On a beautiful bright crisp winter morning at the picturesque Dinton Pastures, Reading it was great to have a few hours of happiness in what has been a very tough sad personal week for me and my mum!

Parkrun community

One thing I love about parkrun is so many positive things can happen at 9am every Saturday morning and Reading kept giving and giving with celebrating parkrun milestones, meeting tourist friends, an inspirational volunteer and a exceptional running fundraiser, wow!

Reading’s Finest

First of all two inspirational members of Reading parkrun community, first up is Ray Jones who has reached the hallowed milestone of completing 250 events, who was very welcoming to us all and my I say that your celebration cakes were delicious, a running achievement to be proud of sir!

Next up is Chris Smith with over 250 volunteers to his name is a hi vis hero for Reading parkrun who Marshall’s the vital position on this winter course, directing runners in which route to take around the lake depending on what lap they are on!

Chris the outstanding commitment you have shown to your community should be applauded by everyone who loves parkrun!

Tourist community

One thing is always a delight is meeting old and making new parkrun friends at different locations, so today I welcomed back Martin Ball, Kevin Brown, Terry Garner and met for the first time the lovely Luscombe family that consists of Adrian, Sarah and Daisy, great to meet you guy’s!

Inspirational runner

for the record I have met some great characters on my amazing tours, so to my delight and amazement at run briefing who would turn up none other than Matthew Melling aka The Wigan Runner orchestrating a selfie with the whole of Reading parkrun community, I cannot keep writing this material as no one will believe me 🙂

For the record this selfless runner is fundraising for different very worthy causes for his local community by continually running daily 5k with today at Reading he was on day 413 of his adventure!

I feel that I have met a kindred spirit in Matthew as in 2016-17 I completed a year of fundraising for my local hospice through my capital parkrun adventures!

Matthew I salute you for all the hard work you put in for your worthy causes, outstanding body of work mate!

Course

This was their winter course that takes place at Dinton Pastures that consists of 3 anti-clockwise laps that incorporates both Black and White Swan lakes.

The first two shorter laps are run around the strip of land that buffers both lakes, but the final longer lap is run around the entire parameter of White Swan lake!

This is a very flat course as you would expect running around lakes and the surface is a mixture of compact earth/gravel paths!

Points to Note

• There was a few pools of mud and water on the path but overall was in good order
• The surface overall still only warranted normal trainers as trail shoes would have been overkill!
• As with most parkruns you run onto grass to the finish funnel that was short but quite tricky on this course
• Please remember that when course conditions are favourable Reading preferred course is Thames Valley Park

My time today was 35:48 that under the circumstances of not running this week I was happy with this level of fitness!

Finally loved the little touches that make each parkrun unique in the case it was the fun rubber chicken squeaky toy that you squeeze when your run a PB as modelled by my good friend Martin 🙂

Facilities

There is paid parking available at Dinton Pastures Sat Nav location RG10 0TH, toilets are available from 8.30am at the Dragonfly cafe and you can buy your parking from the cafe as well!

For that post run coffee we could have not asked for a more lovely cafe than The Dragonfly

Final Verdict

I would like to thank today’s run director Peter Reilly and his team of volunteers for making us all feel extremely welcome and part of your community!

So finally with a great flat 3 lap winter course around the lakes of Dinton Pastures is a must destination for any parkrun tourist, you have been told!

Best Mark aka The Silent Runner

Event 78 Homewood 24-02-2018

Extra News

Just like to say I am very proud to receive a Special Award from Stopsley Striders my hometown club for my parkrun adventures where I am honoured to be a coach of you all 🙂