Camp Bastion parkrun a note by Lieutenant Andy Brown

As many of you parkrunners may know, James Barnfield set up the Camp Bastion parkrun towards the end of what is known as 'Operation HERRICK 14', which was the name for British operations in Afghanistan between April and September 2011.

The number of the Operation goes up by one when a new rotation of troops enters Afghanistan, approximately every six months, so we are now approaching the end of Operation HERRICK 15, and the end of my tour of duty.

James briefly handed over to a group of soldiers from the Royal Corps of Signals before I took the parkrun on around November.

I work in the Equipment Support Battalion, which is a unit of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). We operate from Camp Bastion recovering, maintaining and repairing equipment. My job as Recovery Platoon Commander is to manage recovery assets to move bogged in, ditched, or destroyed vehicles back to base locations so they can be handed back to combat troops.

When I leave in a couple of weeks time, I will be handing the parkrun over to soldiers from the REME unit that is replacing us as we speak.

The number of runners picked up gradually from the first event, reaching a peak in October 2011 after which the winter weather started to make it quite chilly in the morning and numbers declined somewhat. By January it was down to about -5C in the morning so I was actually quite impressed that people would still turn up to run in shorts and t-shirts. The lowest turnout we had was in February when there was a heavy rainstorm in the morning and only three people came out, but the event still went ahead anyway. Now the weather has improved again, numbers are starting to go back up and the last few events have seen 40-50 runners, with around 10-15 first timers every week.

The parkrun has happened every Saturday morning since James started it, with the exception of two weeks ago when we had to cancel after an incident on the runway which meant we couldn't run outside, temporarily. We run at 06:30 so that people have time to get in for work at 08:00 when most people in Bastion start the day as we don't get weekends off.

The weather here is quite extreme; from around March it starts to get quite hot and temperatures are in the high 30's by April, and up to the 50's in June. In the height of summer it is still about 30 degrees even first thing in the morning, so the running is hard work. In contrast, the weather in winter can get very cold, with the temperature in Bastion reaching as low as -10 degrees.

The route is a lap of the perimeter of 'Bastion 1’which is the original location of Camp Bastion. Camp Bastion has since expanded and including the airfield, I would estimate that Bastion 1 is about one tenth of the entire camp so you get an idea of how big this place is.

As you would expect, the entire route is 'inside the wire' which is guarded by soldiers. In terms of setting up, the route is quite straight forward so I drive round in an old Land Rover and put out a couple of direction signs and the kilometre markers from about 05:30 so we're ready to go by just after 06:00.

My team of three or four others arrives shortly after that and we take the details of people who are running for the first time so that we can register them. The IT facilities don’t make it that easy for most people to print their barcodes so we do that for them, ready to collect the following week. The run then happens like any other and we pack up the route before having breakfast and going back to work.

For me and the other volunteers, I think the parkrun is a good way to break up the week and it’s something different, even if it does mean a bit of an early start. As for the runners, most people here seem to take on a pretty heavy physical training schedule after work just to pass the time as there isn’t very much else to do, so it’s a really good way to keep track of how your fitness is getting on. Add to that the fact that it takes a few weeks to acclimatise to the altitude - Camp Bastion is at 3000ft and people usually see a pretty big improvement in their times if they keep at it.

Most people have never heard of parkrun before but there are some, like myself, who have run it in the UK and like to have the ‘tick in the box’ of having run it in Afghanistan. I will more than likely go back to Bramhall parkrun, which is my local, when I return, just to see how my own training has got on over the last seven months.

Hopefully this will give you an insight into the parkrun here in Afghanistan.

Thanks to all at parkrun for your help in setting up the event, it’s great to have the support of people back in the UK.

Kind Regards,

Lieutenant Andy Brown, Camp Bastion parkrun

For more on parkrun visit the parkrun website: www.parkrun.com/