Is it spring yet?

Into the trees!

Back to the chilly spring that we've been having in the UK. I had to get well wrapped up for the Rosliston parkrun which is tucked away in the National Forest down some country lanes in the very south of Derbyshire. The term National Forest might indicate to some that we were in the middle of a huge wooded area of thousands of acres full of gnarled oaks and splendid beeches. It's not quite like this as it consists of lots of separate small areas of young forest in the East Midlands that will hopefully all join up one day. The first trees were planted in around 1990 so in comparative terms much of the forest is the equivalent of a teenager. A steady run for me - suffering from the ongoing atrial fibrillation but it's the drugs that are slowing me down!

A thin blue line!

One week on and what a difference - we were at the Bakewell Parkrun and the temperature was a good 15 degrees up so vest and shorts was the order of the day. This parkrun is not actually in Bakewell - it's along the Monsal Trail and one of the rare (for the UK) there and back courses (see the map). Running out and back courses seem to be much more common abroad, particularly down under where they have lots of trails and paths running along water courses. There and back means, of course, that you see all the other runners at various times. And at Bakewell it didn't seem too long before the first runner came whizzing towards us from the turnback point. This guy was seriously quick as he was at east a minute and a half ahead of the next runner. Found out later that this was Ian K who broke the course record finishing in 15:33. It turns out that he has done 130 park runs and been first in all of them!

I'm not a tart!

We both had a good run on this warm pleasant morning and galloped back the couple of K's with Skip to Bakewell where we'd parked up. Tea and a good breakfast completed our morning and just before we left we bought some Bakewell Puddings (no they're not the same as Bakewell Tarts, a bit early in the day for them!) - the puddings are much nicer and are made with flaky pastry rather than shortcrust.