Center Parcs, Rain and the Unbreakable Bruce

Just back from a few days at Center Parcs (the Sherwood Forest site), of course i still had to run and what a place to do it. Its long flat roads carved in to the forest floor with huge tall pines guarding the timber villas made it a fantastic running environment. I'm always ill when we go and this trip was no exception, coming down with a pretty (or no so pretty) bad cold just a few days before was not a surprise as id been feeling a bit run down, having a bit of  stressful time with work, the illness and the  endless running is taking its toll.

Stress seems to show itself in my lower back causing a tightening sensation that stiffens me up quite a bit. The break is over due. Id hoped that i could get a run in with a few of the staff at the Parc but due to our trip coinciding with a grand opening of a new facility elsewhere in the country it was not a good time for them.

Our villa was only a couple of minutes walk from the Village Square and that's always a bonus as it means we don't need to hire bikes. I had the map in the welcome pack so was intending to sort out a route for the runs but i didn't get to look at it until a few minutes before i set off on the Friday evening for the first run i soon decided just to go out and see where i end up after all its well signposted and i knew the basics having been  few times before.

The worst part about Friday evenings is the amount of vehicles there are on the roads as everyone gets to drive to their respective villas so they can off load, they must return to the central car park that evening and anyone that doesn't gets stickers on the windscreens asking them to move it So dodging all the guests on the roads queueing to get back to the car park wasn't fun. Its surprising how much their presence irritates  as you do get the feeling as someone from the land of Pedestra that you have the right of way.

The most notable run during the break was the one I completed on Sunday evening. The eldest 2 kids had just been collected by my mum and dad as they both had school on the Monday and keeping them out of school for a day now carried similar punishment to armed robbery, the weather looked kind, the sun was cooling off a touch and there was no wind to speak of, so as we arrived back at our villa now was deemed to be a good time to get the run out the way. I emerged from the bedroom having changed to find different weather all together, the sun was gone, the clouds had muscled in  and it was starting to rain. Well there was no way I’m hanging around until it brightens up, so off I went, I had yet to run In a proper storm and today I was going to get the chance.

Deciding to run passed the tree houses so I could ogle at how the other half ‘mini-break’ was todays plan. These places are fantastic looking made completely of wood with a sloping bridge leading around the structure appearing to literally be built around a tree. After the that I think I took a wrong turn. I've always been terrible at following my nose and I need to travel the same route 5 or 6 times before I can do it without prompts so it was no surprise that I now found myself in an area of the parc I’d never seen before, I didn’t mind, in fact that was the point of not looking at the map. Running through the trees I felt as if I’d really found Sherwood Forest which sounds odd being as the parc is built within it. And I suppose that’s the right word ‘built’ as even though the forest is clearly all around and the buildings are sympathetic to it, it does seem heavily built up. It was raining pretty hard by now as I broke out on to the road and thunder and lightning was now in session, for some reason I found the forest canopy quite a comfort as without it I imagined my skeleton flashing bright white through my skin after a lightning strike.

I ran towards another runner covered in a large black waterproof coat that remained me of the one worn by Bruce Willis in the film ‘Unbreakable’. The coat was so big that I didn’t notice that he was also pushing a guy in a wheelchair, he too was wrapped in a very similar coat with just his face showing. I recall spotting the two of them in the pool earlier the man in the chair was being carried around the pool by the other and I remember thinking he was a bit of a hero at the time. Bruce Willis played a reluctant super hero in the film, how apt. “race you!” shouted running man I said something like “I think you would win” as the rain had washed my get up and go away by then. “all this for a Sunday dinner” he replied. For a few seconds I ran alongside them but when they slowed I carried on at my pace and we slowly separated until the gap was too big to converse. I took a few photos and videos before I arrived back at the villa, my shoes were buckets of water and my clothes couldn’t be any wetter if I had fallen in the lake. I had no choice but to strip off outside and leave a soggy pile of garments in the porch, a quick shower, dry clothes and a takeaway there surely is no finer end. The guy that delivered the Indian suggested he probably saw me running in the rain, no doubt wondering who the nutter was. I had intended to run around the parc again the next day before we left but the trainers were still too wet I almost brought both pairs along but went with just the one pair as after a short discussion with myself it was agreed that you can prepare just a little too much… not so in this case.