Parkrun #42: Carlisle Park (Morpeth), run 3
So, as I said in the previous, hurried post, written at about 8:55am in the leisure centre car park in Morpeth, today was about taking it easy. My left heel had had about 16 hours of feeling ok-ish after a week of plantar fasciitis pain and the second toe on the same foot was (and is) still giving the same grief that it has for over a month now. So... best not to get sucked into going for a good time, in the way I did last weekend at Tyne Green. Which, incidentally, was also my last run — no midweek running for now.
Today, I planned to go for a time somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes. Hopefully toward the upper end of that range. Actually planning to do that also meant that I didn't mind getting my slowest ever non-volunteer time. I also hoped it would mean that I enjoyed it more.
Setting off from the back of the pack, I settled into an easy jog. At times, running behind people, it felt a little too easy; a bit tricky to keep myself that slow. But at least the first climb of the hill was untroubling. I felt a bit of a fraud when the marshals clapped me past, commending me on my efforts, but thanked them nonetheless.
By the time I'd splashed through the puddles and the muddy leaf litter alongside the River Wansbeck and made it to the lamppost at the out-and-back turning point, I decided to check the phone to see what pace I was doing. 6:55/km, apparently. So, right on the nose of a 35-minute time. That felt a bit riskily close to the outside of the window I was aiming for, so I allowed myself what I felt was a small increase in pace.
The run continued without too much huffing and puffing, though the hill was a little harder on the second go. Then, approaching the turning point for the second and last time — so, at maybe 3 to 3.5km — I checked the phone again. This time it was a bit more alarming: 8:05/km. Some rapid maths told me I was heading for a time north of 40 minutes! Really?! But I'd sped up! Clearly, the reliability of GPS is always a little suspect, but which of the two readings was more accurate? I had no way of knowing. I trusted that I genuinely had gone a little faster than at the start, mainly due to overtaking people and leaving them behind, but was I doing enough? I wasn't sure. So I sped up a little again, trying to remember not to overdo it. There was, after all, a reason I was going slowly (for me).
Getting back to the start/finish area, the final time up the hill did involve a little heavy breathing. But then you can't do Morpeth parkrun without finding the third time up the hill harder than the first. On the way back down the hill to the finish, I upped the pace, but only to the kind of pace I would normally run at for the whole distance, or a smidge above that. Frankly, it would've looked ludicrous to sprint across the line the way I normally do, given the time I was about to get. Aaaand... I was done. Getting the phone out one last time, I checked the time: it was just ticking past 30:12. I'm guessing the first of the two pace readings I'd seen was the more accurate and there was no real need to speed up at all. 🙄
Still, I felt good. I'd not done anything totally crazy. My time was going to be about 4 minutes slower than my best here (was 30:06 in the end) and it was quite surprising how easy it felt to get even that close. And the heel still felt fine, even if the toe was complaining a little. I guess the next few days will be the real test for the heel though. I suspect, for now, I'll carry on just doing a single run a week and that being the Saturday parkrun. That said, next weekend is orienteering in Hexham so I might have to skip the parkrun. 🤷♂️
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