It was fortunate that Saturday June 22nd was close to being the longest day of the year. Faced with a three hour drive to Queen Elizabeth park run to finish my park run A to Z and 100th different park run I needed to be up, awake and on the road for just after 5am. Despite it being light even before then I failed to wake and was only saved by it rousing my son (who was accompanying me on the venture). Away we went.

As is often the case the journey down was not without incident. It involved a large stretch of the M1 that is currently under 50 mph average speed restrictions. One lorry driver seemed especially unimpressed (might expect better from a Waitrose employee) and insisted on flashing lights and beeping behind me while I respected the 50 mph average speed limit. Does anyone know if these average speed checks work or do lorry drivers have information that us mere mortals don’t?

Anyway having then safely negotiated parts of the M25 after the M1 we arrived at the beautifully appointed Queen Elizabeth Country Park with nearly an hour to spare before the start of the run. This gave us ample opportunity to look at the course more closely. I already knew it was a difficult one from what I’d read and first contact with a volunteer confirmed this concern. The challenge of Queen Elizabeth adding considerable extra time to what he had achieved on flatter courses.

This acquired knowledge didn’t do justice to actually walking it though. Although I’ve done a few of the harder ones (including Whinlatter Forest) this one can best be described as undulating generally and featuring a very very long uphill stretch. It is many years since I’ve achieved a personal best at park run and this definitely wasn’t going to change today.

So to the run itself. The good news is the very very long uphill stretch that you have to do twice isn’t quite so bad the first time round as you are walked part of the way up it to the start line. Even so I was mighty relieved to reach the brow and be plunged into some downhill grassy part. Danger lurked though. I was going fast (for me) and felt I was about to slip at any moment. That’s before you hit the tight hairpin bend.

I couldn’t really tell you too much about what happened beyond that. Except that I spent increasing amounts of time telling myself motivational slogans like ‘nothing worth having comes easy’. The part where you have to do the very very long hill fully was the worst I’ve ever felt at park run. That includes the one I did after a night drinking with my best mate Big Brucie that ended at 3am with a large kebab.

After what seemed like an eternity I had a vague idea of where the end was and that it was getting into range. I was joined by my son (who had already finished in a creditably high position) to help me get there. Although he seemed unimpressed that I was trying to talk. That proved I wasn’t trying hard enough apparently. Another gentleman was running alongside us by now. The amount of huffing and puffing emanating suggested he was also regretting his life choices at that particular moment.

Then mercifully it was over. An A to Z of park runs and 100 different ones representing two satisfying ticks on my bucket list. Celebrations were limited to some expensively priced water before a nightmare journey back on packed motorways ensued. Time for more motivational slogans (no pain no gain?). Next week it will be back to a local park run and a differently themed blog.