Woof woof. Well hello there. I’m Crumble.

Someone (yes you know who you are) suggested I might make a good canine parkrun blogger so I’m going to give it a go and see if you enjoy hearing my tails.

I’m a two year old Australian labradoodle. I will be three on 5 December just in case you want to take a note of that. I live in Glasgow with two 40-something humans who work for me (and my fellow pets), their two teenage boys, Maizie (the older less cute and less articulate dog) and Pixie (the annoying cat who can be a bit of a bully sometimes). Over the last few years human number 1 (let’s call him Jim) has become a bit of a running obsessive. If he’s not running, he’s thinking about running, entering races, buying running gear, checking Strava or talking about running on social media or to the rest of his very bored household. Seriously the guy needs to get a life.

18 months or so back he decided to force me along on one of his running “adventures”. To be honest I think it’s just so he can pretend to do his share of the dog walking duties at home. I thought he said barkrun at first but parkrun it was. That damn vet needs to properly clear my ears out next time. I decided to give it a go. parkrun: at least the first part of the name sounds good; maybe not so keen on the second part. And don’t they know anything about punctuation? Where’s the capital P?

And so over the last couple of years I have fallen in love with parkrun though I’m apparently still not allowed my own barkcode. I’ve run mainly at Drumchapel, Ruchill and Springburn where, without being cocky about it, I’ve beaten most dogs that have dared to take me on. I’ve even lapped a few humans too which was great fun. Don’t give me that “it’s not a race” parkrun ethos nonsense. It’s a dog eat dog world out there. Well not literally I hope.

Unfortunately Maizie is a bit older and has arthritis in her joints so she can’t join me but I tell her all about my parkrun adventures too.

I’ve made so many friends at parkrun and, I’m not going to lie, I think I’m one of the coolest and fastest parkrun dogs in Scotland. I would be much faster if I was running with a proper athlete though. The marshalls and other runners are always far happier to see me than Jim and some even bring me treats like vegan cakes (I’m no vegan but I’ll pretend to be anything for cake to be honest) and gravy bones. I’m a bit scared of small humans so I’m sorry if I’ve ever growled at your small humans. I used to be very timid and nervous generally but parkrun was very good at socialising me (whatever that means).

Over the summer we did some parkrun tourism (whatever that is). Some involved an hour in the car and I was worried I was finally being taken to the pound. Why anyone would drive for an hour to run when you’ve got a park just round the corner from the house is anyone’s guess but I went along with it. We visited Polkemmet, Plean, Ayr and Eglinton with some of Jim’s friends including Evie in the buggy. I mean I’m not one to cast aspersions but surely that’s just cheating?

The highlight was the cafe at Eglinton where my reward for a sub 25 minute parkrun was a roll with scrambled egg and a potato scone on the side. I don’t think the cafe staff were too impressed when they realised it was for me but it was amazing so who cares. And can you believe he made me pose with the selfie frame at Ayr? How embarrassing!

Anyway that’s a bit about me and hopefully you get the gist. I hope we can be friends. I’ll blog whenever I’m allowed to parkrun…

Spoiler alert – I ran this morning so watch this space…