Well, the curse of "trying to post on my phone" has struck again, seems that about 60% of the posts and PMs I send from my phone disappear into some kind of electronic limbo, never to be seen again...?!
Last Saturday, I set out for my second stab at the Magic Plan W8 R3. Route carefully planned, weather cool but dry, hopefully out early enough to avoid the bulk of the dog walkers and cyclists! I consciously tried to keep the pace down so as to not wear myself out too soon, and, off we go. For the first few km it was literally just me, the ducks, geese and swans, and a curious squirrel who raced me for about 100m before being distracted by something else and peeling off.
Briefly had to divert via the grass as the path was blocked by a veritable gaggle of geese, having watched these particular youngsters since they were balls of fluff I know that the parents are still a bit protective of them so took the decision to give them a wide berth! I've seen the parents frighten young children who have ran away in tears at the honking and flapping...
Exchanged greetings with a couple of runners going the other way, over the canal, short distance along the towpath, then gradually came up behind a group of 4 people who appeared to be from a local running club. They were travelling marginally slower than me, but too quickly for me to pass comfortably... I slowed my pace down, but somehow it didn't feel natural (even though 3 months ago I was probably running at that pace myself...) and I seemed to be struggling to not keep up, if you see what I mean...
After about 800m of that, there was a choice of route, they went left so I went right and managed to get back to a more natural cadence. The kilometres were clocking up quite nicely now, and the park was becoming busier, so point my nose towards home and a sit down and shower!
Ms Strava informed me that the 10k was up... slow down to a walk as far as the nearest bench to do some "cool down" stretches and analyse the figures. 1 hour, 1 minute, 41 seconds for 10k - not exactly world record pace but not too shabby for a 56yo fat bloke who 2 1/2 years ago could barely run a bath... oh, and I reckon the new shoes helped too!
Do I get a "Graduate (Again!)" badge for this...? Asking for a friend 
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
