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22 Oct
9:47pm, 22 Oct 2024
6,764 posts
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paulcook
The two that in truth I got nowhere near misadventuring to by accident, I still haven't even done at all, after 136 and 77 events respectively.
I wouldn't dream of purposefully going to an inaugural, though I don't really see much that Battersea can do to stop anyone going to now. Other than the obvious.
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22 Oct
10:02pm, 22 Oct 2024
24,022 posts
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57.5 Degrees of Pain
Only done one inaugural where I wasn't on either ED or ambassador duty, in 2013. I'd picked my wife up at Edinburgh airport around 7am so a run at Perth helped keep me awake driving north.
Managed 2nd at a first event and 1st at a 2nd event, but never 1st at a 1st. Or ever matched token no. to event no. for that matter.
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22 Oct
10:35pm, 22 Oct 2024
9,215 posts
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Son of a Pronator Man
Inaugurals in remote places - like the only one I have ever done, Montrose, are never going to get the huge numbers that city events or ones in the SE of England will attract.
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22 Oct
11:00pm, 22 Oct 2024
18,907 posts
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Jef
I’ve done 4 inaugurals.
1 as a tailwalker.
2 that I was camped next to on holiday without any prior knowledge
1 I helped set up.
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23 Oct
7:59am, 23 Oct 2024
17,631 posts
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chunkywizard
Aren’t we all good? 😆 I volunteered at Dinton inaugural (which I guess is the thing to do if you are ED) and was invited to California Country by the ED which is 4 miles away from me.
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23 Oct
8:08am, 23 Oct 2024
9,089 posts
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Fizz :-)
I’ve been to ten inaugurals 
(But the most recent was 2016 when it was still being encouraged)
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23 Oct
8:31am, 23 Oct 2024
9,198 posts
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westmoors
I've been to 3 inaugurals:
Bournemouth (2013), which is now my home run and the one I attend most often. 293 finishers.
Blandford (2014), which IIRC we were asked to support. 175 finishers.
Moors Valley (2015), where the core team wanted to get the record for the largest inaugural! 404 finishers.
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23 Oct
8:46am, 23 Oct 2024
10,676 posts
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BaronessBL
I have been to about 4 I think. One which was going to be at the time the nearest to where I lived and which for a while was the one I attended the most, one which I was part of the set up team for and I was tail walker, one (also fairly local) which started few weeks before the one I was on the core team for and more recently one were the core team for it did some of their training at our parkrun so I was invited to their trial event and I think I was timekeeper and then their inaugural - I offered to volunteer at the inaugural too but the RD insisted I ran!
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23 Oct
8:51am, 23 Oct 2024
4,140 posts
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Big_G
I’ve been to two, and they are my closest events to where I live. The first one was not kept a secret, and is my home event (1.5 miles away). The second one I was invited to by the ED, who did ask to keep it quiet, and is now my second closest event.
I often think actually that, for me and although I love parkrun, if I didn’t have one so close, I wouldn’t have done so many as I have. I use the event as part of a longer run, or a speed workout or whatever, all from my house.
Whenever I’m away, I always look for a parkrun nearby. When away in the van, I purposefully choose sites close enough (ie, 30min drive) to an event, and if abroad always see how to get from a hotel to a parkrun and see if it’s doable. I don’t specifically chase the alphabet challenge, although when I’m in Netherlands (girlfriend is Dutch and we visit maybe a couple of times a year) I will look to see if I can tick off a Z, because, well, why not.
Probably the one that took the most effort to get to was one in Chicago last year, before the marathon. Someone from the UK had organised two coaches out to the event, and swelled the numbers from 11 the week prior, to 165 that week, for the largest event in the US that week. The trip organiser had contacted the event and they were expecting us and welcomed us wholeheartedly, but it was a long day - from memory about 90mins on the bus to the event, stopping off at MacD’s on the way to use the loo.
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23 Oct
8:55am, 23 Oct 2024
18,325 posts
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KinkyS
I've been to 20+ inaugurals, most of which were in the old days when the biggest fear for any new event was that no-one would turn up!
One later one was a genuine accident, we were away and found the nearest event on the map and didn't even realise 🙄 And one we were invited to by the ED 😀
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