My internal road atlas has some towns in the wrong place. It puts Gateshead in Kent, Pontefract in Wales, and Billericay in Ireland. So I got a little bit of a shock when I drove past Billericay on the way to Southend parkrun. Followed by a moment of panic when I drove past the “you are leaving Southend” sign before I arrived at my destination. It turns out that Southend parkrun is really in Shoeburyness.
It’s a nice course. Three flat laps by the seaside, after which we piled back to a nearby cafe for coffee. Or we would have done if it had been open. But it wasn’t, so instead we all ended up at the neighbouring Harvester. I don’t think they quite knew what had hit them.
Best of all was the company. I was expecting Shazruns and Fortnight Flo but also crossed paths with Paul “top of the most events table” Freyne, Susan “also done more than 50 different events” Freyne, Timothy “took a while to catch the tourist bug, but I’ve well and truly got it now” Williams and Norman “I’m an ultimate ironman and so hard I can even run in leather ankle boots” Driskell.
Perfect.
abradypus 
Sorry I missed it 😦
Well done on another inaugural parkrun! I saw from the facebook photos on the Southend parkrun page that my nephew was running just behind you – it’s a small world!
Your nephew has a shrewd tactical brain. His shoelaces came undone but rather than stop immediately he waited until he needed a breather before doing one up…ran on and then used the other as an excuse for another breather. I have noted this tactic for future use!
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