The Ushaw Historic House parkrun is a gem practically on our doorstep. We’re spoilt for choice in the North East for parkruns so I’m cautious about claiming a favourite, but …

It’s just this last year I’ve re-discovered parkun and it’s come so far since my first parkrun in Silksworth in 2009. I like to run, or jog these days, parkrun, but it’s important to give back and support, so I plan to volunteer once every month or two, so that when I do run, it’s with an easy conscience.

I learned this as Polyporus squamosus in 2008 but now a web search is showing it as having had a name change. This magnificent example is on a sycamore just of the drive before you get to the Grove car park.

With fell races being cancelled all around I decided to head North to Silksworth for a little race that seems to have been missed from the Fell Runners calendar. The Sunderland ‘Park’ Run is 5km long, with 135 feet of ascent, and has, well for today at least, some ‘genuine fell terrain’. I’d say that makes it a ‘CS’.

The last time I ran this event I got a PB. Today I thought I’d spend it making funny faces at the club Captain, looking at the ducks and trying not to fall over. I’d chosen road shoes and this was a mistake for this tough terrain. I started gently and gingerly and after a kilometre or so passed Kathryn, the only other Strider competing (George was at the checkout doing the Beep thing with the barcodes).

After looking at Phil’s pictures from the first Sunderland park run I thought I might give it a go. And on Saturday morning when I looked out the window and saw the clear skies I knew there was no excuse. This event is so straightforward. Once you’ve registered you simply turn up and run. Most people allow a nominal time for a bit of a warm-up. In Phil’s case, arriving on the line with, oh, almost 5 seconds to spare, the warm up was running from the car to the line. It didn’t seem to cramp his style as he ran strongly from the start. Zoe and I were pretty evenly matched and finished within 10 seconds of each other. Zoe commented later that she needed to concentrate on imagining she had a tennis ball stuck up her bum to help her running style. There was a silence as me and Phil held on to that thought and struggled with the mental imagery. We had no idea what she meant but hopefully more explanations will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.