Back when I started this – what is it, a blog ? a website ? – thing, I had put the Jersey marathon as one of my target races. I guess the Jersey Parkrun is basically the same thing when you’re tight on time, fitness and motivation.

We’d done the Jersey parkrun on our last visit in 2018 so this wasn’t entirely unknown territory. Back in the days, I was a significantly better runner and I remember setting off in the lead for the first lap or so, which certainly wasn’t going to be the case this time around.

Meeting the locals

It was even less likely to be the case as I was pushing Maëlie around too using our town buggy – not even the running buggy, which is definitely not designed for running: at any kind of pace over 10km/h, the front wheels start wobbling so the best way to do that is to lift the front wheels up and sort of double-wheelie her around the course.

This was fine when I was paying attention and using both hands but, when I decided to only use one at one point and almost careered into another runner … it wasn’t. Note to self: don’t kill the offspring (or other runners).

The course itself is pretty straight forward: two 1km or so tarmac laps of a park before taking a turn towards the old railroad which is now more of a (nice) dirt path than anything else.

Running with a town buggy on tarmac is fine, even though it did require some concentration.

Running on slightly sticky muddy paths requires less concentration as the buggy (which, by the way, is NOT designed for 1m95 runners – max 1m80 I reckon) stays in lane more but this is basically because it’s sticking to the ground which makes this de facto sledge … bloody hard to push.

Nonetheless, it was soon after we joined the sticky path that I caught up and overtook Pippa (muahaha), though I was also then overtaken by another guy with a buggy (f*ck him, he had a running buggy).

Definitely not designed for “racing”….

By the end, the buggy was brown as were my legs, my lungs were red raw, and my face – drained of its blood, was some shade of white. This was tough, though I’m not sure how surprising it is as I was basically pushing a 15kg sledge & baby for 3km at “full pelt”!

Not long after we finished running, it started raining. And some more. 3 days later, it was still raining and a winter storm (in August) forced us to leave the island early to avoid being stuck a few days. Island life eh…

Time: 23’34 (54th/345)

Scenery

Difficulty

Speed