Quest for a Parkrun Z Day 11 - Zielona Gora

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It’s Saturday, AKA parkrun day, and the main reason for the trip; the old man running a parkrun beginning with Z. He booked a hotel right next to the park. Unfortunately, not the correct park – that’s 2 miles away.

We get up after a bad night’s sleep. The Qubus Hotel is rather flimsy; you can hear people walking around on other floors, the bed is two flimsy single beds with a double mattress topper. It’s uncomfortable and wobbly – like sleeping on a lilo. The curtains are flimsy, so by 5 am the room is flooded with sunlight and the windows are flimsy, so by 7 am the room is full of the noise of nearby building works.

We get ready and I set the satnav for Zielona Gora parkrun. This takes us to the start – literally. The run takes place in a forest on the edge of town. We follow the instructions past the leisure centre and car park, onto a dirt trail through the forest. After a few turns, we find the ‘start’ sign. We have accidentally managed to drive a lap of the course.

We park up somewhere more sensible and return to the start on foot. Everyone is very friendly (there are 4 more British tourists) and the route is two scenic laps of the forest trail. The sun is shining and it would have been a lovely morning, but shortly before the finish, I trip and land on my face in the dirt, taking the impact on one knee. It hurts so much I want to cry. My Stava helpfully announces; “Activity paused”. It certainly has. I manage to get up and hobble across the line.

We have breakfast with the other Brits. The somewhat eclectic buffet claims to contain 100 items. We briefly discuss if we can be bothered to count. Then it’s time to check out of the flimsy hotel and hobble off to Berlin for our flight home.

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