Dry Me a River

The rain had been coming down all night, stopping only half an hour before the start of today's Pitshanger Junior parkrun. With the sun starting to peek out, Kash and Sevan arrived to find that the Brent River had burst its banks, submerging part of the regular course 🌊. With no way of drying the route and keeping the participants safe, it was time to put the "alternate route" plan into action.

The run director, David, was trying to remember what the alternate course layout was. Apparently they'd only needed to use it twice in the last 9 years. The 39 brave runners would cut across the grass before reaching the river. The tail walker would later say

"The grass is one big puddle"

The run director organised their marshals on the unfamiliar route and briefed them on how to direct the runners

"There's a red cone where the runners rejoin the normal path from the muddy wasteland" - Run Director

Kash and Sevan were both marshalling with Sevan spending most of the parkrun saying "go left". On the second lap, the leading girl sighed at him and said "Yeah. I know". Most did appreciate the guidance though.

No one was lost to the river and surprisingly, there weren't many muddy runners on the route by the end. It's pretty much guaranteed that they were all soaked through below the knee, though.