Carol Muir  

CAROL ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

Why did you initially join Ilford AC ? Did Malcolm have an influence ?

In 2008 our mum was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I signed up for the Blackheath race for life which was 5km. My aim was run all the way without walking
I wasn’t into running. I didn’t like it ,I couldn’t run for a bus. I started off by just round the block.its was hard work.

Malcolm always tried to get me into running. I didn’t want to know.  When I told him I was doing race for life he told me that Ilford running club do a beginner group called Ilford Harriers on Wednesday evenings run by Martin and Sally.
I wasn’t too sure but I went along  & I met Billy green and others.
That evening I did 4 miles without stopping. I was so happy.
I did my race for life with no problems.
I started to enjoy running and carrying on going on Wednesday night.
Malcolm got carried away and started entering me for races. He likes to do that.
I did Springfield Striders Friday 5 miles before my race for life.  September I did the 10km Southend. Malcolm said if i can do 10km then i can do 10 miles. He entered for Stebbing 10 miles in November. which I did without stopping.

 

What sports did you do before joining ?

At school I was on the hockey team. I also liked trampolining at school.
I have always liked cycling.

In the first lockdown I was on furlough.

I am a chef. Ii was a chef for the Met police which I had worked for, for 16 years..

For the last year I was working at West brompton.

The Met police building mostly had office staff so when lockdown happened they were working from home so i was put on furlough.

It made me think I don’t really like travelling an hour and half on the train. I updated my CV and started looking for a new job. I got a phone call from this agency, who asked me if I was still looking for a job. I told her that I was on furlough but I would like to work locally. She said she has the job for me .She told me that the Mental health unit at Newham hospital were looking for a chef with my experience.

She said she would set up an interview for me on zoom. I was so nervous as I haven’t had job interviews for 16 years. I did the interview and the next day I got offered the job I started at Newham mental health hospital on 10 th August.

I cycle to work every day now doing 9.20 miles a day.

I find the cold really hard on my bike as my fingers get so cold even with two pairs of gloves on.

 

Why do you always wear a baseball cap when running ?

I wear a baseball cap because I have long hair so keep it from going into my face.

And I wear glasses when its raining. I can’t see so the baseball cap helps me.

And I would say the baseball cap is my trademark.  In winter my ears get cold so I wear a hat!

 

I see you love Parkruns so what has been your top three favourite Parkruns and Why and what is the worst Parkrun you have ever done and why ?

I got few favourite parkrun but the 3 that come to mind are 

One inch beach parkrun in Ireland its all sand,I love to run near water and locals were great 

I went for the weekend with 3 other parkrun tourists friends, they all wanted to run barefoot. Some locals run barefoot. 

I didn’t want to run barefoot as it was cold and i didn’t want to hurt my feet, so I ran in trainers. 

My tourist friends took the mickey out of me for running in trainers. 

It’s a great run on sand even in trainers. It was a there and back course. 

Later on in the pub my tourist friends moaning their head off they got big blisters on their feet and had trouble walking. They moaned for the whole week. Glad I had my trainers on.

Two Eden project parkrun with Stephen philcox and julie gillender and my tourist friend Brian Longman. We were on a Sun £9-50 craven holiday in Cornwall. 

Eden project was tough up hills but great downhill bits. I liked this because afterwards you get free entry to Eden Project with your parkrun barcode. 

Three Barry island in Wales .I like it because you run along the seafront and you are going to where Gavin and Stacey cafe is filmed. 

Four pocket parkrun. Mixture of tarmac paths trail paths grass.and lots of bridges. 

I would do all above again. 

My worse parkruns that come to mind are:

One hilly fields, it is boring 5 laps.

Two Chichester parkrun 3 laps around muddy rugby pitch . Never again.

Three Bevendean parkrun i would say is my tougher parkrun. It’s so hilly i thought i was climbing to the sky and all off road its quite muddy & all on grass.

I would like to go back and see if I could beat my time though.

 

Do you think you will return to touring?

One of my aims is to do alĺ the Scotland parkruns but i don’t think i can because new ones start all the time . There are 58 parkruns in Scotland. I have done 25 different ones in Scotland. 

The parkrun i most want to do is bressay parkrun in shetland.

 

What is your current weekly mileage ?

My current weekly mileage is around 30 to 40 miles a week 

I run before work around 7 am

I try do 3 to 5 miles a day and long runs on Saturday and Sunday. 

I cycle to work every day and do about 46 miles on my bike.

My normal start time is 9.30 but if i do overtime or have to cover someone i might start at 7 am

I don’t like to run in the evening and  I don’t want to break my non stop running days. I am knackered in the evening after work. 

As of the 10th January 2021 i have run 293 days nonstop. 

Malcolm’s record for non stop running days is 268.

I beat him at something yeah .ha hee

 

What has been your worst injury ?

I would say planters fasciitis. I had it for so long that in the end I had a cortisone injection. 

 

Is there any race in the World you would like to do and Why ?

I would love to do The Walt Disney half marathon at Disneyland Florida. 

I went to Disneyland in my 20’s and would love to go back and race there for the finisher medal and long sleeve tech t-shirt.

 

Greatest Running Rivals ?
I alway like to beat my own time.

Person wise i say alison fryatt from barking road runners ,we are around the same level, in elvis races we have little battles with each other. One race she beat me next i beat her .but all friendly we help each other. 

 

What is your current running Dream ?

I would like to sub 25 for parkrun and 5km race.

And i would love to sub 2 hour half marathon,

My pb is 2 hour and 3 minutes.

 

What do you love so much about Parkrun?

I love parkrun for the social side. I make lots of friends from different places. 

I love it because it’s for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are fast or slow.

I love it because u can just rock up, you don’t have to have entered before ,and it’s free 

Keeps me fit and a catch up with friends after for coffee and cake !

 

What do you say to those critical of parkrun ?

I would say don’t knock it until you try it

I would tell them to try one and if people don’t want to run, parkrun always needs volunteers. 

And tell them it’s good for people’s mental health.

 

Why did you start park running?

I read about parkrun in running magazines and its look really good for everyone slow and faster runners 

 

Where did you run your parkrun PB and how many park runs did it take you to get this PB

My parkrun pb is 25.46, which i did on 14th June 2014 at dulwich 

This was 2nd time at dulwich. 

On my first dulwich parkrun in 2013 my time was 27.35.

My pub was after 146 parkrun. 

 

How many miles have you run since lockdown?

My total miles for 2020 is 1937.

Since March lockdown to December is 1609.

 

Will you stop running everyday when the pandemics over?

I would like to carry on running every day as much as my body lets me .

 

Have you won any trophies or medals ? If so, what one means the most to you?.

The first trophy I got was in 2011 female points winner at valentine’s parkrun. 

I got a vets ac medals team with julia galea and doris at harwich. 5km.

Its wasn’t trophy or medal that mean most to me ,

3rd February 2019 Malcolm entered me for a tough multi terrain half marathon in Forfar Scotland. 

It’s a Malcolm kind of thing not really mine.but i thought i give it a go . 

It’s a tough race. Very hilly and Scotland had heavy snow. The race still went ahead, but some parts were really icey . I just wanted to finish to say i have done it  and try get under the cut of time which is 2 hour .45 minutes 

There weren’t any medals or nothing but lots of food and drinks after .

Malcolm won the race and £50 in vouchers he came back for me to run and shout at me He said that if I get under the cut of time he will buy me Dundee stars ice hockey bobble hat which we both fans of .It was very tough, i didn’t care my time. Malcolm kept pushing me saying i was near to the cut off time. 

I got to the finish. I jumped in the air with joy and shouted i have done it,.i was so happy. 

Then this guy gave me this bag. I said what’s that ? He said a spot prize. It was a Forfar road runner bath towel, The club who had organised the race. My time was 2.45.22

Malcolm said he would not buy me the hat because i didn’t get under the cut off time .

But I didn’t care, that towel was like a gold medal to me .Made my day and hard work worth it.

I treated myself to the hat 

 

If we locked you in a room with Gary Floate how long do you think it would take you to convince him of the merits and benefits of parkruns ?

I would say thank God its not rob sergeant as I wouldn’t get word in !!

I would tell Gary he can be my parkrun director when I start fairlop waters parkrun. 

And tell him he can get people to join the club.

And tell him its good way for people that never run to get into running

Tell him its free and for everyone. 

 

What inspired you to become a Parkrun tourist. 

I did my first parkrun on 23/10/2010 at hackney marshes , valentine’s hadn’t started yet.

I did hackney mashes I didn’t really like it. It was muddy on the old course around the football pitch. 

I went back the following week with Robin Davis on 30/10/2010.

I thought its it’s too far and i didn’t like the mud .

I didn’t do parkrun again until 19/02/2011 when valentine’s started. I was one of 26 runners to the first valentines parkrun. My time was 28.14.

3 other ilford ac runners was there out of 26 Sally gilam ,peter spelman, breege nordin.

I really enjoy it as it is local and only one km from my house. 

I start going to valentine’s parkrun every week and really enjoyed it  

But my times were always around 27 something. I couldn’t beat that.

Malcolm said that I should try other parkruns. He said there are lots of local ones .

So i did

One Saturday I went to mile end parkrun. I think it was their first birthday .

It was about my 11th different parkrun so i wasn’t really a parkrun tourist at the time.
I met paul sinton hewitt the parkrun founder. 

He asked if i was a parkrun tourist and i said that my home run is valentine’s and i am not really a parkrun tourist. He said there are lots of nice ones in London and he told me to try burgess parkrun. 

I did .

I started meeting other parkrun tourists and joined them 

Before I knew it I was touring with them .

I went to Leeds for the weekend with them, did parkrun and did Leeds Abbey dash 10km .

I made great friends and started to go to all different places. 

And my time was improving. 

Other ilford runner parkrun tourists are: Terry Knightley he has done 92 out of 214 parkruns
Kim baxter 90 out of 178 .

The late pete ryan 115 out 173.

Malcolm muir 108 out of 123.

He’s got the best ratio out of us all .

Myself 285 out of 453 .

 

How far have you travelled to participate in Parkrun. Can you describe the journey? 

I have done parkrun in Germany and France, but spent the weekend there. 

I have done sleeper trains to Scotland a few times. 

I would say my craziest journey which i done in a day, all for love of parkrun was Bushy Dublin on 07/10/2017 for international parkrun day.

I was on parkrun tourist group on Facebook 

Lots were planned to go to Dublin for parkrun but not stay over or nothing.  All done in a day . 

Lots of tourists came from all over the uk .

So we all came from different airports. The idea was we group up with people that came to the same airport and hire a car together to get to parkrun 

I left my house at 3.15am and i got a cab to stansted airport 

I was meeting with 4 other tourists that I had never met before in my life and was going to hire a car with them.

All the other groups from other areas were doing this .

We all have one person who wants to drive and we all club together for hire of car .

The four who I didn’t know at the time were very friendly. 

We got Dublin airport, hired the car and we was off

Luckily parkrun there start at 9.30 

We arrived at 9.05

Some other tourists just make it.

By the start I was knackered. 

But the atmosphere was great, there were tourists from all over .

My time was 29.26. I don’t know how I did it as I was travelling all day .

After the parkrun they gave us all a shot of Irish whisky. 

After parkrun we all got together in our groups who we travelled with and went for breakfast and a look around Dublin 

I was back home by around 9pm ish 

I don’t think I could do it again. It was a long day and i was knackered but I had great fun and made new friends. 

I have had a few near misses where I nearly missed parkrun after travelling so far. 

05/11/2016 . Few tourist friends and myself went to Paris for the weekend. 3 of them decided to go to a new parkrun that started on other side of paris.

Brain longman my tourist mate and myself decided to do one in Paris it was about 2 miles away so we had lots of time to find it.,as we thought parkrun was not really big in France. We had a little jog to the start  but we couldn’t find it ,we asked people but they didn’t know, we saw lots of runners but they didn’t know about parkrun.
By 9.00 we still couldn’t find the parkrun. We were determined to find it so we carried on running around. My legs were so heavy as on Sunday I had just gone and done the Dublin marathon on 30 th October and did my pb 5hour 11 minutes. 

In the end after about 8 miles of run we found it .

The parkrun team was just packing up the course .

We explain we are from London and we were tourists and we really want to do the parkrun. 

The run director said we can run the course and take our own time ,and they go for coffee now and we should join them after and give our time to her and she would put it in the  results. 

One man jogged around with us so we knew the course. 

My legs were so sore I couldn’t hardly move ,my mate shouted at me to come on and just finish it to tick off the parkrun, which i did and they put us in the results. 

My time was 38.49 .I was happy to have it ticked off.

When touring it’s about ticking off parkrun and not the time.

Few times I couldn’t find the start and joined in with the  tail walker.

Lucky I haven’t missed one.

I had to get off the train before my stop once as the parkrun I was going to was canceled at the last minute. 

Then I had to find a parkrun that me and my mate hadn’t done .

It’s all part of the fun in touring. 

 

 

Since lockdown have you brought any usual items. 

At Christmas I treated myself to an e-scooter.

 

You mentioned you disliked mud. What is your reaction to races with unexpected muddy courses

Malcolm and I did perth parkrun in Scotland on 1/11/2014

About one km was mud. Malcolm loves mud. When Malcolm and I do a parkrun he sets me a target of getting under 10 minutes of his time . If I get under 10 minutes he buys breakfast, if over 10 minutes of his time I have to buy breakfast. 

When we did perth parkrun there was an old boy just in front of me.

He was a Dundee road runner. McKenzie 

He was a strong runner and kept his pace all the way. When we got to this really mud bit i didn’t think of the mud i was kept focusing on this old boy and followed him, he made it look so easy. I just wanted to keep up with him

That old boy helped me get a good time 26.09

And best news I was under 10 minutes of Malcolm’s time 16.41and i didn’t slow down in mud my split was all near the same .

Malcolm slowed down in mud 

The breakfast was on him.

Now any time I come across mud I think of me chasing that old boy and try not to think of mud.

 

If you could set up a new parkrun venue, where would it be?

I would like to set up parkrun in fairlop waters,

I think its would be a great location there is parking there, somewhere to have coffee after .

I would make it a one lap course mixture of paths and grass.

And it would take the pressure of valentine’s and Raphael parkruns.

 

What’s your inspiration for doing your current running streak? 

 

One reason i live on my own and in lockdown i want to make sure i went running everyday to get me out of the house and just say hello to a friendly dog walker etc really help me though the lockdown. I started to like running every day, good for my head and sets me up for the day .

I prefer to run in the morning .i don’t really like running in the evening. 

And i said to myself I’m going to run every day until parkrun comes back