Falkirk Parkrun - an opportunity to run a 5k route in Scottish temperatures and on husky friendly terrain. Perfect opportunity for pocket rocket Kobi to continue his quest for super speed further than 1 mile....
Set in the glorious surroundings of Calendar Park in Falkirk, this new Parkrun is run by an amazingly friendly group of runners that offer dog biscuits and human sweeties to all finishers!!
True to form, we arrived at the start line not quite fully prepared to start the race and managed to lose about 30 seconds untangling dogs from ganglines and necklines - runners disappearing off into the distance! When finally both dogs were free from constraints, Kobi shot off the line in hot pursuit, determined to catch every runner at lightning speed.
We zipped past quite a few fellow parkrunners before reaching a narrow pathway, upon where I decided that it was not safe to try any super speed overtaking and would try and take advantage of the human runners blocking the path to slow Kobi down and not let him burn himself out.
My plan worked very well as we ran through some fabulous trails in the woods, up and down little undulations, avoiding squirrels and tree routes. Lovely course and it was a delight to watch the two dogs working well together, stride for stride and obeying my every command. I could see the happiness on the dogs' faces, as we flew round the bends clocking up km after km...
First mile 5:24, second mile 5:26 and then..... Kobi could no more.... Just as we reached the foot of the hill that is commonly known as "the mountain" to most Falkirk Parkrunners, Kobi ran out of run (in true Pooh Bear style..) and came to a spluttering stop, almost standstill.
He turned to look at me, confirming that he was now very tired and the fire in his belly to catch every runner truely burnt out. There is nothing I can do from this point forth other than jog/ walk to the finish and encourage him to just keep on moving forward.
And so to the finish we did plod, to resounding cheers of support from a fantastic crowd of Scottish supporters. Post race biscuits, sweets and chat an absolute pleasure.
Brilliant little parkrun event and I took fantastic encouragement knowing that Kobi can now run two fast miles!! Now all he has to do is hold it together for one more mile....
