BARK RUN - it’s fun and it’s for everyone - woof woof!
Tampereparkrun #146
I got to participate in parkrun again this Saturday. I wasn’t the official tail walker (though there’s nothing wrong with my tail, it’s actually quite beautiful I think) but I was accompanied by my lovely friend and junior park runner (Lara, aged 8 3/4) and her mum. My owner was participating too, but she ran off with her friend at the start and we stayed at the back.
Today I got a bit confused as we turned around too early and then at the start/finish line they wanted me to turn round (no, no, no, no, no!) and do it all again. It turned out that the far end of the normal route was a bit too icy for those two legged runners, so the RD, Olli, had decided to do the shorter course (twice). He did mention this at the start -twice! - first in Finnish and then in English (for the tourists and first timers) but I was too busy looking to see which of my parkrun friends were there. I should pay better attention but luckily Lara and her mum kept me right.
I really like parkrun in Tampere as the whole route is by the big lake and today the weather was really nice … very cold, of course (it’s winter) and lots of snow, but sunny. The path was well gritted so not too icy, and none of the humans fell which is good!
I quite liked the running the short course twice as it meant I got to see everyone lots of times - and I was able to check how my owner Lorna was doing (not too badly!) and one of my favourite friends, Anna, was there too so I did skip over to greet her. There were no other dogs doing parkrun today (why not?) but I spied plenty others out their taking their humans for a walk. I wish they’d find out about parkrun as I am sure they’d like it as much as me ~ but it’s also nice being the only dog as everyone makes a fuss of me!
There wasn’t an official parkrun coffee today (people are doing their best not to catch covid, and all the volunteers wore masks today too) but my parkrun family did go to a cafe. Dogs aren’t allowed in … but they watched me through the window and I knew if I behaved well they’d give me a nice treat after … that went nicely according to plan too.
There were about 35 people participating (walking or running) the parkrun today and a lovely team of friendly volunteers, without them parkrun couldn’t happen. If you’d like to help next week (or a future week) please let us know (tampere@parkrun.com) or a leave a message on Facebook.
You can check the results here: https://www.parkrun.fi/tampere/results/146/
my owner laughingly said it was a seasonal best for (almost) everyone as this was the first parkrun of the year in Tampere (because of covid restrictions and ice)
Well done everyone ~ hope to see you all again soon.
Tinka aged 8 3/4