A Muddy March Outing on Wormwood Scrubs

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What happened on Saturday's Parkrun - and how you can join in

Wormwood Scrubs Parkrun is a weekly 5km timed run, taking place every Saturday at 9am.

The run is free to enter and the organisers say ayone is welcome to come along and join in whatever your pace and abilities, whether running, jogging or walking.

To join the run please register and follow the online instructions.

Here's the parkrun report on what happened on Saturday March 1:

Saturday morning dawned bright and cold – March was here and perhaps spring might be on the way after all. A couple of massive police dogs had been sighted roaming around near the prison end of the course, perhaps looking for escaped prisoners – a few of us were a bit worried that the dogs might be interested in us, although that might have been just what we needed to help us get a PB...

22 runners lined up at the start, including five brave first-timers. Once the run was underway, it was clear that the condition of the course wasn’t much different from usual – maybe even a bit boggier and certainly smellier.

On the bit coming up to the final turn to the finish, I had the bizarre feeling you get in dreams sometimes, where you’re running hard but not actually moving forward at all... Nevertheless, there were a couple of places where it was almost possible to run normally, giving a glimmer of hope that PBs might once again be possible on this course at some point.

First runner home was Simon Hill, in 21.28, followed by Richard Brook in 22.11 and Peter Keane in 22.14.

First lady was first-timer Nicci Chapman from Serpentine RC in 24.10 (she told me that she wasn’t even wearing spikes, so well done Nicci!), followed by Andrea Broughton of Thames Valley Harriers in 24.58 and Charlotte Le Rougetel in 30.09.

Needless to say, there were no PBs today – but there’s always next week, as long as it doesn’t rain too much and the course recovers from the cross country races staged there today after the parkrun, which churned up the mud quite a bit, I have to say.

The after-run conversation in the clubhouse focused on techniques for dealing with the mud – skirting round it vs just going straight through the puddles, on the basis that there’s solid ground at the bottom of the puddle – your choice!

Thanks to the volunteers this week, without whom the Parkrun would not happen: Aidan Ferrand, Kate O’Donoghue, Kirstie Tew, Marion Brydson, Martin Gillies and Rizwan Rauf.

We are a bit short of volunteers for later this month, so if you’d like to get involved in volunteering at the Wormwood Scrubs Parkrun, please email wormwoodscrubshelpers@parkrun.com

Happy running!

Andrea