Guess who was 2nd female and 7th overall to cross the line on a multi lap, cross country course? Yes, yes, yours truly :) Woooooo! Now, is this the part where I tell you there were only 63 runners at Highfields parkrun today and Brad still beat me?! (He usually does :P)
But jokes aside, I ran well. A course like this plays to my strengths as I'm good at cruising up the hills, taking advantage of the flats, and going fast down the hills. I also have strong ankles and knees and all the rest, so I can handle all the uneven surfaces well. We were at a disadvantage going to a brand new course we'd never done before, but then I have to remember that parkrun is free, weekly, timed community event; it's not a race. No matter much Brad and I sometimes like to race it :P
This was on lap 1 where it was still cool enough for me to wear a (parkrun volly) t-shirt, as I ran uphill. As I started lap 2 I ditched the t-shirt at the briefing area in preference for my sports bra that I'd picked specifically expecting I'd need to run in it. I did! It got hot, quick!
Near the briefing area is a kids playground. The older I get the more I choose to be a kid so I was climbing all over the equipment before the run started. And... bouncing on the trampoline afterwards!
(aka Brad!)
While my Garmin must have dropped out with all the tree cover on one section of the three laps, every parkrun course is always, always 5km. And my official time was 26:06, which, given how challenging the course was, I'm very happy with. And there's no way I was going to catch the woman ahead of me; she was a full 90 seconds faster and I was running a pretty strong and pretty determined pace, pretty much the entire way.
How about you? Do you have parkrun in your country normally but it's on hold? Or do you have it there but choose not to attend? Are you in one of the 180 ish countries that does not have parkrun (but wish it did)? Or are you very lucky like me and you ran parkrun this morning? If so, where did you go??
I just finished a 5.0km running that lasted about 0hh:26mm:6ss !
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