Parkrun #45: Whitley Bay, run 3
One more down, one more to go (for the target of 30 in 2023). Squeaky bum time! 😬
Today was the parkrun closest to the winter solstice, which meant it was the one for which I had the best chance of seeing my first actual sunrise happen. Apparently, the sun would rise in Newcastle at 8:30am, which maybe meant it would be a minute earlier at the coast? I'm sure I could do the maths and work out exactly how much earlier but to be honest, I can't be bothered. Anyway, short story is I just missed it. The longer story includes the fact it was a bit too cloudy for a clear sunrise and — something I'd not accounted for — the sun was practically rising in the south (given the time of year), meaning I was pretty much looking towards Tynemouth rather than out to sea and so the skyline didn't help much.
All of which is a rather long intro to this photograph:
The weather was a mix of good and bad today; good because it was dry and reasonably mild, but bad because it blowing a gale. The latter didn't really bother me that much mind, except on the few moments you were running directly into it. For most of the drag along the prom, we were sheltered from the worst of it.
Enough of all that, though; my time today was a 26:54. While that's the best 5K time I've managed since my October/November running drought, I have to be honest and say it's not as good as I was hoping for. Actually, since typing that last sentence, I've just checked and it's not the best I've done since I injured my toe. I got a time of 26:20 at Hexham in mid-November, though that was a paced event and it practically killed me. Regardless, I'm pleased to be improving my times since the 30-minute parkrun, but just wish I could do so a bit faster.
Mind, one thought did strike me a couple of times as I ran round today: I was thanking the marshals I passed. That's something I simply can't do when I'm really pushing myself. So maybe part of the reason for the underwhelming time is that I'm just not trying hard enough. Maybe next time, I'll use the cunning tactic of simply trying to run faster. 😂
At least it didn't feel like a very long run today. Sometimes when I head back to a venue I've done before, it can still feel like an absolute drag. Whitley Bay didn't. Not sure how much that was affected by my previous run being an 8K, but that is one of the points of doing longer runs — to make the parkruns feel short and quick.
One final note about today: it was really nice to meet up with a couple of colleagues at the even today. Well, one current colleague and one former (now retired) colleague. The former was John again, like last time at Whitley, while the latter was Shiddhartha, both of them being Whitley residents. John was running with his granddaughter in a pushchair this time and still nearly beat me. Shiddhartha, on the other hand, wasn't running but came along for a catch-up and a coffee, which was mint.
Anyway, next target for what feels like running rehab is to keep whittling the times down until they start with a 25 again. It is genuinely pleasing to be back in the 26's, but it can't stop there. Not sure I'll manage to stay in the 26's on the next parkrun, mind, as I may be heading for a hilly one, but all I can do is keep plugging away. Oh, and hopefully get one more training run in between now and then, maybe on Boxing Day. 🤞
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