Park Run

Forced myself to re-engage with the Park Run Process! Got up uber early on a beautiful Saturday morning with hardly a breath of wind. Peter got up considerably later. I couldn't face the thought of running in a vest as I left the house but I think I was over-dressed wearing a t-shirt.

Arriving on the Prom we met lots of Porties. Nice to come out of seclusion for a while. I felt not too bad on my warm up and gave myself a pre-race chat about not getting too negative about the whole thing, whatever the outcome. We had not been back to do a Park Run since they lengthened the route and the last few times (way back in 2010) that I had come along I'd been getting slower and slower.

In the first mile I briefly overtook Andrew Stavert who came back for me at almost exactly a mile. My Garmin beeped and Andrew said good morning and some other things. I gave him a thumbs up. I've given him the chat about not being able to speak and run before. He punished my by pulling away into the distance. My first mile would be the first time I've run sub-7 in quite some time, so I "let him go". Being a generous person I let quite a few other people go too; Sandy MacDonald, Ian Duckworth and Aileen Ross to name just a few. However my next mile was the 1st sub 7.15 mile I'd run in quite some time, if you don't count the mile immediately preceding so I wasn't too down-hearted. The last mile is a bloody thrash and I managed to not even see the tea-hut which is at approximately the 4K mark. A good bit of editing because I hate the sight of it and it makes me sick. Quite soon we were on the last 0.1 something of the run, being careful not to slide on the slippy leaves and simultaneously finding just a little more pace now I could see the finish banners.
We brought it home in 22.39 which although far from world class was okay. Not my slowest even though the course is now longer and I was worried about today. I'm hopeful I can go back and do some quicker ones although I don't think there will ever be better conditions.

Peter was in 2nd place for a lot of the race but got "girled" just right at the end. Hey 3rd place isn't too bad and since she's in the 20-24 age-group she must be, literally, less than half his age.

Don't do as I do, do as I say. Get along to the Park Run even though I've just avoided it for 14 months because that last mile is the furthest you'll ever get from home. Sheer hell. Until you stop.