband got sent the wrong way once and got totally lost. By the time he go back on the course, found me and finished, he hadn’t done the proper route but had done well over 4 miles. If I were him, I would have crossed the line to be honest, but he chose not to.
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21 Sep
4:26pm, 21 Sep 2024
4,347 posts
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Looby Loo
I did this recently at Perry Hall which has 3 different loops. I missed a very short out and back on the 3rd loop and should have retraced my steps but because I wasn’t certain I carried on to the turn for the end and was short by about 400m I then did another loop as felt it was cheating not to complete but ended up doing about 900 metres extra!
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21 Sep
5:22pm, 21 Sep 2024
4,798 posts
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Curly45
I got lost in Pollock park and only got back to the start after they had cleared it away. Still haven't returned to officially collect that one 😂
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21 Sep
5:28pm, 21 Sep 2024
15,050 posts
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hellen
I got lost at Abbey Park doing the pre run course check. When I offered to do it I asked if the signs would be out, they said they would be - they mostly were but not at key part!
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21 Sep
5:30pm, 21 Sep 2024
44,878 posts
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Ness
Oops!
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21 Sep
6:01pm, 21 Sep 2024
71,026 posts
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Velociraptor
One time, not my first, at Dean Castle Country Park parkrun I ran the first lap with a friend who then stopped because she was just coming back from being ill and was struggling. I hadn't been paying attention because we'd been chatting. It's a slightly complicated course with two out-and-backs on each lap. I followed someone who was jogging with a dog back out on the second lap. The person with the dog wasn't actually doing parkrun. The person at the turnaround point of the second out-and-back was surprised to see me again so soon. But I realised what had happened, located and ran the bit I'd missed, and ended up with the right distance and a GPS trace you'd have to scrutinise very closely to see the mistake.
I have also been the marshal who sent runners in the wrong direction at an inaugural parkrun.
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21 Sep
6:10pm, 21 Sep 2024
76 posts
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Cal Jones
I guess messing up as a runner is not quite as bad as messing up as a marshal eh?
There's a race series on Wimbledon Common called the Wimbledon Trail Series and it takes in some absolutely hideous ups and downs that most people walking or running there have no idea even exist. One is a steep, and often muddy climb called the Rifle Butts. First time I ran it, the marshal messed up, or was in the wrong place, I don't know, and the entire field missed it out altogether. I guess as everyone made the same error it sort of worked out, but still...
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