Over December and the Christmas and New Year period I’ve been doing a tour of parkruns to raise awareness amongst fellow parkrunners for the charity Save The Rhino and to try and encourage fellow runners to donate to that charity through my London marathon rhino fundraising page at http://virginmoneygiving.com/jimmowatt .
We are gathering outside the stable block and I’m feeling a little nervous. There seem to be a huge number of dogs around and I’ve discovered recently that my rhino costume tends to make them nervous. When dogs get nervous they tend to get a bit more barky and bitey than usual and I’m not keen on engaging too closely with anything that wants to bite me. I find that these dogs are nervous but they are calm, cool and sophisticated dogs. They keep a wary eye upon me lest I go bezerk and start goring people with my horn but for now they reckon they’ll let me live.
We had our prerun briefing and my wife Carrie is invited to say a few words to let everyone know about Save The Rhino and my fundraising page, http://virginmoneygiving.com/jimmowatt .
We are released onto the course and begin to stomp our way through the fields. The cows and sheep are uninterested in our progress. The marshalls make up for the disinterest by redoubling their shouts of encouragement.
We reach the far side of the field and turn right. The wind blasts across and I find myself running sideways. Richard who is my rhino guide looks at me curiously as I begin to drift away. I fight my way back to the track and eventually reach what looks to me like a vertical cliff face. It’s actually just a hill but with fighting the wind I’m really feeling it. I have to slow to a walk as I climb to the top and thankfully there’s a little downhill on the other side. I relax a little but then when I get to the bottom the wind has returned and there are giant lakes of mud impeding my path. It was a tough run. Massive amounts of heat built up in my suit as I continually fought the wind and tried to run in a straight line and then Richard has to pull me out of the mud. Eventually we passed the 4km mark and turned toward the bridge. Just a few yards in front of us a chap slipped and fell heavily. His feet went into the air as if he was some silent movie comedian doing a number on a banana skin. He wasn’t down for long though. He clambered back to his feet, shook himself like a dog that’s just climbed out a a lake and carried on. Maybe there was a PB at stake. I trod carefully upon the bridge. Runners before me had trampled huge amounts of mud onto the bridge and then compressed it until it had become a solid mass of super slidey death mud. Needless to say I stepped gingerly over the bridge of slips.
I turned in front of the glorious Wimpole Hall and then back to the start/finish line to cheering rhino fans. I was absolutely exhausted and definitely couldn’t claim myself a rhino PB this time.
If anyone gets the urge to donate to Save The Rhino then please visit the page http://virginmoneygiving.com/jimmowatt and donate whatever you feel you can afford.
The rhino suit was stashed in the back of Richard’s car and I slid myself underneath it. This costume was not designed with portability in mind. It spreads itself into every available space. I pronounce myself and rhino fully installed installed and away we go.
It just fits
I’ve only ever been to the Huntingdon parkrun once before so I thought I knew what to expect. I remembered us winding our way around Hinchingbrooke Country Park, taking in the lakes and then making our way back over the hill. I chatted to one of the park wardens and he told me that the previous route had become a contentious issue with many other park users who were more than a little unhappy about the runners churning it up and turning the park into pools of water decorated with ridges of Huntingdon’s finest sludgy mud. Parkrun, always keen to remain good neighbours had agreed to alter the course to try and stick to the harder surfaces. It isn’t as pretty but while attempting to drag myself and rhino suit around the 5k I was quite grateful for those non sludgy surfaces.
I got a lovely reception from the other parkrunners and I posed for many pictures. They even did a nice little announcement at the start telling folks what I was up to and even trying to explain why I was wandering around in a rhino suit.
We also attended the new runners and visitors talk and were reminded that slower runners and rhinos should keep to the right to allow faster runners to pass.
Carrie took some photos of me and this one I find particularly amusing.
I’m standing in the middle of a crowd of folk and they all have their backs to me. Carrie suggests that the caption should be ‘the rhino in the room’.
A Rhino in the Room
We set off and I lumbered after the crowd wagging my little rhino tail behind me. At the first turn there was this crazy person (hello Henry) shouting at us. He has huge amounts of that wonderful parkrun enthusiasm packed into one person and releases it without reservation upon everyone that passes. It’s a little disconcerting (terrifying) when first encountered but delightful next time around when I knew what to expect.
Just before start
The path was really nice and we wound around in amongst the trees. I’m moving well and begin to pass folks. They wish me well as I silently glide by. OK OK, I bustle past in a flurry of noise and bizarre bouncing costume bits careering out in every direction. It must be a traumatic experience for many. I pass one person and assure her that she’ll probably pass me again later. She thinks maybe not but reckons she has an excuse for keeping it nice and steady this week. This is her first time back running after having a baby. I think she said she gave birth two weeks ago!
We see Henry again and are now prepared for his force nine enthusiasm. He puts wind in our sails and I’m now shuffling along as fast as my little rhino legs will carry me. I yomp home in a time of 33:29 which I claim as my rhino parkrun PB. Huntingdon parkrun have a wonderful tradition and if you know you’ve got a personal best then you ring the PB bell. I rang it heartily and did a rhino dance of celebration.
Jolly good fun
We put together some video clips of the run.
Hope you enjoy:
If anyone gets the urge to donate to Save The Rhino then please visit the page http://virginmoneygiving.com/jimmowatt and donate whatever you feel you can afford.
It was a frightfully windy day on the 5th of December in a small village on the periphery of Cambridge. People were converging upon Milton Country Park for the weekly 5K parkrun.
A large grey creature stepped out onto the street and wobbled a little as it tried to figure out where the footpath was. The ever helpful Carrie stepped in front and the rhino followed along. Cars stopped in the street, dogs barked and people stared as we staggered onwards.
We arrived at around 08:30 and the photographer from Cambridge News was already there. He waved and pointed and we all moved this way and that to the rhythm of the media. Various parkrun volunteers were ushered across to join in and a queue of people formed up to have their picture taken with the rhino. Having no peripheral vision and not being able to hear too much I just stood there most of the time as things happened around me.
Carrie was busy handing out cards with the web address of the fundraising site and offering people stickers with the logo for Save The Rhino. The kids, in particular seemed to like the stickers. Several people gave us their coffee money and on behalf of the rhinos we were happy to accept.
We set off at 9 o clock and I shuffled after the crowd. I was moving well but had no idea where I was putting my feet. I stumbled several times over puddles, holes and even a small pebble.
The noise inside my suit was incredible. The whole thing was bouncing about and all I could hear was swishing and swooshing and banging and crashing. Richard was running beside me and trying to keep up the conversation. I yelled back as best I could. I suspect I misheard most of what he said and it’s quite possible that most of my responses made no sense at all. Nice chap that he is though he made no mention of this and still struggled valiantly to chat and guide me along as we ran through the park.
We started slowly but increased the pace as we went along. An ache developed in my back probably brought on by my having to bend forward to peer out of the suit. As our pace increased we started to pass people and made several of them (especially the ones wearing headphones) jump and utter little shrieks. Evil rhino that I am, I found this immensely satisfying.
It was an incredibly difficult run. I got hotter and hotter inside the costume and was nicely stewed by the end. I staggered over the line feeling enormously relieved to get there without keeling over and becoming stranded rhino in a puddle in the park. Various people have suggested that I try to run the marathon in the rhino suit. After this outing I can confidently say that I haven’t the strength or the stamina to do it. It’s possible that I may gain this stamina and strength with my winter training but very unlikely.
Richard checks to see if I’m still alive in there.
My friend Richard carrying the rhino head
So, it was a lot of fun but was it a success from a fundraising point of view?
We took 22 pounds in cash at the event and I’ve been posting tweets, blogs and videos about it all day. A good number of donations have come in to the website http://virginmoneygiving.com/jimmowatt and now at 20:52 in the evening I see that we’ve added 117 pounds to the total for Save The Rhino.
Cambridge News rang me for an interview and they’ve got a whole bunch of photos for the paper so maybe we’ll get a few more donations from that.
It was an enjoyable day. Cambridge parkrun and my fellow parkrunners were all splendidly supportive. My friends Lloyd, Steve and Richard all helped and it was great to have them around. Run director Paul Beastall was really great and of course my wonderful wife Carrie ensured that I was organised and handed out stickers and contact cards to anyone that wanted one. She also made sure that I didn’t get run over on the way to and from the parkrun for which I was most grateful.
