parkrun: Special European Tour Edition, 19th & 26th September

Lucy Keating lets us know what she’s been up to on her travels:

“I’ve been interrailing around the Baltic coast, exploring the beautiful sights and turbulent histories of several cities in the Hanseatic League (which I believe is one step above the Northern Premier League, where Manchester City will be playing next season).

Of course, I had to fit in some international parkrun tourism, and spent some time making maps and train timetables fit my purpose. I managed to squeeze in visits to two fairly new parkruns on my travels: Kiellinie, on the German Baltic coast, and then Nimmerdor, in the picturesque Dutch city of Amersfoort, not far from Amsterdam.

Both parkruns were small and of course very friendly, welcoming me, admiring my #500 parkrun socks, and kindly translating key points in the pre-race briefing (though to be honest, north European dialects always sound mostly Geordie to me, and the language of parkrun is international – ein Tailwalker, een barcodescanner etc –   so I got the gist.)

Kiellinie was a two lap out and back along the promenade of the world’s busiest canal, Kiel: we were overlooked by two huge cruise liners. I had read a profile which mentioned fearsome Baltic winds, but thankfully, the weather was very benign, though I still wasn’t tempted to join the hardy swimmers and rowers along the route. Nimmerdor was another two lap course, in woodland south of the beautiful city. The terrain was fairly tricky: stones, sand and tree routes, but flat, of course.

As both parkruns are relatively new, they were also small, which explains how I managed to finish second lady at Kiellinie and first lady at Nimmerdor, despite my unspectacular finish times. Nonetheless, it still gave me a real boost to receive the ‘eerste dame!’ congratulations from the volunteers.

A combination of age, indolence and lack of oomph means I have been getting slower every month, watching my PBs slide into ancient history along with the narrow gauge railways of western Pomerania (one of the more specialist exhibitions I encountered on my travels). Thus, I hope my experience can also give a boost to any other runner finding themselves in that downwards trajectory: there will always be a new achievement to be had, however niche or fortuitous! Talking of which, as Amersfoort’s most famous runner, Femke Bol, wasn’t there on Saturday, I hereby claim the title of fastest lady in Amersfoort, for a few days at least.”