#9 Northala Fields

What can i say about Northala Fields? Well, actually quite a lot!

It is a park that was opened in 2008 and consists of four artificial hills standing next to the A40, as well as several fishing lakes. The hills were constructed using rubble from the demolition of the original Wembley Stadium, which was closed in 2000 and demolished in 2003. The park backs onto the older Rectory Park.

The name “Northala” is how the old manor of Northall (Northolt) was recorded in the Domesday book in 1086.

As i rode my motorbike towards Northala Fields on the A40 I passed the Old Hoover Building, which is a beautiful old Art Deco building, where they used to produce them.

Here are two of the artificicial hills of Northala Fields…..

Here are some runners waiting for the ParkRun…….

Here is a picture of the park runners, taken from the top of one of the hills…….

A picture of one of the hills…….. from one of the hills……… (stop me if i’m boring you!)

….. the run director….. i think Louise was her name…..

the good old shot of me with the run director………

I learned two things today that are of significance to me.

Firstly, that it is the people and the atmosphere of a park run that determines whether it is a success or a failure, fun or boring, exciting or upsetting.

Take the one last week. I woke in a really good mood, and yet by the end of the run, due to my experiences on the run and after, I wasn’t quite so happy. This week however, I had a sad morning (for reasons it would be outside the remit of this blog to go into) and yet by the time i had finished the run I was as happy as a happy thing on a happy day!!

I’m convinced that the people i met today helped me to lift out of my mood, and become happy and lighthearted. So thank you to all of you, and especially to the guy who I raced tooth and nail to the end of the run! I think his name was Peter but i can’t be sure. It was such a funny thing. I was about 300 metres from the finish line when i thought i might just pick up the pace a little. Then i heard some very heavy breathing behind me which was unmistakably someone trying to pip me to the post…… so i went hell for leather to the end!

Peter came up to me and thanked me for a great finish, he really thought he might pip me at the post but couldn’t quite get there. He was so lighthearted about it, that i had to smile. There was a total sense of camaraderie.

Next week……… Riddlesdown i think