Parkrun #39: Leazes park, run 3
Feels like a bit of a miracle that I even got out to a parkrun today. This is the first week in a long, long time that I've felt like I could quite happily get by without running at all. I suspect that's down to various things occupying my mind, both at work and at home, but I really wasn't in the mood for getting up and out early(ish) on a Saturday morning. I just knew that if I didn't, the self-loathing would come later and it was a downward spiral from there.
I couldn't afford to spend too long away from home with the car today — not least because it was in for a new windscreen at 11am — so instead of going for a new venue, I instead consulted my post-it note listing the venues that would extend my tourist streak. And Leazes Park won.
Last time I visited, I came away really down about how slowly I'd run it, clocking up a 27:38. Given my first visit, on only my second ever parkrun, was a 26:16, that was a kick in the teeth. Even more so when you consider I managed a 25:39 for a freedom parkrun here. Today though, I put in a 26:30, which is at least a lot better than I managed in January. But it's no PB. 😐
With my mood matching the weather, and not having managed a proper run this week, I made no effort to start near the front today. In fact, I was still just wandering into position on the start straight when I looked ahead and saw the race had already begun. Some of the front-runners were already rounding the first corner and I was still waddling towards the start line. I guess I can claim that around 15 seconds can be scrubbed from time, but that could be seen as nothing more than a pathetic attempt to claim I beat 26:16 by one second. 😉 After all, I won't have started right on the line for my PB run here either.
But yeah, it was a slow start that was made slower by the amount of congestion I found myself in on the otherwise-exploitable downhill section at the start. I could have run on the (slightly muddy) grass a bit, but didn't particularly want to today. I wasn't aiming high and the state of my trainers felt more important. Others were less fussy; for a bit, I ran alongside one lady — let's call her pony-tail lady — who seemed to be trying to run at the kind of pace I felt I should be doing, but she was being equally held back by the congestion. Any plans I had of using her as a pacer, however, went out the window when she shot off down the grass and gained a good 50+ metres on me.
It wasn't long before I'd completed most of the passes I was likely to make on the run and had settled in for the long haul. It wasn't feeling easy today, but I knew the course well enough to plan my mindset throughout it and attempt a steady if not blistering pace. Some people I used as pacers, while others I used as targets. The odd person overtook me (quite impressive given how close to the back I'd started) but more often than not, it was me doing the ohhhh-so-slooow overtakes. That said, 2 or 3 people lapped me before I got to the start of my 3rd and final lap, but we'll ignore those. 😂
Eventually, I found myself on the final lap and, much to my surprise, I suddenly spotted pony-tail lady just ahead of me. I'd given up on keeping pace with her ages back, so I could only think she was slowing. Nevertheless, I kept pushing myself and eventually passed her on the gentle climb back to the lake after the basketball courts. And heading around the lake, I picked off a few more, including one shattered looking 13yo(ish) who was being 'motivated' by the Town Moor Juniors parkrun director. Poor lad, I felt for him. But I passed him anyway.
And then came the bit that I don't really remember from previous runs here: the short uphill section to the finish. One lap earlier, I'd found myself wondering whether I would be able to kick at all, given it was uphill. Turns out the answer was... kinda, maybe. I did try to up the pace, but the legs weren't very willing and even once onto the flat section into the funnel, I was constantly fearing someone else with a stronger kick flying past me. It didn't happen, but boy was I exhausted as I crossed the line, breathing "Oh god... oh god...". Honestly, I had no capacity left to filter the thoughts in my head or to stop them spilling out audibly. 😂
As ever, it took me an age to remember to stop my run on Google Fit, so I could only guesstimate that I'd taken a little over 27 minutes. When I later got the txt saying 26:30, I was pretty damned upbeat about it. That was a lot better than I'd expected, given how I felt today. Sure, it wasn't a PB, but I'd not been aiming for that. What it was, however, was pretty respectable for an off-day. And if there's one good thing that typically comes out a slow parkrun, it's that I tend to come back determined to do a good one. Fingers crossed that's next week.
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