Saturday 3 December 2016

ParkRun - Nearing the 50!

Hello blog lovers.

I woke up this morning to a glorious day!  It was a lot milder than it was last week!  Not a cloud about, a perfect running morning. I drove to Normans park feeling positive!  I parked my car up and locked up and started my warm up walk to the other end of the park for the start.  I went to look at my Garmin and that's when I noticed that I had forgotten to put it on after charging it!  It's just as well it's a parkrun and having it all timed for me!

I saw Carole and Michael walking over to the start and a ran to catch up to them and we chatted as we walked over together.  I didn't know who else would be there today but I was sure there would be a couple more people that I knew at least.  There were loads of 'blue shirts' there this morning too, the Zero to Hero group were graduating from their beginners class today!  There looked like there were quite a few of them too.  In fact there seemed to be quite a few people running, it must be the lovely perfect running morning that has bought them all out! Then I saw Wendimoo and K!  They came over to chat to us, I also noticed quite a few others as well, but there were a lot of PWR's that were not here too because of various reasons, I believe John was doing is 150th at another parkrun venue.....no cake for me then! And also there is the KFL races going on a bit later, so they were all saving their legs!

And so the start began.  We all surged forward, I said to Carole that I was going to do my own thing, run at my pace and just see how I get on.  That was my plan, have fun with parkrun, and just push it a little bit, maybe, if I can!  But if I didn't then I wouldn't beat myself up about it!  I shall just have to try next time! Put it this way, I shall be aiming not to get any slower than I do today!  I will just try and get a few seconds quicker each parkrun that I do while I am running by myself!  My quickest this year was when I was running with NaggyNeighbour!  All that puking and farting going through the tunnel was not pleasant, although I was blimmin pleased I that I got under 38 even though I was hoping to be 36!

Carole an Michael was running next to me for the first half mile, chatting away so easily like they were out for a stroll.  I was running next to them answering with just the one word.  When we had run around the little stream I started to fall back, they started to pull away in front of me.  So now I was running on my own, well apart from 556 other runners of course.  With my plan in mind I plodded along, just a little bit extra than I did last week, I still wanted to try and beat last weeks results, it's the competitiveness!

I gave myself little goals to do, catch up to the woman walking, keep running pass the pavilion, a walking break only after......!  It worked for me.  It should do, as that it what I tell all my beginners to do, and those that come to group 1!  With each tiny little goal I started to feel a little more confident.  I can get this 'non stop' 5k under my belt...one day!  But for now, it's just getting a few seconds quicker from this week!  I can't keep an eye on my timing, I am just going to have to rely on what I feel like as I run, but still make it all about enjoyment as well.  There is no need to dislike running, that will just make it a chore!

I kept going, each little goal getting me to my bigger goal, the end!  There were walking episodes and there was some running episodes, more running that walking of course.  I also had a chat with whoever was next to me when I was doing the walking sections too!  Parkrun is all about the friendliness of the runners after all!  It was good having a chat with the Zero to Hero runners who were doing their first parkrun, and a couple of little chaps running with their daddy too!  One of them said they were tired after the first lap, but he kept going.  I think his dad used me as a little goal for the kids after that as they were running behind me.  So I tried to keep running for as long as I could.  I think they finally lapped me when we got to the woods, (Hook Farm end of the park) for the second time.  I think that must have given them some extra energy because they just seem to have shot off then.

I was feeling pretty good about this run,  I didn't push too hard so that I found it too difficult, nor did I take it too easy.  I think I paced it about right for my new plan.  next week I will knock off a couple more seconds from todays result, and I shall remember to bring my own Garmin too! But I won't look at it while I am running!  I shall try and do exactly what I did today and then some!

My result by the way was 38:14 mins!  Almost a minute and half faster than last week!






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