Parkrun #43: Rising Sun, run 7

Alternative post title: keeping the dream alive!

Well, yep, I made it to parkrun, so there's still a chance I can get the Parkrun Obsessive achievement this year. I didn't get a great time, but given how long the first couple of kilometres took, I'm more than happy to say my time was under 30 minutes. 29:26, to be precise. It's over 3 minutes slower than my best at Rising Sun, but I don't mind too much; I'm out of practice and pretty chesty right now.

I didn't take any photos this time, which is a shame, as I could've got some great shots of lakes where there was meant to be a path. Yeah, it was pretty wet. And Rising Sun being Rising Sun, that meant puddles and mud everywhere.

As ever when I'm not expecting or going for a good time, I started right at the back. I particularly couldn't be bothered with the jockeying for position you get in the narrow first few hundred metres at this venue, and I figured my toe would thank me for taking it easy anyway. As it was, I had to curl my toes early on to try to avoid the pain from the uneven ground; the trainers aren't working so well anymore and the surface felt lumpier than usual, perhaps because rain had washed away the mud around the stones. So despite the slow start, it was still painful. 😢

Besides dodging the worst of the stones, the first kilometre was mainly waiting to pass people. I didn't mind at the time, but I definitely could've gone faster. It wasn't until we were on the main (wide) straight section that I found the space to set my own pace and it felt like I just flew by the first few people in front of me. In fact, it felt like I should've continued in that vein, but actually everyone else seemed to speed up a little too and my forward progress slowed noticeably.

It was at this point, however, that I realised there was no question of whether if be able to run the whole way. Before the day, if been wondering whether I'd need to walk part of the course, given my chestiness, but in fact, it wasn't much of a problem at all. I was expecting to be hacking like crazy, but I barely coughed at all. So from here, it became a question of how respectable a time (for me) that I could get.

So, it came as a bit of a shock and a disappointment when I heard Google announce my time after 2km: "12 minutes and 41 seconds". WHAAAAT?! I even felt I'd sped up in the second kilometre, so that time was a kicker. Quick mental maths said I was headed for a slower time than even the 30:06 I got at Morpeth, which was a little disheartening. In fact, at that pace, I was looking at a time just shy of 32 minutes. I definitely didn't want to get slower with each "recovery" run I do; my motivation's struggling enough as it is!

So, I just continued to push at about 80–90%, accounting for my not-brilliant chest and trying not to overdo it and have to walk. The puddles on the back stretch didn't nothing to help my rhythm, but they didn't make a huge difference to my pace. I was still gradually catching and passing people.

One couple I caught were a boy and girl in their 20s, but between 2.5 and 3.5km, the path gets very narrow again and I just had to hang on their heels. Coming out onto the long wide drag for the return to the start, the boy put on a bit of pace and got 5–10 yards on me, but I crept past the girl. For the next half a kilometre I maintained the gap to the boy but didn't dare look behind to see whether I was pulling away from the girl; I needed to focus on my own run, not theirs.

That was perfectly illustrated when she suddenly shot past me at the 4km mark and pretty much left me for dead. She was focusing on her race and that was the point at which she decided to up her pace. 🤷 There was no point in me even trying to keep up, so I just did my best to maintain my pace and hold a little in reserve for the end.

Having left it too late to kick in my last run here, I knew exactly where I wanted to start pushing this time. I didn't have as much left in the tank as I'd hoped, but I did still pass 2 or 3 more people in the run to the funnel... before practically collapsing in a heap. 😂 When I finally stopped Google Fit's timer, it had just gone past 30 minutes — I'd pulled it back! GET IN. That was a massive relief.

Furthermore, on looking at Fit's breakdown of the run, I'd even managed negative splits for the full 5km; only the second time I've ever done that. (It was helped by the slow start that was out of my hands, mind.)

Next target: the next parkrun. I'm just taking it one run at a time right now. Maybe I'll get to Silksworth before the end of the year to take my new event tally to 9 out of 10, but I doubt I'll hit 10 now. But hitting 30 parkruns remains the main target. 🎯

Oh, and a footnote: my trainers were absolutely trashed on this run. Some puddles around 3km in particular drenched them with pretty foul-smelling muddy water. Where "muddy" probably means mud, leaves and horse poo. 🤢 So they finally got the shower treatment and the white bits are actually back to white now. Let's just hope they don't still stink on the next run. 😂