"O" is for... Old Deer Park

02.11.19 - #14 Old Deer Park - Too Soggy For Soggy Bottoms!

Today's pre-challenge challenge was a trip down the unpredictable M25. An early alarm was set so at 7am I could head 'daaaan saaaaff' for Richmond, in Surrey, where Old Deer Park parkrun takes place.

"BEEEEEP!...BEEEEEP!" Here we go again! A definite perk to having such a brightly coloured T-shirt (in 'MS Society Orange'), is that it's easy to find in a pile of clean laundry...and every second counts in the Saturday morning pre-parkrun 'getting ready' ritual, as any parkrun tourist will testify.

Although parkrun itself is not a race, it is always a race to get washed, dressed and essential kit packed up and bundled into the car in good time. They may well say, "Don't forget your barcode", but I'd argue that your pants are just as important, so they go straight to the top of my parkrun preparation checklist! With all the essentials in place I was ready to go.

It was the weekend after Halloween and I was very much looking forward to sticking around Surrey for my sister's Halloween party that night. Unfortunately the pumpkin I'd carved was now way beyond its scary best as I'd prepared it too early - it was now a sorry pile of mush and about as intimidating as a bowl of cold soup, but not to worry!

Little did I know, that cold, soggy and mushy would become the themes of the day!

The first thing I noticed on my journey to Old Deer Park was that I had apparently driven into a cloud - a really dark and menacing cloud full of water. Today's weather forecast was turning out to be a spot on prediction and an absolute soaking was the reward for anyone who dared to venture out and about on this early November morning.

The locals are spoilt for choice when it comes to parkrun, with quite a few courses within just a few miles radius of Richmond and the surrounding area, including Crane Park where I was a few weeks back for the letter "C" of this "MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS" Spell-it-Out Challenge.

Old Deer Park tends to be quieter than it's neighbouring parkruns which, amongst others, include Richmond Park, Osterley, Wimbledon Common and not forgetting the hugely popular founding parkrun at Bushy Park, where it famously all began 15 years ago.

On arriving at the Park, I wandered around a bit to look for the start of the course. Spotting the official 'Old Deer Park' parkun sign was a great relief, as always. These pop-up signs are not only a great prop and backdrop for parkrun photos but they're also a valuable tool for marking out course starting/meeting points. All parkruns should have one!

The rain was starting to come down fairly heavily now and it had turned cold. As a few more runners arrived I bumped into the first of several 'Orange Army' members who kindly braved the harsh weather conditions to join me at this, my letter "O" parkrun.

The "Orange Army" is what we affectionately call the family, friends and MS Society representatives kindly supporting me on my challenge and attending the parkruns with me, often wearing orange, the charity's chosen colour.

I recognised Debbie - a friend of my Mum and Sister. As the MS Society charity is close to her heart she kindly ran this parkrun with us, helping to boost support for the cause.

I explained my Challenge to the Run Director, Craig, and he kindly promised to do a shout-out for me, to help spread the word.

Moments later the Orange Army numbers grew further, with my Mum, my Brother and his girlfriend coming along with Max the dog in tow. Max was super happy to be there, trying to greet everyone (in his own inimitable way) by attempting to lick us all to death with his ridiculously long tongue....as if we weren't already getting soaked enough!

Mum had specially made some cakes that she planned to give out for donations but, as it turned out, the wild weather was so appalling that the cakes couldn't even make an appearance.

With the heavy rain pelting down there was sadly no way to stop the cakes from getting saturated and spoiling beyond consumption, so the cake tin lids stayed firmly shut to avoid extremely soggy tops, middles and bottoms! I once heard Mary Berry talking about her own soggy bottom issues (oh, the shame!) so I realised that this was a fate to be avoided at all costs!!!

Today was very much about the Orange Army.

As I went for a much needed warm-up run, I heard the familiar cry of "Maaaatt!" from the other side of the road. My older Sister, her Husband and my Niece and Nephew were here too! No sooner had I greeted them, then I was greeted by Ken and Mike from Tring parkrun (my home parkrun). This was the biggest Orange Army turnout so far and we weren't yet done!....

....Today I also welcomed special guests from the Surrey MS Society - Helen, Danielle and Danielle's Husband, Matt, who missed the rugby especially (thank you!) They

came prepared with more orangey bits than a Jaffa Cake factory, including noisy clangers to cheer us on like real troopers!

109 of us lined up to start, by this time mostly soaked to the core (and probably questioning our life choices!), while the excellent Craig delivered what I later discovered was his first ever RD's briefing. He was a natural, so at the time I assumed that he'd done it many times before.

There weren't many tourists today besides us. Actually there weren't many runners today at all, probably for two reasons - one being that England were playing in the Rugby World Cup Final at the same time (a similar issue which faced parkrunners last week, when I visited Rutland Water parkrun which clashed with the England Semi-Final)....and the second issue being the hideous weather which made every step a challenge.

Craig delivered on his promise and made quite a fuss about my Challenge. (Thank you, Craig!) I received a generous round of applause, with cheers and barking from family and friends, both human and fluffy canine!

We walked around 200m to the start of the run, trudging through the squidgy mud. The course was a 3 lapper around fields - rugby fields at that, just to add insult to injury for any rugby fans who chose to attend parkrun in torrential rain instead of watching the big game in warmth and comfort elsewhere.

The course was mostly on grass/mud (with a little bit of tarmac) and I felt my footing sliding a bit with every step. As this was an open field, you pretty much knew what was in store around the course and today's toughest challenge was always going to be the weather. Depending on which way you were facing, the wind blew the icy cold rain into our faces....really not pleasant but we were a hardcore bunch!

One lap into the run and the Orange Army grew even stronger with the arrival of my younger Sister, her partner, my Niece and their crazy dog named Peggy.

Keen to join in, Peggy somehow accidentally got off her lead and momentarily joined the parkrunners (and without a valid barcode too...oops!) My brother managed to catch her and order was restored as he ran the 2nd lap with Peggy, which was quite cool considering he had done the first lap with another dog, Max!

I was quite happy as I approached the finish line, managing to find a sprint finish from somewhere. I hadn't had one of those in a long while.

Rather than hang around too long by the finish as we usually would, we made our way into the cafe for a well deserved hot drink. Despite the thoroughly grim weather conditions that day, it was great to get another parkrun under my belt and I'm truly grateful for everyone's support - thank you all!

This particular parkrun event really highlighted the need for volunteers - people generously choosing to give their time and effort freely, to help others, especially when it's easier not to bother, for one reason or another.

I certainly felt the support of the Old Deer Park parkrun team (volunteers and fellow runners as well as the core team) and also the friends & family kindly accompanying me on this, the 3rd last run of my Challenge.

As I've said before, it's definitely the people that make parkrun. Thank you Old Deer Park for such a warm welcome on such a cold and soggy day.

Next up: SIXFIELDS UPTON

Please click here for my Just Giving page - raising funds for the MS Society charity

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/olddeerpark/