Albert parkrun

After a stinker of a hot night with lots of tossing and turning, it was a welcome relief to wake up to a cooler though very humid morning. I was off to run in the first parkrun for 2013, and my first ever parkrun. In Melbourne it’s held at Albert Park every Saturday, 8am. So I jogged up to the start with the all-important barcode tucked in my pocket. This barcode is important – no barcode, no result.

There were 112 runners including 41 newbies (I was one of them). After a quick rundown of the course and what to do once we’d crossed the finish line, we were off on a 5km timed run. Given that I had done my long run yesterday in the heat I wasn’t feeling particularly zippy today however I gradually got into a steady rhythm (ie found my groove so to speak) and by the finish I was feeling pretty good (which was reassuring as I still had to run home!).

Apparently I finished 51st so close to the middle of the field, and 10th woman. I was second in my age group. It was a well organised event and results are emailed to you later in the day. Will I do another one? I think so – maybe even next Saturday at Lake Ginninderra.

Later in the day we went to Melbourne zoo. I haven’t been to a zoo in years. It was a lot of fun, especially the monkey enclosures. The elephant walk and orangutan enclosures have been designed to mimic an Asian rainforest, with lots of bamboo, creepers and other greenery. Many of the lions, tigers and the brown bear were sleeping although every now and then the lions would let out a few mighty roars. The baby elephants were so cute, rolling around in the dirt and sitting on each other! We finished off with the meerkats – funny little characters that spend a lot of their time up on their back legs looking around.

“Make good things happen.” – Author Unknown

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