The Son is recovering from a cold at the moment so we ordered him to stay home on parkrun day. I met my friend Dan at Hanger Lane again and drove us to Black Park parkrun for my second appearance and Dan’s first visit.
With light flurries of snow in the air we arrived with plenty of time to get in a warm-up through a gentle small lap jog and then a second lap with several strides. Last time out I started too far back so I placed myself a bit nearer the front and we were soon off on our Saturday morning timed 5km run.
I decided to go for it this week by testing my fitness against a possible new PB. I had no crowded path to deal with so settled into a nice speed with a small group of runners around me seemingly going for the same pace. I could see Dan about 100 yards ahead of me and kept him as a focus point in an attempt to not fall any further back.
Everything was going well until some stomach cramps hit just before the 4km marker and I was forced to slow down a bit. My first thought was to banish my PB attempt but I felt the cramps subsiding so latched onto a passing runner and used her as an anchor to get myself going again. I was able to hit my target pace once more and as I turned into the finishing straight, I realised that my PB was still on so put everything I had into a final sprint.
A shiny new PB of 21:48 in the bag and we made our way to the café shack for a drink and piece of banana cake. It was not a long stay thanks to the cold weather but it’s always nice to go grab a drink and have a chat after parkrun.
Running Dan parkrun result:
- parkrun time: 0:21:48
- Garmin time: 0:21:48
- Finish position: 42 / 304
- Gender position: 42 / 195
- Age category: SM35-39
- Age grade: 62.16 %
2 comments
Nice PB!
Thanks :-) I have sub 21 in my thoughts once my marathon is done and dusted.