Breaking my Parkrun duck!

Parkrun is something I've wanted to do for years. About 3 at least I think as I'm sure there was one at Wimbledon Common but I've always been torn that Saturday morning should be long run day.

However, being as apart from a 5km last weekend, I can count the number of times I've run in the last 3 months on one hand, that argument kinda goes out of the window. As I've heard nothing but good things, I signed up around 3 weeks ago to get me back into running but then a Ofsted visit plus other commitments like Segway racing happened and I haven't got to one. My local Parkrun is Nonsuch but I'm yet to actually get there. Instead, it was a visit to my parents this weekend that allowed me to do the Maldon one with a friend of mine who'd 'never been but always meant to go' as well.

It was a lot of fun, fully recommended and I now have a time to beat of 24:04 (time delivered to my mobile) which I'm pretty damn pleased with. (The weight loss seems to have helped the pace) I then ran back to my parents which was exactly 3km and I managed to do that bang on 15 minutes so kept the pace up well. 8km at a good pace with my first Parkrun complete. A good start to the weekend!

Segway Rally. The only way to travel

Being unstable on 2 wheels is quite a strange experience for me considering how many miles I clock up on the bike in a month so when faced with this, I realised I had something to learn... and quickly!

THE BEAST 

This is a segway but not one of those things lazy people use to look around European cities... no, no, no. This is the off road version and a LOT of fun. That is once you realise how to use it. Everything you've learnt up to this point goes out of the window. To go left or right, you lean that big metal stick left or right. It doesn't turn like a bike so takes some getting used to. Forward and back is achieved by funnily enough, leaning forward and back. That's everything there is to it so after a bit of training (beautifully shown by eatingtrees below), we hit the woods and the fun began!

GO BETWEEN THE CONES. IT'S FOOTBALL TRAINING ESSENTIALLY

We then had around 30 minutes to race around this woodland course and where as everyone was nervous and wary at first, by the end, most people were attempting to go flat out along the straights before zig zagging through the chicanes of trees. It's an awesome thing to do and for under £40 from the lovely people at Activity Superstore, it's cracking value. Even better if there's more than one of you. Just make sure you don't end up on You Tube under the banner of 'segway fails'. There are a LOT!

GOING SO FAST, THE CAMERA CAN'T EVEN CATCH ME!