Parkrun #37: Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, run 4

Another good parkrun day today. 😊 Earlier this year, I had a couple of really demoralising runs here at Newbiggin and I suspect I've been avoiding the place ever since, to avoid further disappointment. Today though, Newbiggin served two purposes — visiting my mum and extending my tourist streak — and I laid the ghosts of January to rest with a 25:27. 💪

The reason January's runs had been depressing was twofold: first, they'd been significantly slower than my overall parkrun PB of that time (26:07), which I'd set at this venue a couple of months earlier; and secondly, the second of the two runs was marginally slower than the first. I suspect it was around that time that I recognised I needed to up my game and put some real effort into getting back to my best. It's where the long journey to my next PB really started.

Today, I tried to focus on my good performance last weekend (the negative splits) and forget all about my chest trouble on Thursday. I wanted a good time, so I made sure I positioned myself nearer the front of the pack than I normally do. Last thing I wanted was to waste energy at the start, diving and weaving, speeding up and slowing down, as I weaved through a crowd. And to that end, it worked. Almost immediately, I felt I was in free air and able to set my own pace. Sure, a few people passed me, but not as many as I might've expected.

Speaking of pace, it's really interesting to look at Google Fit's taking after this one. I set off at an impressive lick, doing the first kilometre in 4:54. I mean, it's entirely flat along the prom, but still. The second kilometre wasn't quite as fast, at 5:08, but considering that included a couple of climbs, pretty decent for me. Kilometre three was another quick one: 4:49, helped by the downhill section back onto the prom. Then came my undoing in the fourth kilometre: a 5:27. Even though it included the climb off the prom again and the smaller climb round the back of the basketball court, I'm still at a loss to explain the extent of that drop-off in pace. It's pretty disappointing. But... the final kilometre was another good one, finishing off with a 4:56.

As ever at Newbiggin, one of the main volunteers — who's usually Run Director, but not today — was counting out the seconds as we approached the funnel. Given I crossed the line when he said 5:20, I felt a little diddled out of a few precious seconds when I got my official time. Maybe something was a bit off with his timing, it maybe someone's token went missing, causing an offset. Who knows. But at least I was still 40 seconds better than my one-time parkrun PB and 80 seconds faster than my last time here in January. I'm counting that as solid progress. 😁

One last thing I've not managed to work into this post: the incredible geometry-defying nature of the promenade at Newbiggin. I swear to god it's slightly uphill in both directions. 😂 If I keep that in mind for my next visit, hopefully I'll get a pleasant surprise (and a quick time) when I realise it's not actually true. 🙂