Not pints & parkruns: Riverside junior

This was a big achievement. We decided to switch our usual junior parkrun in Durham for a different event in Chester-le-Street and made an immediate breakthrough. For the first time, daughter managed to keep running for the whole 2km! Definitely a ‘proud daddy’ moment, watching her step up and do something she hadn’t really thought she could manage.

Riverside Junior parkrun, which uses the same park as the adult Riverside event, has a couple of advantages compared with Durham. It’s a faster, slightly easier course, run entirely on paths with no incline. It also has clearly numbered marshalling points, which we could count up as we went around. That gave us a real sense of the progress we were making and helped us to understand how much further we had to go. In addition, from a practical point of view, there’s free parking nearby. In Durham, the short-sighted decision to impose parking charges on Sundays has added an unpleasant extra cost to using that route.

More importantly, though, it was something that daughter immediately enjoyed. We set off at a gentle jog and were able to keep chatting to each other as we went along. A bit of encouragement, a few comments about what we could see and hear in the park, and some memories of other visits here – it all helped to keep us going.

And there’s a great atmosphere. One of the nice things about the course is the way it keeps looping back past the start. This gives a stretch at the beginning (and end) of the out-and-back through the meadow where friends and family congregate to cheer on the runners. Going through there almost feels like running at a big event and gives everyone a lift. Throw in some enthusiastic volunteers and plenty of high fives, and every little runner can feel special.

Suddenly, almost without noticing, we’d completed a kilometre without pausing for breath. Great stuff. This was further than we’d run before without a break. And it meant the end was in sight. Back through the cheer tunnel, past the start, and onto the final loop (watching out for the puddle guarded by an inflatable crocodile). Those marshalling points came in handy once again as we counted down the last few hundred metres knowing that we were close to running the whole thing. There was even strength enough for a sprint finish (dad’s older legs struggling to match a sudden turn of speed down the stretch). Best of all, there was a real sense of achievement, and a will to come back and do it again.

The Pancake

Miss Elephant, in Chester-le-Street market place, is an established favourite. It’s a lovely independent café with a great line in child-friendly breakfasts. Not surprisingly, the enormous servings of pancakes – complete with whipped cream and an assortment of fruits, chocolate sauces and other sweet treats – are a huge hit. It's no surprise to see junior runners in here on a Sunday morning, gobbling down a promised treat. If there’s a problem, it’s simply that often the pancake proves bigger than a little tum can handle, even after running a mile. But this is definitely the place to go for a post-parkrun reward.

First visit: April 2024. PB: 14:21

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