Charlton parkrun - event 55

On the 29th October 2022 I ran the Charlton parkrun which was the 55th event held at the venue, my 101st parkrun and 35th different course I'd attended.

In and around trying to get the parkrun venues in Kent ticked off, I've been simultaneously trying to work my way through my local parkruns that I've not done yet, in particular those that sit either side of the A2 corridor. One of those such runs is Charlton, which I planned to run to coincide with event number 55, which is one of the remaining Fibonacci sequence numbers I am still yet to do.

Prior to the run, on the Thursday night watching the climax of the latest Stranger Things series on Netflix I was stretching my feet out and felt a bit of a twinge in the big toe of my right foot. I didn't think anything of it, until the next morning when walking down the stairs was a lot more painful than it should have been.

As I was off work on a days leave and had planned to visit Whitstable for a stroll along the coastal path I decided to suck it in and get on with it. It wasn't until that evening and a day of hobbling around and grimacing through pain that I sought advice from the wisest man I know - my dad! He suggested bathing it in cold water and alternating it between hot and cold. So that's exactly what I did, much to Stephanie's disgust. Bathing my foot in her mixing bowls where the occasional meatball and Victoria sponge is made, but it seemed to do the trick.

I woke up in the morning early and repeated the same exercise and wondered whether I should be looking to stay in bed and bin off parkrun for the week. But not only had the opportunity to tick off another new venue, a Fibonacci number get into my head, the chance to wear my new 100 milestone t-shirt which arrived on parkrun eve was too good to resist.

I told myself that I would go steady, walk if I had to but I was determined not to miss out. I knew that the run was likely to be on a mostly grass based surface so I wore my trail shoes which had the added benefit of additional support which my road shoes don't quite have.

The course is a three lap affair around the perimeter of Charlton park. They say that it's flat, but there is a mild elevation up one side which does mean of course there's a downhill part on the other.

Charlton park has a path that run directly through the park itself joining the two roads that sit north and south either side. The path is dead straight and I arrived and parked directly to the south. At the northern end sits a toilet block and cafe which were both open at 8:30 when I arrived.

Shortly before the toilets is a play area and skatepark and the start of the parkrun event sits just ahead of both. From the start the route heads east, perpendicular to the football pitches, of which there are a few. As we were running by teams of footballers were warning up for Saturday training, making me wonder why they didn't incorporate parkrun as part of their warmup routine.

Once the edge of the park has been reached via a short tarmac path the route turns south, slightly uphill on grass all the way to the southern edge of the park before turning right again. Heading west, again on grass it's a case of following the fence line to to the far Eastern side of the park, across the path that bisects the park into two and across to the treeline that runs south to north, shielding the large stately house that sits on the western perimeter.

It's a case from here on in to complete the loop back to the start line before repeating again twice more.

The closest course that I've run that resembles Charlton is Greenwich, which I ran back in August. Both are three laps, both are based in southeast London and both reside in grounds attached to stately houses, but the courses themselves are very different. Greenwich has much more character and interest with paths that weave and meander and have the added challenge of greater elevation. Charltons lacked a little interest and was effectively a run around a group of football pitches. That's not to do the venue any disservice, nor the volunteers who once again impeccably cheered on participants and offered support. It's the joy and fun of parkrun tourism in that you will run on courses that you preferred over others and it's entirely subjective.

Despite my apprehension and dull ache in my right foot I never felt impeded at all. I finished in 100th place out of a field 194 participants in a time of 28.06. This time is up there with my recent good form so I wasn't evidently affected too much by whatever was going on with my foot.

Since the run however and once back home and out of the comfort of my shoes I spent an uncomfortable day on Saturday hobbling around the house. After a morning at A&E on Sunday, where half of this blog post was composed I've been diagnosed with suffering from Gout. Let's see how a dose of antibiotics kicks in and whether there will be any further tales of parkrun tourism in the coming weeks...