Last time I did a parkrun while visiting Toronto, in 2018, the nearest event was Whitby, which is a good hour or two away on the train. In 2019, the first parkrun started up in Toronto proper – Downsview parkrun – and I made plans to visit in 2020.

2020 was 2020, and for various reasons I’ve not been able to get back out to Canada until now. It’s been a long seven-year wait to visit Downsview! But we finally made it this last Saturday, and despite some awful weather, it was worth the wait.

It was a really cold, windy, rainy morning and the Downsview course is very exposed. It’s also about a mile to walk from the station to the start, so Geth and I were pretty frozen by the time we got there. As such, we made the decision to take it easy and run in all our layers. Despite this, it took me until the final lap (of three) to thaw out and feel like I could move my legs properly! I was quite surprised to finish in 28:16 as the cold made me feel so slow.

It was so much fun though because the team were so friendly and so were the other runners. As is often the case outside the UK, it was a small field (only 35 runners – there may well be a lot more on nicer days!) and everyone was having a laugh together.

I like to tick off different parkruns (and will be doing so again next week) but I may be tempted to revisit this one on a nicer day during a future visit.

Just sneaking in with last week’s parkrunday post before the next parkrunday arrives! It’s been a bit of a week 😴😵‍💫

It was another attempt at the Town Moor two-lapper – seventh in a row I believe. I was keen to knock more time off the season’s best and I did by about another 45 seconds (chased somebody round whom I know does about 25 usually in order to give myself a good chance of getting back under 26; came in at 25:26 in the end). I would love to get back down to my PB zone of 23:2x by late summer, so hopefully I’ll keep chipping away as I go through my various half marathon training blocks for 2026.

Taper and tourism for a couple of weeks now, and then I’ll get back to it.

Another week, another trip to Town Moor. According to my logs, I’ve not done the same event so many times in a row since early 2018! It was another tough run in the wind so my result was seven seconds slower than last week, but still consistent. Hoping for SB weather again next week.

One more run on the Moor planned next week and then we’re a bit further afield again.

It was lovely to be at the celebratory 700th Town Moor parkrun, especially as (a) it was Easter weekend and (b) it’s still the two-lap course 😀

I did step up the effort level a smidge this time (aided by nylon plate shoes and the fact that it wasn’t blowing a gale like it had been the weekend before; Storm Dave was yet to arrive in Newcastle), but I was pretty surprised at the end to find I’d taken two minutes off my time from the previous attempt! Still a long way from PB shape but we’ll keep chipping away.

Broke my streak of weekly improvement at Town Moor today, but given the high winds I’m not too fussed. Keeping a consistent effort week on week.

Expecting to be back on the Moor next week to celebrate the big 700th event!