Forget the Bermuda triangle, forget the rhubarb triangle, I live in the middle of a parkrun triangle. You would have thought that means that I’m a regular Saturday morning parkrunner wouldn’t you? Well no. I have done three, two of which were during Athons and the third being to meet up with abradyus, an Athoner and parkrun tourist extraordinaire.

I always think of Pennington as being my ‘home’ parkrun (because I have been twice and it’s near where I work so I can navigate there without thinking, whereas I always get lost in Bolton). Twitter had told me that as usual all of the cool kids were running a parkrun this morning, so it seemed a good a time as any to add on the third point of my triangle – Preston; Avenham Park to be precise. Preston also fitted nicely with our plans for the day, so poor Ginge was forced out of bed at an unreasonable hour in order to act as driver and photographer. Sorry Ginge.

All of the three local parkruns involve a hill of some sort – Preston’s is a short, steep one at the start of each lap, the course then meanders downhill, under the railway, tantalisingly close to a pub with very good beer and alongside the River Ribble (across which blew a chilly wind) – repeat x 3. Or as I described it to JogBlog (who, along with I Like to Count, has lost her parkrun virginity at Whitstable this morning) “Mine was flat STEEP HILL gentle downhill flat flat STEEP HILL gentle downhill flat flat STEEP HILL gentle downhill flat”.

Hill – my elbow to left of shot

Despite the hill, I really enjoyed it and Pennington now has a fierce competitor for my annual affections.