Three weeks in a row - does that count as a hat trick?
As you can see, I'm looking very smug in the photo, largely because I completed it in about 1 1/2 minutes less than last week, and managed to keep running all the way.
Have improved the time each week. I did C25K two years ago, and did a single Parkrun then promptly put my back out, then put on lots of weight. So made the effort and redid it this week. I noticed that my distances in the C25K were less than before, so on the first parkrun decided not to overdo it and aim for 40-45 minutes. Was delighted to scrape just under 40. Then last week down to 39:30 ish, then this week 37:51. PB remains from that single parkrun from 2 years back which was 37:36, so just 15 seconds short, and a vast improvement on last week's effort!
In truth I think I could have smashed the PB, but on the first lap I got stuck behind a group of slow runners on the river towpath just after Abingdon Lock, where there was very little opportunity to overtake safely (or maybe I was just too windy!). I noticed that it seemed an easy pace, and then glanced at my watch and saw it was 8:40 per km so heading for over 40 mins. I'm pretty sure that slow patch must have cost me 15 seconds. Managed to overtake quite a few people once clear of the towpath, including a couple of people with 100 Parkruns T-shirts on! (Proud moment!). Then got overtaken by a couple of 7 year olds (not such a proud moment!)
Then in the last km, my watch indicated a WhatsApp message, which I guessed would be from my son, who was doing the Highbury Parkrun, and I thought "cr*p! he's already finished!" But the previous two weeks he's been staying with us, and did the Abingdon with me, and I didn't attempt to keep up.
I'm wondering what fuelled the improvement this week? All in all it was far more relaxed - I think I decided to focus on enjoying it, rather than worry about the time. Also on the advice of a friend, I had some breakfast before - some porridge with a teaspoon of honey about an hour before to give me some fuel.
The first week I ran all the way, but on the second week I was obliged to walk in places - I think I went off at too fast a pace, and even though I was faster the second week than the first, it was disappointing to have to walk, having run all the way the first week. So this week it was particularly pleasing to be able to keep running to the end. My Strava graph shows that I gradually increased speed throughout the run, which is the right way to do it, I think - save the hard effort till last.
All in all, definitely in a good place right now!
Written by
iain-strachan
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Good run for you Iain, yes being overtaken by a 7 year old is a bit 😂
This morning there was a 7 year old girl and her mother running at the parkrun I was at this morning, I 'tried' to keep up with both of them for around1k,perhaps the reason I got a PB today of 32.01 but after 1k I slowed down a little until I met a lady who was going at my pace but then quickened up and surprisingly I managed to keep up with her, I think that between the first and last kilometer I can thank those two runners for my PB. 😊 🏃
Actually the 7 year olds were real troupers. I saw one of them a couple of weeks ago, running with his dad, and a nice pace I could follow, and I thought I'd settle in about 10 yards behind them. But then the little boy stopped for a wee, and I never saw them again.
Then today it was the same dad but two of them. One (or both) kids at moments fell over flat on the ground, and I'd expected to hear bawling follow on but the kid just got up and carried on running! At the start they announced the rules that children under 11 must be accompanied by a parent and be at arm's length.
However, I guess it's hard for a dad to keep control of two kids, and right at the end one of them made a run for it and beat dad and the other kid by about 30 seconds.
I have just checked the results of the parkrun I was at this morning but don't see any time for that 7 year old or her mum, I have my doubts if they completed the run, a child must as you say be accompanied by their parents, I just don't see the same surname for a junior or mother.
I am married but have never used my husband’s surname in the real world. Our (now grown up) children have his surname. In my day it was feminism and maintaining a professional identity that drove my choice not to take his name upon marriage. In today’s world of blended families you can’t make assumptions about names for all sorts of reasons.
There's a guy on one of my local ones who pushes his toddler in a buggy round the course. It's always a bit deflating when he overtakes me, especially if we're on a uphill stretch at the time. He is about 20 years younger though, so I'll let him have that...
I saw a man at the parkrun I was at a few weeks ago really struggling with a buggy during the run, he kept passing me, then I passed him when he had stopped, never saw him again, he may not have completed the run.
By the way, I will not be at a parkrun tomorrow, I intend to run for 20 minutes along the exact route that I ran run 3 of week 9.
This morning I walked and ran a little at the parkrun I run on a Saturday morning, the idea was to know, using Mapmywalk app the exact 1 Kilometre splits from 1 Kilometre to 4, didn't need the full 5, that is the end, so I now know where the kilometers splits are on the course, by sheer coincidence, kilometer 1 and 4 are very near each other, kilometer 2 and 3 are also very near as well on the 3 lap course, there is a 290 metre first and last straight part at the start and at the end before the 950 metres lap, all those statistics I got from Mapmywalk.
Well done Iain, sounds like great progress. Every parkrun seems to have super fast youngsters and/or reluctant ones being dragged around by a super enthusiastic parent. At the parkrun I attended today there was a young girl struggling, being forced around by a pushy dad. Run Director to dad “you know this is a run not a race?” Dad to RD “who are you to question my parenting choices?”. That girl will probably grow up hating running.
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