EDIT: This post was started back in February the day after it happened but only now, 3 months on, have I finally published it. In lockdown…

Yet another Parkrun post but this one’s a good one! I’m sat on the floor of a packed train headed for Liverpool Lime Street cutting through the rain and wind that is storm Ciara, but that’s another story…

Rewind to 28 hours earlier and myself and Kirsty were lining up at Bushy Parkrun, the definitive Parkrun, where it all began back in 2004. Both in our respective club shirts, eagerly awaiting the start, along with over 1400 others.

Rewind to another 48 hours earlier, it was my birthday. I knew we would be going away for the weekend and it would be somewhere good doing some things I’d like. The reveal was, a weekend in London to visit some cool places, catch up with some friends and RUN BUSHY PARKRUN! I wondered while writing my previous Parkrun article, when I would get the opportunity to run Bushy, turns out, I didn’t have to wait long at all!

There was a further update to my birthday weekend reveal which came in the form of an entry into the London Winter 10k on Sunday Feb 9th. It looked like a great 10k, taking in some of the famous London landmarks along the way. So a weekend of iconic running in London was on the cards starting with Bushy Parkrun.

Something we didn’t for-see was the inconvenience of storm Ciara, due to hit the UK on Sunday. We’d had update emails regarding the Winter 10k advising us that the event organisers were keeping an eye on things. At around 5pm on Friday we receive the news we’d been dreading. The Winter 10k was off, due to the weather forecast. Downbeat but not downtrodden, we still had plenty of other things to look forward to including Bushy Parkrun, surely that wouldn’t be canceled?

The reveal was, a weekend in London to visit some cool places, catch up with some friends and RUN BUSHY PARKRUN!

It was an early start on Saturday morning. Weather looked good and the temperature was pretty mild. So the 6:30 get up wasn’t too bad. The plan was to leave about 7:15 and jump on the tube one stop to Waterloo where we could get a rail service to Teddington, the nearest station to Bushy Park.

The travel was fairly painless and we’d soon walked the 10 or so minutes from the station to the entrance on Bushy Park.

What struck me about Bushy was the size of the park. It was very much like the grounds of a National Trust property with a drive through the middle which saw a steady stream of cars heading in.

Everywhere around the start area there were runners stretching, going for a quick jog to warm up and groups just casually chatting, much like any other Parkrun but this almost had the feel of a race event with the number of people.

Before the start we wanted some photographs, taking in the iconic tree of Bushy and the Parkrun sign. It turns out they don’t have an event sign, the large ‘pop-up’ type you see at many Parkrun events which was a shame. They did however have a ‘social media photo frame’ so we still got some Bushy photos!

It was time to make our way to the start line. It was perhaps the craziest parkrun start line I’ve ever been on due to the sheer number of participants. It felt much more like a larger city race, just less restrictive. Once the announcements were complete and the hooter signalled the start, it was like being a part of the biggest game of British Bulldog you’ve ever seen. There were lots of giggles and shouts of excitement and phones in the air capturing the moment for posterity, as for most people, this was a pilgrimage as much as a Parkrun.

The route was varied, lots of bumpy ground, soft grass, some not so nice mud and some comfortable paths. All of the many marshalls (and there were many) were very friendly and encouraging and as soon as the run started, it was over. I managed my usual sprint to the finish line ready to take my place in the funnel, only at Bushy, they do things a little different…

So the first thing you notice is that there are two funnel lines, side by side and my initial thought was, how is this going to work? I’m never going to get the correct time. I did of course and it is as simple as splitting all of the runners into small groups signified by the person at the font holding a letter of the alphabet. Once all those people represented by that letter have been scanned, the next letter is on the other side and they keep alternating to get everyone scanned. A neat little way to have a larger funnel area and keep things moving.

So that was Bushy. A few more photos at the end and then we headed back towards the station to get back into the centre of London. Storm Ciara may have taken the winter 10K from us but thankfully it didn’t steal my chance to run at Bushy. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to actually publish this. The world has changed a lot since I started tapping this into my phone on a crowded train while cursing Ciara. Thankfully my love for running is still the same…