Abingdon parkrun – an expensive accident

A date in the diary that I was really looking forward to was going to the Abingdon parkrun to meet-up with my Marathon Talk Austria Run Camp friends.

These guys are such a lovely, lovely bunch of people and, like I said in my Austria recap, we all got on so well. In fact, two of them actually got together (of which I was blindly unaware of at the time – apparently it was fairly obvious!). What’s been lovely is that we’ve all kept in touch through our WhatsApp group/social media and kept up with what we’ve all been doing. But it’s always nice to meet-up properly, especially for a parkrun and cake afterwards.

We all come from different parts of the UK (and Vienna!) so Abingdon was chosen as the ‘easiest’ location and a few of them had the Abingdon Marathon the next day so it made sense. For me it was a 1.5 hour drive away which wasn’t too bad at all. Actually it was nice driving away from the coast on Saturday morning as Storm Brian was getting going. I set my alarm for 6.20am and was up and out by 7am with coffee for the road. It was an easy drive and I arrived in plenty of time. Amazing for me really.Abingdon parkrun has a handy car park just next to the finish funnel so you can find where it’s all going on very easily. It’s also free for the first two hours and there’s a rather posh public toilet nearby too (you pay 10p but the experience is fabulous). Abingdon itself, if you’ve never been, is a very lovely quaint English town, similar to Salisbury, Chichester or Winchester.By 8.30am we’d all arrived and were hugging and swapping stories. It was just lovely. I love it when you can slot back into place with people like you’ve never been away.Everyone was going to run the parkrun apart from John (John is the legend that ran from Winchester to Canterbury along the Pilgrims and North Downs Way long-distance trail to celebrate his 40th. Yep) as he was suffering from a back niggle.Everyone but one person made it (Zoe, we missed you!) so it was a nice gang of us and when we had our newbie briefing for the parkrun they wrote down all our home locations and when it came to the main briefing they read them all out and asked if anyone from actual Abingdon was there today! It was amusing. So yeah, we had the newbie briefing though we really didn’t need it as Sarah, who’s from Abingdon, had given us a good briefing (if you’re a Marathon Talk listening, Sarah does the designs for Xempo and had a bazillion shout outs in the last podcast episode! She’s amazing and does fantastic running-themed products and designs – check out her website). She gave us a good guide of the course – two loops. I love a two looper. Not as repetitive as a three (or more) looper and not as long as a one looper feels.The weather, as you can see, was glorious. Yes very windy but the sun was beautiful. It was cold in that autumnal British way, but not horrific. I’d already decided I wanted to chat and run rather than do any sort of hard effort so I ran besides Sarah and we caught up. It was a lovely run that honestly flew by. I had no idea of my pace at all. The course is a bit tricky underfoot at times, running along grassy, uneven bits but overall it’s a lovely parkrun. Beautiful next to the river and lots of open green spaces.There were a couple of moments at the start where we ground to a halt. I think there were more people there than usual so a bottleneck occurred along the narrower bit, but I wasn’t bothered as I was too busy chatting! John cheered us on as we passed him which was nice (thanks for the pic too!).My time was 26.13 which I was happy with. It wasn’t a run for a fast time after all. The finishing straight is nice and straight for anyone hunting for a sprint finish.

Photo credit: John Harvey

And we carried on catching up with everyone. As we’d planned on heading to a cafe for some coffee and cake we needed to go back and put some money into the car park machine for a ticket as two hours wouldn’t be enough now (from when we first got there). I was stupidly holding too much stuff, trying to fish out the right change or card from my purse and my iPhone (my brand new case-less iPhone 7, the case is in the post) slipped from my hands…onto the concrete floor. The sound of a naked iPhone hitting the floor will possibly haunt me forever. Those around me looked horrified – everyone understood the stakes here. It had landed face down and I jokingly said, “whoops, that’s an expensive accident!” and the people behind me laughed nervously. As I picked it up and turned it over I just stared in horror. The entire screen was cracked – like a thousand tiny cracks all over it. I just stared and suddenly wanted to cry. The screen was entirely broken and smashed – it wouldn’t even work.

I had the sense to go and put my car park ticket in my car and then walked back over to the Austria gang. I didn’t really know what to do. They all expressed the same sentiments as me: “oh shit”. Yep. I also suddenly realised that the one person I’d normally ask for help in this situation was uncontactable due to the fact that my phone was broken.

Sarah helped me adult and told me to come to the cafe where we could sort out what to do there. She let me borrow her phone and I rang my parent’s house phone (the only number I could remember – reminding me I probably should have a few more numbers written down in my purse for such situations). As my mum answered I immediately burst into tears on the phone as I explained what happened. Bless my mum, she replied “I’ll get your father”. My dad calmed me down and told me he’d meet me in Southampton where we could go to the Apple shop and see what could be done. We arranged a time and I said I’d ring when I got close to Southampton… then realised I couldn’t. Idiot that I am. Instead I wrote down his mobile number on my hand (old skool) and would text him on Sarah’s phone when I was leaving, knowing it would take me 1.5 hours to get there.

I then got in the queue with John to order a peppermint tea and a cake. John asked for cake recommendations and I scanned the options and said that I thought the toffee pecan looked amazing and that’s what I was going to order. As I’d sort of pushed in with John (very naughty of me I know, but I was all stressed out, no excuse I know) I let him order first. He took my recommendation. Unfortunately he also took the last slice. How rude!! He wasn’t even sorry, the cheeky bugger. So instead I went for a freshly baked warm Smartie cookie with Nutella drizzled on it. I mean, I thought I didn’t like Nutella but actually I think I might be converted… I think I had a bad toast and Nutella experience once that put me off, but let me tell you, on a cookie it’s something else. And I think it was probably better than |John’s slice of cake. Just saying.Of course I didn’t have a phone anymore to take a photo of it so borrowed Sarah’s again (thank you, thank you). I felt a bit at a loss without my phone… no way to upload my run to Strava (did it even happen…?). But it was lovely to sit and chat with the guys and eat copious amounts of cake. As it was Michelle’s 50th parkrun Sarah had amazingly baked a cake (how nice is that??) so I had a couple of slices of that as well. Consolation cake, you see. Michelle, by the way, ran in the ELITE wave of the Great South Run the next day. SHE IS SO FAST. I’ll do a separate post on the Great South Run soon!How beautiful is this square where we had coffee? It was a bit blustery but the autumnal colours were just gorgeous. And because it was quite chilly I got another hot drink, this time a turmeric latte. So fancy, eh!It was…interesting. I quite enjoyed it, as I do like turmeric, but it wasn’t the nicest drink on the planet. A bit bitty at the end. Glad I gave it a bash!

And then sadly I had to head off to sort my phone out. What slightly annoyed me was a man, whom I didn’t know, commented on the fact that I was getting my dad to help me. He was being very friendly and nice and he himself had tried to help me with where I could go to get my iPhone sorted but I said no thank you and explained that my dad was helping. He then said, “ah yes, and I imagine he’ll be footing the bill too” – he said it quite fondly but it really rubbed me up the wrong way. I was quite affronted and, as politely as I could, explained that actually wasn’t the case. Yes I made not be a fully functioning adult but I DO NOT get my dad to pay for things for me. I am perfectly capable of paying for my own mistakes, thank you very much. What an assumption!

Anyway, I said my goodbyes and headed off home. I made great time and met my dad outside the Apple shop. We did try a non-Apple screen fixer guy but he said he couldn’t guarantee the fingerprint technology would work when he was done… it would also ruin my Apple warranty and mean in the future I wouldn’t be able to sell the phone.So in the end I decided to go for the more expensive, but guaranteed fix, with Apple (which would also be covered partially by my phone insurance). Annoyingly it would need to wait until Wednesday until they had a free appointment. Apparently I’m not the only idiot who drops and ruins their phone…

So that was my Saturday! Rather hectic but still rather lovely. I was running the Great South Run the next day (a late decision for me as someone in my running club was giving their place away as they could no longer run) so I had a nice easy evening. Michelle, the lovely Michelle, had baked me some blondies as a thank you for a favour I did for her a few weeks ago so I made a rather good start on munching my way through that as well! Honestly, I don’t dare to think about my cake consumption this weekend because it didn’t stop there…! More on that on my Great South Run recap 😉

Have you ever been to Abingdon before?

Have you ever dropped your phone?

What kind of expensive mistakes have you made? Please make me feel better…

20 Replies to “Abingdon parkrun – an expensive accident”

  1. I dropped my old HTC and that wrecked the camera (it never worked again). That phone ended up with Macmillan Cancer Support to help test new website designs… I dropped my 4c down the loo (it revived briefly, but I failed to get my photos off it. I may try again in a bit, to see if I can get it to re-revive and get the photos off). That was an expensive way to find out that putting your phone in your back pocket is a Really Bad Idea. I now walk straight out of the phone shop and into the closest shop selling cases – I have a soft-plastic case, and it stands up to most things (I do not recommend a glass screen protector – it has cracked). I am cack handed at the best of times, so I do drop stuff. I have dropped a favourite mug twice (and replaced it twice). I have destroyed many champagne flutes and wine glasses.

    Are you *sure* we’re not related?

  2. I definitely cried when I smashed my iPhone for the second time… Since switching to Samsung Galaxy I’ve had better luck although not sure if that’s just because I am a lot more careful now!

  3. I haven’t been to Abingdon but have heard great things about the marathon.
    I dropped my 2-week old iPhone 4 a few years ago. Although the screen didn’t shatter, I got the blue screen of death and had to get a replacement phone through my insurance.
    The most expensive “clumsy Emma” incident was when I dropped my violin. The violin in question is almost 200 years old and didn’t cope very well with being dropped. That was an expensive mistake.
    Emma recently posted…Race Report: Great Birmingham RunMy Profile

  4. Dropping your phone is no big deal, it really happens all the time…..I wouldn’t worry about it.
    That guy was rude about your dad, presuming he was paying. I think most people would have just gone to the Apple shop on their own, not phoned a parent, Maybe that’s why he presumed it?

  5. Ahhh sorry to hear about your phone! I literally throw my phone around ALL the time [by accident!] and the screen is cracked in several places. I’ve actually been meaning to go in and get it fixed! But seriously, I drop my phone everyday. My husband told me he’s going to get me a super expensive and really protective case for christmas lol
    kat recently posted…Vegan Pumpkin Spice Caramel PopcornMy Profile

  6. Oh no, that would have been horrible! I dread to think how much I rely on my phone too- on journeys I often use it as the sat nav, and listen to podcasts as I drive, plus I would use the internet to look up the postcode if I was using my normal satnav. It’s bad enough when I realise too late that the battery is about to run out (happened once in London and I had to ring my mum to meet me at the station and then hope that she got the message as the phone then died). Andy broke his phone at a football match- Southampton scored and he jumped up and down and his new phone fell out of his unzipped pocket- he ordered a case straight after. I drop mine loads so I have an ugly and chunky case that covers the screen too (handy because it has slots for bank cards too) because otherwise I would be on my 100th phone by now. Although I don’t take it in the bathroom- so many people I know have dropped theirs into the toilet too!
    Abingdon looks lovely though- I’v been near there to some National Trust places (of course) and I think before Blenheim half I might have been there for dinner as we stayed nearby. All those sorts of towns are good for a little wander, and the two laps sounds good too. And that nutella cookie looks amazing- it belongs on something warm so that it goes all melty- mmmm.
    Maria @ Maria runs recently posted…Peanut butter caramel slicesMy Profile

  7. Yes, I was in Abingdon this Sunday doing their Marathon. I did my parkrun in Evesham though. And yes, my iPhone 4 bought it last year when I knocked it onto the tiled floor in my study. Guess these things are like toast – always land screen side down!

    Steve Pretty
    Bury St Edmunds parkrun ED

  8. Oh I would have sobbed my heart out if I dropped my phone! That guy was a bit rude making assumptions about your dad though – having someone go with you is NOT an indication that they’re paying. Grrr!

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