Though my undergraduate career was a little less distinguished than the title of this post suggests, today, rather late in life, I achieved a double first, to wit I ran in the Brighton Park Run for the first time and ran a 5K for the first time. My time of 26:47 may therefore be considered a personal best.
The Brighton Park Run, one of the oldest in the #parkrun movement, has managed 217 events without me. It was, I thought, high time I joined in.
So I joined a group of runners in Hove Park on a cold Christmas Eve, adults, children, dogs, many of them decorated with traditional seasonal motifs. The cream of Brighton running society was here, as well as runners from neighbouring towns, such as Lewes's Sweder. We were marshalled into a huddle at the start, ready to run a route which consists of a half-circuit and two full circuits of the park.
We set off and I watched Sweder ahead of me, making his way through the pack. I kept up a good pace for the first half lap as he made his way through the pack, and maintained it for the first full circumnavigation. When it came to the second, I realised that I had peaked too soon and I plodded round. For the last 500 metres, I opened the throttle for a fast finish, only to be passed by a small boy travelling at twice my speed.
Enjoyable as the running was, even more so was the après-run; the park has a fine café, Sweder stood me an espresso and I enjoyed the company, especially that of a small and very pretty dog, Amber by name. I shall be back.
