Over the Christmas holidays, I was compelled (a visit was due anyway) to return to sunny South Africa for the first time in five years - my first Christmas back in SA in 7 years - by my cousin's desire to marry a gun-toting children's pastor (lovely chap).

As part of my holiday back home, I decided I'd venture out to see what South Africa's first and only (at the moment) parkrun was like. It'd been a very very very long time since I last ran in South Africa, let alone raced, and from the one other run I'd had in Jo'burg during my hols, a gentle 10k, I knew it would be a toughie.

So nice and early on Christmas eve, I bundled my wife into the car and we headed down to Delta Park for a quick spin round the park (me - my wife doesn't run). We got there with about half an hour to spare so I could warm up and introduce myself to the organiser - the one and only, Bruce Fordyce. During the intros it came to light there were quite a few of us "foreign" bods there. There was me, another chap from Cambridge (also a Saffer) and 3 Kiwis, all doing our first SA parkrun. It was also a much larger turn out than expected with 24 people, which isn't bad considering up until that point the record had been 31 with absolutely no publicity.

Around about 9am we all gathered for a photo...

... and set off for what is probably the toughest parkrun you'll encounter. Due to Delta Park's location and the general geography of Johannesburg, hills are unavoidable, and boy is this a hilly run. Thankfully it's only a single-lapper (I prefer single lap runs) scenic run with a good mix of trails, grass and tar. I've only done the Reading and the Delta Park parkruns (note to self: I really must aim to do other parkruns this year) and I definitely prefer the Delta Park run.

A combination of the altitude, hills and varied terrain saw me finish in 7th place in a rather slow time of 21:43. You'd be amazed how much of an impact altitude has on your running performance - it's really hard work running at about 1600m above sea level, especially up hill, after only training at sea level for several years.

Unfortunately, things didn't go well for everyone...

Perhaps Aristotle was correct or perhaps it's because we South Africans are still bitter about the rugby World Cup but we somehow contrived to welcome our All Black friends by planting a snake (suspected Rinkhals- spitting cobra) in the first 300 metres of open grassland. A few minutes after we had set off Kelly hobbled back with a bite above her ankle.

Kelly was rushed off to hospital where she was treated and discharged a couple of hours later. The doctors were not entirely convinced that she had suffered a snake bite-. And we comforted ourselves by remembering that many venomous snakes are extremely reluctant to exhaust their poison in defense prefering to save venom for their prey. In other words they bite often but don't expel poison. The Rinkhals much prefers fat rats, toads and other snakes to skinny Kiwis.

— Christmas Eve 2011 Race Report

You'll never get that kind of excitement and action at a parkrun in the UK.

Sadly, I didn't get the chance to run another parkrun whilst in SA, but Bruce plans on putting the marketing engine into full swing this year to get the word out that parkrun has made it to SA and needs runners. If all goes well, parkruns will be sprouting up all over South Africa in the next few years.

I wish them the best of luck and will definitely be bringing my barcode with me when I next visit South Africa.

Headed out for my third Reading Parkrun on my own this morning. My wife hasn't been sleeping too well, so I left her in bed this morning whilst I went off on another of my barefoot adventures.

I had a relatively good run today. I had intended on running at a consistent pace in the region of 3:48 to 3:54, but after a relatively quick first kilometre (I still don't go out gently enough), I started feeling a bit tired and settled in at a more relaxed pace. Finished off with a fast last km with a near-sprint at the end. Still managed a sub-20 so I'm happy. This run also tipped me over the 400km of running this year.

I'm running the Forest Five on Wednesday evening (probably in huaraches rather than barefoot as it's all offroad) and I'm on the early shift again next week, so I may not be up for another Parkrun next week, but I'll see how I feel.

This weeks results:

Time: 19:52
Overall Position: 12 / 122
Age Category Position: 2nd

For the second week in a row that crazy nutter was there at the Reading Parkrun running without any shoes. Don't believe me? Well check out the photos (more here):

Things were a lot cooler this week thanks to the clouds and light drizzle, but I think it was more conducive to running. I had a great run this morning, but unfortunately, I don't learn. Last week I mentioned I set off a bit fast, well this week I set off faster (3:25 for the first km) and found myself in the lead as we approached the bridge. It was at this point I realised I was being silly and backed off a bit and settled into a pace of around 4:00/km - the pace I planned on running the whole race at. To be honest, I don't think I could have kept up a pace much quicker thanks to my blistering start.

That said, I can't really grumble too much about my fast start as it meant I managed to smash a whopping 28 seconds off my time from last week setting a new personal best (PB). The overall pace of the race was a bit slower this week too, but I think everyone still had a great run.

So my results this week were:

Time: 19:41
Overall Position: 14 / 127
Age Category Position: 3rd

I think that's a good bit of speed work in preparation for Wednesday's Yateley 10k. I'll be doing that barefoot (though probably not anywhere near as fast as this 5k) so if you're there, watch out for the crazy fool - I'll be the one in the red shirt

Oh yes, and don't forget: Comrades online tomorrow morning.

Check it out, some crazy nutter did the Reading Parkrun yesterday morning completely barefoot...

And that nutter was ME . Yes folks, I have now technically done my first race in over 10 years and I did it barefoot. I opted for a mostly grassy 5k and it was fantastic.

I've been contemplating doing the Reading Parkrun for a while now however have always been put off by the weather or the fact I had to make my decision to run by 6pm the night before. Not anymore. On Friday morning I heard the weather was due to be glorious this weekend, so I thought I'd register for the Parkrun this weekend and give it a go. Well, things have changed since I last considered doing the Parkrun as now you only need to register once, print off your barcode and take it along to ANY Parkrun in the country. No more pre-registering the night before. Just turn up, run, and flash your barcode when they register your finish position. Brilliant.

So with myself registered and barcode printed, my wife and I got up early on Saturday morning and cycled down to Thames Valley Park. The weather was wonderful, as predicted, and there was quite a turnout. Apparently there were a record 115 entrants in yesterday's run. At 9am we were promptly started and things got off with a blistering pace. I somehow managed to get a little caught up in the excitement of it all and started off a little too quickly, but I soon settled into a comfortable pace and finished in a time of 20:09 - waaaaaay quicker than I was expecting. I was only aiming for somewhere around 23:00, so I'm chuffed to bits.

Of course, I suspect a lot of my great time has to do with the fact that the course is mostly grass. There is a short section with a gravel path, but most of this has nice grassy verges so there's not need to continually run on the gravel. The gravel wasn't completely avoidable but I didn't really have any issues with the sections I couldn't avoid.

So my results were:

Time: 20:09
Overall Position: 16 / 115
Age Category Position: 5th

All in all it was a great run and I'm glad to have done it. I think I may have to get my bare feet down there more often too.

Oh yes, and for those who don't know anything about Parkruns, essentially they are free relatively informal timed 5k runs run in parks all over the country, open to anyone and everyone (provided you're pre-registered and got your barcode). Check out the about page for more details.