Finally, finally, the reality dawns, and I can now heed all the advice of the past 6 weeks. Slow is beautiful. Probably unorthodox, but I made up a classical chillout playlist instead of the usual pacy stuff and it helped me settle into a slow and steady pace for 25 mins, speeding up only in the last 60 secs. It was glorious, despite a cloudy day and spitting rain...
Ok, so I may still be doing the ParkRun when everyone comes back for the following week, but I am out there doing it, and that puts me in a very happy p(l)ace. Thanks, Everyone.