Heartbreak and Wild Boars

Alex Portwine reports on her tough marathon in the New Forest:

“Heartbreaker Marathon, New Forest, 23rd Feb. A very windy day, and some steep hills, meant this was an exercise in mental strength more than physical! It was a lovely part of the New Forest, but to be honest, I was tired of the same scenery by the time I’d finished the third loop of the course. Kept the positivity flowing by shouting encouragement to all the other runners for the last 6 miles…my voice is more tired than my legs this morning!! And the medal was lovely…crafted in pewter effect metal with a broken heart and trees engraved on it (better than a lot of small races where they buy them from a standard catalogue). 04:03:52, 75th, 9th woman, 3rd in age cat. Hope everyone else who raced or trained this weekend had a good one!”

Meanwhile Rafal Tkaczyk was also running round in circles – different woodland, different country:

“I ran “the Wild Boar Race” yesterday in my hometown in Poland. It was a loop of 4.8k that you could run once, twice, three or 4 times. Of course running less than 4 times was not an option so it was nearly 20k of fun for me waiting ahead. It was a nice, sunny day with a temperature just over 0. The start of a race was just a pure chaos, total DIY, it was meant to start 11am but started about 10 minutes later without any sort of announcement. I just saw people rushing from every direction to the start line. I ended up in the middle of the pack which with over 400 runners and narrow wood trails didn’t look good. Anyway, I fought my way through and passed over 200 runners on my first loop. It was much easier from then as people were dropping off after each loop and I could enjoy the run and nice scenery. I finished in 1.25.21 and was 20th out of 160 of those who run 4 loops.”

Congratulations to Keith Gilbert on completing his 100th parkrun just in time to get one of the special jackets before they are phased out:

“I completed my 100th Whitstable Parkrun yesterday. Due to injury I walked the course, apart from the last kilometre. This was another alternative course to accommodate recent wet weather, I was managing sub:8 minute kms, until I reached a long muddy stretch, by the time I had finished stumbling through the mud and puddles I was averaging 8:18 min/kms. However I finished in 39:12- 171/175. I also clocked up 1,500 miles on the bike, cycling to and from this event, to achieve 100. I was kindly presented with a specially baked vegan cake, with candles and 100 on it, after the event. Now it’s another 150 to join the 250 Club……”

Keith Gilbert completes his 100th parkrun

Keith Gilbert completes his 100th parkrun

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