I'm not great at being early, ok so I'm usually (99.9 % of the time) late! So had to walk jog into Park Run this morning.
Strava - check
Position - check, but felt I was a bit too far forward
Music - check
Go!
Our Park Run is so big, that it takes ages for the numbers to begin to thin out, I felt I was struggling to get into my stride, kept getting boxed in by runners that were slightly slower than me. Lots of huge puddles that some folks tried to avoid, and others just ran through.
I have a couple of Celtic Music podcasts specifically for running - and after about 1k I thought "He's talking very slowly" Sure enough for some reason it was on 1/2 time rather than normal speed, so had to sort that out as I ran.
Our Park Run is "Undulating" and from the day I started running, I've been running on hills, and yet this morning on the last up, I gave into Steve the gremlin and walked 10 steps - I was not pleased, it wasn't even the steep part of the hill!
The whole way round I kept telling myself, "It doesn't matter, just finish it." Steve kept prodding me "what time will you happy with?" I kept discussing it with him, and he constantly told me that wasn't true, that I would be disappointed if I was over 30 mins.
You know the conversations!
I decided I would make up for my 10 step walk & my resetting my music to the right tempo, by sprinting as hard as I could DOWN the last 250 ms. Often I hold back, feel as if I'm going to fast for myself, but today I just let go. Ok 2 12 olds passed me - but that's ok.
As I arrived at the funnel, it seemed unusually quiet, I got through it very quickly - forward to collect my barcode and stopped my Strava - at least 5 seconds after I'd finished the 5k. I couldn't believe my eyes - according to my Strava I was a full minute faster than last week! So I thought maybe it had made a mistake. Checked my podcast no sure enough it was close to the Strava speed.
Strava was wrong by 19 secs - I was 19 secs faster than my Strava said!
So a new PB and all thoughts of a rubbish run vanished!
Hooray! You did it.. and how!
Why I like my Park Run
Week 9 Run 3 GRADUATION 👩🎓 
Thought I was going to be sick but... I DID IT!!! :-)
Oh my days! I actually did it! 
Oh my goodness, I just ran a 5km Park Run....and LOVED it 😃
