It was hot this morning. Not warm. Hot. I'd prepared for this parkrun in Richmond Park by keeping my wine intake last night to just two small glasses.... (ok then,.....bowls) and knowing that the previous three 5K runs I've done, I've managed them all sub 28 mins. Could today be a PB and could I break that "SuperDan World Record Time for Someone Called Dan Over 5K" I'd set last July 2013, just a month after graduation? That time was 27'28 back then - a time I exactly matched on my first ParkRun three weeks ago. I wanted it bad. Real bad, and I wasn't gonna turn up like last week, feeling like death on legs.
I mooched around whilst people were gathering and then decided to stand in the cool shade under this tree. Ms Volunteer woman was standing on her tree stump giving a rousing speech when an attractive lady with a bouncy ponytail in a coral top and black capris approached me - "Are you Dan?" she enquired. "I'm Turbo Tortoise!......from the blog?" Well what a fabulous thing! We instantly hit it off like old pals - which really is a tribute to this forum isn't it? - and I was impressed she'd recognised me amongst the throng. She told me she'd recognised me from my pic at the London Marathon. I was suddenly aware that everyone around might have heard that comment and gone "Ooooh. That guy must be goooood. If he ran the marathon and all....." HAHAHA!! Anyway, we toodled off to the start chatting away and took a place in line, fairly near the front. TT told me she normally comes home in around 28 minutes, so I heaved a sigh of relief at that news. I'd figured she'd be one of these 18 minuter'ers and leave me for dust! She plugged her headphones in, said "See you later!" and she was OFF! Like a bullet. She engaged Turbo Tortoise Boosters and disappeared in a flash, overtaking person after person. Eeeeeooowwwww!!!!
I started my run and did my usual thing, taking it steady and incredibly relaxed, overtaking when I could on the narrow path. The amount of people on this parkrun does make it tricky to overtake, but I was doing pretty well and soon settled into my stride. The more heavy breathers I heard, the more relaxed I became for some reason? It was weird but by the time I'd got to the 3K mark I was feeling very good.
On to the gravel trail now and the runners were thinning out. I was tempted to look at my watch and see how the time was going but I didn't want to affect my current mental positive attitude. If it was a bad time for where I was I'd get pi**ed off, if it was a good time, I still had 2K to go and didn't want to put myself under stress. Now having read TurboTortoise's blog about todays parkrun, it was around here that I must have overtaken her. I can't remember seeing the coral top and her bouncy ponytail cos I was so concentrating on trying to get across the line just a few seconds quicker than my PB at this distance. Around 4K I started to really feel tired. I must have (without knowing really) gone at it fairly briskly to this point and the energy in my body was depleting fast. I was thirsty but had no water. "Keep going Dan boy. You can do this!". A man who had been about three paces behind me for about a K eventually overtook me as I slowed dramatically. Man, this was hard! Only one thing to do - look at my watch!!
A cursory glance told me 25 minutes something, and THAT gave me a LIFT! Woohoo! Maybe I could do this? Just as my body was at the peak of it's exertion, there was this gorrrrrgeous downhill section. Oh My God, what a relief that was. I used it to get my breath back, but I was also flying down there like a racehorse! The person that usually stands at 150m from the finish yelling you on, wasn't there today which threw me for a brief second. Mentally I was going to use this encouragement to give me a boost, but alas twas not to be. I could see the finishing line ahead. A woman in a T Shirt which said "Eat My Dust" was in front of me. Could I pass her at the line? She was going well with 30m to go. "Eat my Dust? I'll bloody show her" I thought and with 5m to go I surged passed her beating her on the line by a second! Ohhhhhh yesssssss!!!!!! That felt goooood!!
TT came up to me and told me she'd seen me pass her back on the trail. We chatted some more and walked to Richmond Gate to keep our limbs from seizing up, then waved farewell to each other with the hope that we might indeed hook up again at the next one! She was lovely and as I rode my scooter in to my back garden on arriving home I yelled to Mrs Dan - "I've got a new friend!!!" and told her the TT story.
SO I just got my email with the results. After the titanic effort, I have indeed got a new PB of 26'27! I am ECSTATIC - But not only that. Today was the best run of my entire C25K career smashing previous records for a Cooper, 1KM, 1mile, 3K, 3 miles as well as the 5K!!!
And there's even better news.......TurboTortoise also had a PB of 26'59! YAY! Totes amazeballs!!
Not bad for two Couch To 5K'ers eh?
Thanks for reading.
D
These Parkruns do sound lots of fun; I'm seriously tempted to go for it myself next week, despite not even graduating yet! Well done on today; fantastic result and what sounds like a grand Parkrun experience! 
2 x 5k pb's this week!
