Parkrun #35: Sedgefield (Hardwick Park)

A week since my PB of 24:27 at Blyth, today was my first run since then and it showed. While I was happy to have a slower parkrun, I didn't intend for it to be this much slower, registering a 26:56 in the end. That's pretty much 2½ minutes slower. And even that felt hard.

I honestly don't know whether it was down to the lack of midweek running, general tiredness from a few days away to London (that would feel like a very weak excuse), or something else. Whatever it was, this wasn't easy.


The start area by the visitor centre, with the gothic ruin folly in the background

As for the venue, Sedgefield was chosen mainly for the facts that:

  1. it would be another new one for me, heading towards my 10 new venues stretch goal
  2. there was no major pressure to get home quickly
We've actually been here once before as a family, but it was a relatively brief, rainy visit that time. Today, it was much nicer weather and, truly, a lovely place to hold a parkrun. If this were closer to home (it's over 40 minutes' drive), I'd almost certainly have done it multiple times by now.

Not really knowing the course today, I just followed the herd, but it did mean that I spent the first of the two laps on a journey of discovery. There were plenty of twists and turns that meant I kept on thinking "Surely this is near the end of the lap...?!?" but at least it was largely flat. There was the odd section of up or downhill, especially toward the end of the lap, but it was no Windy Nook or Chopwell Wood. And yet... that time of 26:56 haunts me a bit. I'm relieved it was under 27 minutes, but really, that's all that can be said for it.

First lap action shot, looking across the lake to the Temple of Minerva

So, the focus for this coming week simply has to be to get more runs in. Maybe one longer (7.5K) run, one quicker 4-5K run, and then the parkrun again. Ironic that the first week after setting myself a goal of 3 runs per week on average, I kicked it off with a week with only a single run. Let's fix that. But not all in one go. 😉

Oh, and a couple of other stats of note. First, this was my 12th consecutive parkrun at a different venue, extending my tourist streak to a personal record. If I follow up with Ashington next time out, that'll take me to 13 (obviously) and 7 new venues for 2023. Secondly, this was my 6th consecutive weekend of making it to — and running at — a parkrun, which I think is also a record. That's doing wonders for my chances of hitting 30 runs for the year; I'm up to 19 after 7 months.

So, again, just need to keep that consistency. Let's do this.

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