What a big week in the non-canine world. The Bake Off Final, the Rugby World Cup final and even more politics…..
So I’m back parkrunning again this weekend just as he promised but before sharing my latest parkrun tails a little pupdate on my blog. I was delighted to see that my wee blog has now had over 1,000 hits (and over 500 individual visitors) so nice to know I’m not just talking to myself even if most of Jim’s human friends think we’re both barking mad. What do they know? Thanks for reading and for your nice comments.
Today was going to be my first day at University as we tackled University of Stirling parkun. Could I be the best in class?
It seems like university campuses have suddenly become popular parkrun locations, with Oriam (on Heriot-Watt campus) starting today too. Northern Ireland though leads the way.
This week’s Crumble factoid: on its opening in 1967 Stirling was the first new university to be established in Scotland for nearly 400 years.
Stirling is a city rich in history and we passed Bannockburn, the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle on our way so from early on it felt like a special day. I wasn’t really paying attention but the human kept going on about having done two Stirling marathons and worrying that the climb into the campus might bring back flashbacks.
By complete coincidence we are once again following one week behind Douglas Mason’s parkrun tourism around Scotland. We had a wee look at his brilliant video again and that confirmed this week’s plans.
This was week 4 of this new parkrun. It seems to be off to a great start with between 200 and 300 each week. The human mentioned something about a parkrun p index but I’d already been to the loo so not sure why he thought that was even relevant.
I was delighted to be christening my new paw print parkrun dogs official bandana from Sally Ann Sews. Even if I say so myself I think it looks good on me. What do you think? It’s already in the washing machine!
We arrived super early today which meant an extra long warm up and explore around the grounds before the run. After almost 24 hours of rainfall it’s fair to say it was a bit wet and muddy in places. We decided on the run through rather than run round puddle technique though I maybe regretted that later.
It’s a great course, relatively flat, mainly trail, lochside and with some stunning scenery especially this time of year. Pretty much two laps of the Loch with a few glimpses of the Wallace Monument. I did try to shout FREEDOM but he kept me on the lead all the way round. A time around 25 minutes was a realistic target again for us but the puddles slowed me down a bit and I went on a go slow protest at a couple of them. We ended up around 25:30 which is respectable enough. That was a lot easier than Queen’s Park last week!
I counted 7 or 8 dogs today so maybe the most I’ve ever seen at parkrun. I think I managed to be come first or second though of course it’s a run not a race etc etc.
Last weekend I got to meet cockapoo Charlie. This week it was dad’s turn to be starstruck. If you don’t already know he’s a huge Deacon Blue fan so he was beside himself to discover that drummer and BBC Scotland presenter Dougie Vipond is a regular here. He was too cool/polite to ask for a picture so took a creepy secret selfie instead and implicated me in this heinous crime. Not sure what’s worse. Well I am actually. The latter by a long way. He’s so embarrassing.
There was no cafe trip this week as we were both a bit muddy but we stopped off for a bacon roll at Flanders Rest in Buchlyvie on the way home. Result!
So another great day out and another new parkrun ticked off. That’s my 12th different parkrun and the human’s 24th different parkrun so I’m well on the way to being an official parkrun tourist (I need to do over 20 different ones apparently) and he will bag his Quarter Cowell next week.
University of Stirling parkrun is a real cracker and another competitor for the most perfect parkrun setting in Scotland. They’ve got a fantastic and very welcoming and supportive bunch of volunteers too. We would thoroughly recommend a trip.
Bath time for me.
Crumble out!
Let's get ready 4 Crumble 