Morden parkrun - event 40

Morden parkrun

On the 26th April 2025 I ran the Morden parkrun which was the 40th event held at the venue, my 234th parkrun and 152nd different course I'd attended.

Just when you think you are edging ever closer to LonDone status another parkrun pops up and the goalpost move ever wider apart, making it even harder to obtain that elusive crown. However, it does have benefits in that a closer event to home makes easier options for filling up the Wilson Index - parkrun snakes and ladders!

9 months or so ago Morden parkrun became the latest event to join the roster and I marked it down as a possible venue on my calendar. But for one reason or another it kept getting pushed back until eventually the stars aligned and I made to event number 40. By completing the event I leave just event number 33 remaining all the way up to 58, with gaps at 59, 62 and 65. The gaps become a little more frequent after that but the goal is to eventually complete 1-100 which is one of the harder 'achievements' to reach. 

Morden parkrun is based at Morden park, a wide open space in the London Borough of Merton. It is a mostly trail event and so I was rather fortunate in my timing as my experience of the event tells me that in autumn and winter months the course experience would be very different!

The meeting point is next to the carpark, which itself is next to a leisure centre. I used the toilet at the leisure centre, which is free of charge. But to reach the start you have to cross back over the carpark and exit via the opposite side. I lost my bearings completely and followed a circuitous route around the field and through a clump of trees to get there.

On my meandering walk I was afforded the opportunity to sample some of the course and it's terrain. I had, in my research come to undertake the undulating description of the course which may fall under my version of 'hilly'. It also promised with high spring temperatures to be a bit of a challenge and so my hunch proved to be correct.

Everyone meets next to the bandstand, which isn't your standard Victorian type. It looks almost like a stage from my old primary school had been taken out with the roof still attached to it, painted white and plonked on the side of a field with bushea marked out where the walls were supposed to be.

The start line is just outside of this performance arena and leads uphill where three undulating laps are taken in wearing around, down and up on mostly grass and tarmac paths.

The hills do provide an ample challenge and a mixture of me getting inside my own head, my creaking leg injury and the warm temperatures meant I was only able to make it up the main hill just once without walking. Much to my own frustration and annoyance.

After three identical laps the course try returns back down hill towards the bandstand where the finish funnel lies in wait.

This downhill finish does provide ample opportunities for a nice sprint finish. Which I wasn't able to take advantage of on this occasion to a participant having a rather unfortunate fall.

The incident was actually for a few seconds rather terrifying and I was so relieved to see the lady responding when comforted by her running companion. Social media posts after the event also indicates that the lady was just fine. But it emphasised the importance of the volunteer role and what super people they really are.

I finished in 121st place out of a field of 194 participants in a time of 31.50. It was my 53rd venue in London out of 65, leaving me with just 17 events remaining until I can claim the LonDone status. Or until another one comes along and tells me otherwise!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patience

Remember that TV ad which showed a guy growing up as music played in the background showcasing the "soundtrack to his life"? Well someone has got the Jukebox spot on with Take That sitting at the top of the singles chart with a song called "Patience", totally apt considering mine and Steph's current situation! If I was a betting man I would have put money on Baby Bird coming early, as witnessed by my bold proclamations earlier on in the pregnancy. However, so far, so not a lot! We await Wednesday now with the unimaginable thoughts of inducement now a realistic certainty. The doctors make the appointment for you as you approach your due date on the basis of accounting for all possibilities. Steph at the time said something along the lines of "as if I will need to be induced!". Although we are currently frustrated with the waiting, it has been fun. Going to work each day and people asking me "what am I still doing here", and comments sugg...
Read more

The Appeal

Image
Last week we received notice that our appeal for an infant school place had been unsuccessful. Whilst this might sound like particularly bad news, it isn’t really, although the results of which will have a lasting effect upon our day-to-day lives. At the beginning of the year we had to fill out an online form listing the three schools we would like Oliver to attend in preference. We chose Riverview as our first choice and Shears Green second. To make sure that we got either first or second place we put Cobham down in third knowing that this was highly impractical and almost unlikely to be chosen. Academically, Riverview and Shears Green are equally as good as each other, so we are very lucky that it could have fallen either way, but what made the application process more interesting is that as a child, I went to school at Shears Green, whilst Stephanie went to Riverview, so it was in a way, a little race to see whose footsteps Oliver would follow in. But for practical purposes...
Read more

New year, new plans

Image
Last year I decided to try and up the ante slightly, by posting a regular blog and writing at least once a week which I did, I even managed to complete the annual challenge successfully, which surpassed my own expectations. This year, we’ve only reached week two and I’m already struggling with finding something to write - the problem I have is, I can’t quite bring myself to break the habit just yet! January is generally a tough month, financially and for some, emotionally taxing. With the dawn of a new year comes a series of resolutions to make the forthcoming twelve months worth something, to do something new, to challenge oneself and to make a difference to their lives. Reading Facebook status’s over the new year gave an interesting insight into how people perceived how they were treated; “2012, better be better than last year”, or “Bye Bye 2011, what a year that was!” For Stephanie and I, 2011 couldn’t have treated us any better. I wrote at the beginning of last year that I wa...
Read more