Parkrun #50: South Shields, run 2

Fifty down... finally. 😅

Yep, while my 25th parkrun felt like a major cause for celebration, this milestone was quite a bit more subdued. Had I hit it while still on the streak that saw me attend 29 parkruns in a year, it would've felt a lot better, with a good chunk of momentum behind me, but today felt like I'd barely crawled over the line. That said, typing this a couple of days later, it does feel good to put it behind me. And to have run in two consecutive parkruns for the first time this year feels good too. It's almost a glimpse of how good it felt throughout the majority of last year, attending more often than not. I hope I can build on this. 💪

In the end, the choice of venue came down to me not wanting to disappoint myself; so Chopwell Wood was out of the question. I'd simply not done enough running, let alone hill work, in the weeks leading up to this to give myself a chance of feeling good about such a hilly run. But I did want to attend somewhere that would make me happy, so I figured it was time for the long-awaited return to South Shields.

Not me, not this weekend, but the hazy weather looks pretty similar

This time, the course surprised me with how much harder it was than I'd expected. Maybe that was my relative lack of fitness, but the surface of the cliff-top paths was a lot lumpier/stonier and undulating than I'd remembered. Frankly, I'm impressed I got round it at all in my old Nike running shoes, as it would kill me now. The Brooks, however, took it in their stride.

At least I knew to expect the cliff-top section to go on forever; that had felt unending the first time. This time, it was as expected, but the I confess that the return leg along the road felt unending instead! It was only a mile or so, but it really did feel like it lasted a looong time. Last time, I'd repeatedly upped the pace on that section, but today I felt like I was running out of steam there instead. My time at the end was correspondingly slower than my previous time, as I just scraped under 27 minutes with a 26:59 (compared to 26:39 before).

Even so, I pushed myself the whole way and to get under 27 minutes represents a good run for me at the moment. Pleased about that. 👍 And as if to underline the lift in mood that the run's given me, I even went out for an evening 5K near home on Sunday too. It's been ages since I've felt like doing that.


As for the next event, I suspect it'll be orienteering rather than parkrunning. Need to check, but I think it's the Washington Urban event next Sunday. See you then. 👋

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