With summer about to end there was just enough time for a last hurrah via an Eagles 5k handicap race held on the Gunnersbury parkrun course. The race is based around the simple concept that the runners start when a timer hits their parkrun or 5k PB and it’s then a race to the finish to either beat your PB, beat people around you, or just treat the event as another training run.
The first runners set off around the 40 minute mark and I filtered myself into the queue of runners ready to depart when the timer hit 23 minutes & 27 seconds. I had decided to use the run as a flat out race to gauge just how my training was going for the upcoming Ealing Eagles 10k & Ealing Half Marathon. My only worry centered on the fact that all my 5k parkrun activity was now dictacted by the pace of The Son as I tail run behind him just to make sure he is ok.
Unfortunately I was 8 seconds off my PB so did not beat the clock down to zero and was a massive 2 minutes plus down on the winner who took a huge chunk out of his PB (in golf venacular the term ‘bandit’ would be rather apt but this is just a friendly race). I really enjoyed the format as it pushed me to test out my current speed & pacing so I am looking forward to the 2013 summer months in a bid to beat that pesky timer.
