I’d not heard of Age Uk’s series of Wrap-up and Run 10k races before this year and thought the Oxford one at Cutteslowe Park would be fun, particularly as this is home to Oxford parkrun so at least some of the course would be very familiar. Somewhat perversely the limitations from my frozen shoulder offered an excuse not to try very hard which just made me look forward to it more.

On the day it was pretty cold but still and sunny so I locked my bike up in the park and kept my warm VC&AC hoodie on while I wandered up to the start to suss the layout. Then back to the bike to eat a gel and expose my arms to the cold morning. A jog to and round the start area did for a warm-up, no way was I going to attempt the Zumba many runners were participating in though I was impressed by their Gangnam Style.

I said hello to a couple of parkrun regulars then tried to position myself somewhere around halfway in the muddle near the start timing mat. A clear countdown then we were off. I soon realised I’d been over pessimistic but at least my knowledge of the course allowed me to use the wider bits to move forward about 50 places till I was comfortably in the 8:30 minute mile bunch where I planned to stay.

Slightly downhill and round the outside of the football fields in the opposite direction to the rarely used parkrun ‘summer course’. Past the pond to join the main tarmac path then down to cross the bypass via the cycle and pedestrian Millennium Bridge. I was now in unknown territory where we did a bit of rather muddy field then a path alongside the Cherwell then looped back so we could see the slower runners behind just as we’d earlier seen the fast folk come by. Then back over the bridge, up the tarmac path, across by the pond, a funny bit round the football club house and repeat to make a 2 lap course. There was water at the 5km point but I didn’t bother with it, I was nicely warm by now though. It was an interesting course, well thought out considering the limited room.

I finished in 52:57 which was pretty much as expected and was pleased that I’d managed even mile splits all round for a change. 8:29 8:28 8:28 8:33 8:24 8:22 2:14 according to Garmin. Surprisingly this time gave me 99th place of 320 finishers but I think this generous position was more due to a lot of slower runners than because the course was particularly challenging though it was mostly off-road and rather convoluted.

I grabbed my goody bag and headed back to the bike where I made a hash of putting my hoodie back on and managed to over stretch and aggravate my frozen shoulder which, once the running endorphins had worn off, complained for the rest of the day despite ample painkillers. By the time I was about to get in the bath an hour later it had got so stiff that I couldn’t get my running vest over my head and had to turn the taps off and sit and think about how this could be achieved without ripping it. I managed to get my functioning left arm inside the vest allowing me to enough slack to pull it over my head and along the right arm.

I need to constantly remember to concentrate on even simple things like getting dressed and reaching for stuff if I don’t want to be forever setting it off throbbing. It’s easy to forget for a moment there’s a problem and go about things as normal just to find I’m not only in pain but I’m stuck with a jersey half over my head, or something fragile balanced on the edge of a high shelf, and no plan on how to proceed. I know I’m going to have to put up with it for a while but I will be so pleased when it’s fixed!