When I got up at 7am, the village was shrouded in a golden mist, and the air felt deliciously cool. How lovely to run in this, I thought. However, I am familiar enough with British weather to know that at this time of year, the mist and cool would give way to hot sun. I was not wrong.
By the time we were warming up, the sun was beating down on us. To make matters worse, I had the beginning of a cold, which resulted in a slightly elevated temperature and sore throat. Not ideal on a warm day! Anyway, off I went with my two buddies, and we soon found our respective paces. Strangely, the Toxic Ten wasn’t very apparent this morning, for which I was truly grateful. I was just tired from not having slept well last night, due to aforementioned sore throat. Even more strangely, my mouth-breathing didn’t seem to exacerbate the throat. Still, I wasn’t about to complain!
The minutes passed, as did the kms. The meadow laps in the middle of the run were difficult as usual, with damp, slightly long grass, with undulations. One of our group dropped out at this point, with a pulled thigh muscle. That left me and the other buddy.
We flogged round the course, getting hotter by the minute. At times I felt quite tired, but I am not one to surrender. It was a relief to run alongside the river, in the shade of the trees. The swans looked at us disdainfully, as only swans can, as if wondering why these clumsy bipeds should disturb their peace by thundering past.
About 30 metres from the finish, I went into my fastest sprint, and left my buddy behind. She never caught up with me, which is amazing, as she is consistently faster than me. I was a full 10 seconds in front of her. I achieved a PB again, skimming 20 seconds off last week’s time. I was very satisfied, particularly as the sprint hadn’t left me gasping for air. I must be getting fitter!
I am becoming addicted to this phenomenon that is Parkrun. My buddy and I have even decided that when we run on Monday, we are going to do 5k, instead of however far we can get in 30 minutes, which is usually about 3.4k. I think I need help! Not really. I quite like this new me! 😁
No running today - Parkrun killed me! 
Parkrun, colour run or race for Life?
Final run done - at a very windy parkrun
W9R2 - Good run, misty morning, no calf pain!
