Parkrun first lady

Last week, I was the first lady across the line for the third time (out of a total of 273 parkruns I’ve run). To me, being first lady is a great achievement – especially as I’m 49 now and not quite as fast as I used to be.

My home parkrun is a big one – with around 400 runners every week – so it’s impossible for me to get first lady there. I’ve come second a small number of times, but at the moment I’m usually around 10th to 15th. So the only way for someone like me to get first lady is to go to a smaller parkrun.

I wasn’t specifically chasing first lady when I went to Tewkesbury parkrun. It was just the best place for us to be there that morning. Generally speaking, we only do parkrun tourism (running at different parkruns) when it’s the convenient thing for us that day – as we need to be somewhere else for whatever reason.

We ended up doing Tewkesbury parkrun two consecutive weeks.

It is a four lap course, which starts off with a downhill. A combination of the downhill and the much lower numbers meant I went flying down the hill on the first week and was right up with the leaders. By the time I’d run about a third of the first lap, I felt like I was going to die. But I regulated my pace and my breathing, and I kept running. I was right on my husband’s shoulder and I stayed there for the whole run.

I wasn’t first lady – a young girl who is the sister of a very good athlete we know was way out in front – but I was comfortably second lady. I was very happy with my fastest time of the year – 23:10, overall position of 17th, second lady and finishing one place and one second behind my husband.

When we ended up at Tewkesbury again the following week, I wondered if I would be as quick. Knowing how dreadful I felt at the start of the run, would I be able to put myself through that again?

The very quick girl wasn’t there, but there were a couple of other women there who looked like they might be fast.

We started running down the hill and this time my husband and I were even closer to the front – third and fourth. When I got to the bottom of the hill, a few men overtook me. But there was no sign of any women. I felt just as dreadful as I had done the previous week, but I regulated my breathing and my pace again and kept running.

Towards the end of the first lap, I felt I could overtake my husband. He tried to stop me (he’s very competitive), but couldn’t manage. So I kept running and left him behind.

There were definitely no women ahead of me or close behind me. My time didn’t look any better than the previous week though.

I ran down the hill and crossed the line in seventh place overall – my best overall finishing position ever. I was first lady and finished in 23:09 – one second faster than the previous week and a new fastest time for the year. I beat my husband by over a minute!

Will that be my last ever time of getting first lady? Possibly. I’m not getting any younger and I know I’m a little bit past my peak. But I’m proud that I’ve achieved it three times as an ordinary woman in her late 40s who has never been to a running club or had any coaching.

I was previously first lady at Gloucester North in December 2018 and Sandwell Valley in January 2020.

Tewkesbury parkrun was actually my first attempt at parkrun tourism, way back in January 2017. Remarkably, I hadn’t been back there until now.