Living in Aberdeen Part 4

This week has been a pretty active one outside of work. I've always enjoyed keeping active, playing sports and the outdoors, so it was important for me to find things to do while I'm in Aberdeen that kept my fitness up.

Aberdeen parkrun

For those of you who don't know what parkrun is, it is an organisation that sets up 5km run around the UK every weekend. It's free to sign up and participate in, and is a great way to get a timed 5km run, no matter your ability. This weekend I attended the 502nd Aberdeen parkrun with another intern. The route takes you around the on the Beach Esplande, with race start being every Saturday at 9:30am. There's a short section that runs parallel along Donmouth Local Nature Reserve, before reaching the promenade and running along the coastline. There's a turning point which then takes you back up the coast to the Nature Reserve, where the finish line awaits.

The weather was great for running in, warm (not too hot) and sunny! Whilst running along the coast, you do get hit diagonally with the wind coming from offshore, which definitely added some resistance in the first half of the run. It's all on road/footpaths, so no need to worry about trail running or anything like that. What I was pretty amazed by was the number of people that came out to run on Saturday morning. A total of 280 people, of all ages and from all walks of life came out to give it a go, which gave me a sense of community about Aberdeen parkrun. I saw people running with their dogs, family members and even one guy pushing a baby buggy the whole 5k! It's really an event for everyone, and I suspect this will become a weekly occurrence for myself.

Whilst parkrun is free, you do need to make sure to register online before you go to your first one, as this will give you access to your personal barcode that can track your time. There is no chip timing for the event. Instead, at the start of the run the clock will start, and when you reach the finish line you are given a small tag with a barcode. This is then scanned and will give you an estimate of your finish time. A tip I would give is to try and get to the front of the line when the race starts, as this will give you the most accurate race time. Or, like I do, measure your own distance and time on a GPS running watch. I have the Garmin Forerunner 45 and it does the job perfectly.

What was quite nice about the Aberdeen parkrun is that every week runners grab a post parkrun coffee at the King's Church Community Café, not too far from the start and finish line. It's a really nice café in a pretty cool looking building. Prior to the café being there, the building originally was home to some sort of exhibition. I was also pleasantly surprised as they offer to make your coffee with alternative milk too if you ask, meaning I could enjoy a plant based latte :)

Bouldering

In the past few months I've got into bouldering (a type of climbing without ropes). This started towards the end of my third year at university, when a couple of course mates suggested we go to the local climbing gym one evening. I really enjoyed it, and so went a few times in London before moving up to Aberdeen. I was keen on trying to keep it up, and turns out there's a place called Transition Extreme, a social enterprise and Scottish charity that opened its doors in 2007. It offers a whole range of sports, from indoor climbing, bouldering, a BMX & skatepark and much more.

With a couple of fellow interns we booked ourselves in for a morning session and headed down to this climbing gym. We booked a 1 hour session for £7.50 online, but it turns out the place is very chill, and if it's not crazy busy you can stay longer than your slot. Hiring climbing shoes for £6 is also an option, which is great for a novice like myself.

The bouldering walls were a lot smaller with not a huge range of variety compared to the one in London I usually go to, however there were some good routes that required a lot of problem solving, trying and failing! What I like about climbing is that it's about how you can look at a problem and figure out how to get from A to B, combined with the physical element of scaling up a wall with no harness. There's something that's quite natural and free about bouldering, similar to running (which I also like to do).

We spent a couple of hours in there, until we didn't have much energy left to try any more routes. I'm still building up my grip strength and stamina in all the other muscles that bouldering works. Most likely I'll be feeling a little sore on Monday!

I found this week that Aberdeen is great for those who like the outdoors, adventure activities and like keeping active, helping me find things to get involved in during my free time :)

PS: Is there something that you'd like me to find out about or explore in Aberdeen in particular? Feel free to drop me a message with any suggestions!