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Andover parkrun 217/234

[[tl;dr - Wendy did her 250th parkrun - congratulations]]

The plan was to look after my blistered heel and have a nice, gentle wander round with Wendy¹ for her 250th parkrun. Like all the "best-laid plans" of pottery figures², it doesn't always work out like that.

So I started off right at the back, shambling round with the tail walkers Colin and James (who's broken again, but that's probably another story - get thee to a physiotherapist, James), intending to have a bit of a jog to catch Wendy up. There was a bit of a hiatus when we came across a huddle of people gathered around the remains of a runner who'd fallen - nasty scraped shin, but didn't otherwise look too broken; I hope she's all right. The first aid kit arrived at full pelt; Colin stayed and James & I carried on in hot pursuit of the lady who had, up to then, been leading the race to be last person in.

At this point, I reckoned that getting a move on to try to catch Wendy up would be a smart move, so I threw caution to the winds and hussled on as fast as my podgy carcass and sore foot would allow. It turns out that the foot much prefers running to walking: I guess the heel doesn't make friends with the ground so much if I keep up a decent(ish) pace. The excess tonnage offered no such mitigating excuses.

Lee significantly demoralised me when I met him around three quarters of the way around my first lap: "she's half way round her second lap" he said. Instead of wondering what was going on, I just thought "oh, bugger" and tried a bit harder³.

Eventually I finished without catching her and thought I'd better find her to say congratulations but she'd evaporated. Ian had said to me, when I passed him, that she was behind me, but I didn't see how that could possibly be true. She wasn't wearing a carnation in her buttonhole or anything, but I was pretty confident of recognising her, even from behind (no smutty jokes, guys).

It turns out that she'd taken a shortcut from the fallen runner to the café, flagged Ian down to run to get first aid and then returned before carrying on. I guess that's why Lee thought she was way ahead and that it was when I magically overtook her.

Having figured some of that out when Ian finished, I jogged back and was at least able to join her crowd of fans for her last third of a lap.

Well done, Wendy!

¹ she'd said she was intending to take it easy and walk: no slight intended.

² I shouldn't do this (Sarah says, or was it "never give in, never surrender"? I forget), but here goes: Meissen men. Work the rest out for yourselves.

³ without actually achieving anything, it has to be said.

Split Summary
===
1) 0.62m - 13:48(22:13/m) 81cal
2) 0.62m - 5:24(8:41/m) 54cal
3) 0.62m - 5:18(8:32/m) 69cal
4) 0.62m - 5:14(8:25/m) 61cal
5) 0.62m - 5:18(8:37/m) 59cal