The parkrun 20202020 Challenge - Number 3

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Since the second of my 20 parkruns in under 20 minutes in 2020 a great deal has changed. Coronavirus has appeared and parkrun is suspended until at least the end of May. I have also moved from Folkestone to Lewisham in London.

At one point I had decided to abandon the challenge until next year when I would get a full 52 weeks to achieve it. That didn't feel right. It had to be 20202020 not 20202021 or 20212021. So I have decided to continue the challenge by running parkrun locations on my own or with others at least 2m apart.

The first of these, and my third of the twenty, was in Catford. The parkrun takes place at Mountsfield Park, half a mile from my house. It involves three clockwise laps of an undulating course on grass, tarmac and woodchip trail.

It was a clear, warm spring morning when I started next to the bandstand. The route took me 50 yards to the children's playground that has been locked up, left onto the grass around the activities and along a line of tall birch trees. A dogleg right brought me off the small field and back onto a tarmac path on a steep descent.

Halfway down it was a sharp right turn onto another larger circular field. An anticlockwise lap of this and I re-joined the downhill section now heading clockwise again. There is a long stretch of woodchip trail here along the bottom of the hill. About a quarter of a mile later the path turns right and heads steeply back up towards the bandstand.

Rather than turning right to complete a lap I ran straight on around the local vegetable gardens, wild area, café and toilet block bringing me back to the bandstand from behind to start another lap. This was the same as the first. The third one missed out the little loop after the uphill section finishing with a short 0.1 sprint.

I managed to finish in 19:07 and I'm confident I could go sub 19 with others to pull me along. It helped that there were few others around as I ran at 6am!



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