Last Saturday I got up very early to make my way down to Bedfont Lakes Country Park to take part in one of the Parkrun series of weekly 5k runs. These runs take place every Saturday around the country, mostly in the South East at the moment and the best thing is they are free to enter – check out www.parkrun.com
Driving along the perimeter of Heathrow Airport, around an industrial estate and along the busy A30, I eventually found the Country Park. I was delightfully suprised to find this beautiful nature reserve with 180 acres of rolling meadows, woodland and lakes. Apparently, since 1995 it as won numerous awards including the prestigious Green Flag Award. There was a lovely family of swans, the cygnets still very young, grey and fluffy; some Coots and Moorhens; Chaffinches and some strange frog sounding noises coming from the reeds. Throughout the year other birds such as woodpeckers, herons, kingfishers and even Ring-Neck Parakeets can be spotted.
Bedfont Lakes Country Park
The Park was lovely and quiet, you’d never have known that planes were taking off and landing just a mile or so away, and that the M25 was close by.
There is a trim trail and a facilities for picnics and fishing, plus a great children’s play area. Well worth a day out.
But back to the reason I was there: my running has really improved lately thanks to attendance at the running club. Running with others is a great motivator. My 5K PB has stood for a few years but I knew I had been running quite well lately so thought I might just beat it by a few seconds. In the end, I put everyting into it and ran the two lap course with all the energy I had. There were only 40 competitors of all abilities so it wasn’t crowded at all along the paths and I pushed myself to a 41 second PB.
Running really is great for stress levels and for helping the body to release it’s natural feel-good chemical, serotonin. After the run I felt on top of the world and that feeling is pretty much still with me. I can’t wait for the next time I run this 5k so I can try to beat my time and I think next time we’ll take a picnic and really enjoy the delights that Bedfont Lakes has to offer us.
