Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who replied to my previous post regarding my 5k Runniversary. The response was very positive and only goes to show how good this community is. It gives people great encouragement spurs everyone on as a result.
Just a bit of an update from my 10k run last Monday "The Black Pig 10K" in Enniscrone County Sligo. My last post was a bit rushed, and I unfortunately have plenty of time at the moment to make write a longer post.
My intention was to finally get a PB in the run of 50 minutes. I saw a fellow parkrunner at the start of the run and thought great I would follow him and use as a pacemaker to help me along the way. He is in my age group 50-54; he has been doing the parkruns (in Sligo anyway) since 2015 and consistently finishes in about 24 minutes. I try to use him as a marker when I am running at the parkrun and its probably about 50/50 as to who crosses the finish line first. Anyway, I started to run behind him at the start, but he was a bit slower than the 5-minute pace I was looking for and I passed him and just got on with it. I thought he was going to start slow and then get stronger towards the end. I have tried to follow him in the parkruns using this tactic but have always lacked the strength and motivation towards the end and usually slow down. I continued on with my pace trying as best as I could to keep around the 5 min pace when going uphill and making it on the decent. I couldn’t really find another pacemaker as there were only 46 runners and the spread was quite thin. I briefly looked around at the 5km water point expecting the parkrun runner to be not to far away but there was no one in site. I didn’t take any water as it tends to slow me down and I lose my concentration when I have done in the past.
I focused on a small group of runners in the distance and passed all but one of them before the finish line. I think that last one heard me and stayed just that bit in front. I did think of trying to pass her before the line but that’s as far as it went. She crossed the line at 49.01 and I did at 49:03 finishing bang smack in the middle again 23/46.
Her running style is very distinctive where her toes splay outwards when not on the ground (duck style) and I was kind of transfixed by them, as it happens to be the exact same way I run. I have been trying to work on it but its very hard to correct and kind of hurts and seems unnatural when trying to correct. I used to be made fun of at school because of the way I ran and haven’t run until I started c25k last year. I joined a running club in January this year but stopped going when it got brighter in the evenings. The coach mentioned my running style and gave me stretching exercises for my legs, he said he hoped I didn’t mind him mentioning it, I didn’t but felt very conscious of it again and went back to running on my own again. I don’t mind too much as I was normally running on my own at the track as people were either way too fast or slower and were given different programmes to run than me. I saw her running at an event before, she is a member of another running club in a neighbouring county, and I am thinking if she can do it then why can’t I?..
Back to the run. I finished the run, had a few seconds break to compose myself and went to get a drink of water and the usual sweets and bananas. Our medals were also placed on the table for us to collect. This one was very different as it was made from wood, see picture. I took the medal, banana and a selection of sweets and went back to see how parkrun guy had got on. I saw him crossing the finish line and he looked in a very bad way, he more or less stumbled across it and couldn’t stop and started to fall smashing into a barrier and cutting his forehead (small cut). I immediately went over to help him up and myself and another person helped him to his feet and then sat him down to recuperate on a curb nearby. He was completely exhausted but other than that ok. I hung around for a bit, went and got him a medal and went home.
The next day during breaktime at work someone asked me how my run went. I gave them the rundown and told them about parkrun guy, one of my colleagues joked covid and we all laughed. Wednesday night was a very rough night for me, and I hardly slept, I felt a bit rough at work the next day and had a bit of a runny nose. I went straight to bed when I got home from work yesterday and then took a covid test which showed positive. I told my wife (she swore lol) and contacted my CEO at work had another bad night, stayed in bed most of the day reading from the phone and am now writing this post. It’s the first time for me to have Covid, my wife works in an environment where vulnerable people are and knows exactly what to do to avoid it. I had a bit of a temperature yesterday, have mild headache, cough and runny nose but other than that feel fine. I think I contracted the virus from the run, but it could well have come from anywhere else.
I was meant to be running in a local 5-mile event this evening and had to give that a miss, I can see the times other runners finished the run in from Strava as I am typing this. I only know the parkrun guy to see but honestly do not think he would have run if he did have Covid. I might ask him about the run the next time we meet.
Unfortunately, we have our bank holiday weekend at the start of August over here and the place where my wife works shuts down for the first 2 weeks and we usually go away for the first week. We are going away in September instead but intend to go away for a couple of nights next Wednesday in the Wicklow mountains and have a bit of a retreat and go to a show in Dublin I got her as a surprise. Hopefully all will be okay for that however she fully expects to get it now and is doubtful. The place is non-refundable, but she said that we can offer it to our daughter her partner and our grandchild if we can make it.
That’s all I can think of for now and will leave it here and go back to bed for a bit.
T.
Parkrun no 15, and a new PB, due to big brother John and Kali dog! :) oh what a slavedriver!! 
FIRST JOINT PARKRUN...and...NOW I AM IN THE SIXTIES!
Ripples
1st Runniversary 
Runniversary
