Parkrun #51: Denton Dene, run 2
Well, thanks to my epic ineptitude, there was no orienteering this weekend after all; I'd completely forgotten that you need to book your place a week in advance. 🤦♂️ So much for bagging another bunch of British Orienteering ranking points at an event in which I felt more confident (urban). Hey ho. I would say "live and learn", but this isn't the first time I've forgotten about the need to book early, so I'm clearly not learning. 🤷♂️
On the upside, it meant I felt free to attend a parkrun for the third week on the trot. This is becoming something of a habit again. 😁
This time, I chose to return to Denton Dene. I'd actually hoped to get to Blackhill in Consett, as the park would probably look quite nice in the sunshine, but I left it far too late to get ready in the morning, meaning a more local event was all I could manage. And even then, I cut it fine, arriving at the car park at about 08:58, which was just about as late as the last time I ran here.
That wasn't the only similarity to last time either; the weather was again uncomfortably hot for a run; around 19°C. For the first half of the run, it didn't feel too bad, as the sun was fairly well contained by cloud cover, but for the latter half, it started to force its way through and boy did it feel hot then.
Throughout the run, I remembered my only previous time at this event and, invariably, it came with a thought along the lines of "man, I had much more energy at this point last time" or maybe "I was so much quicker here last time". I felt I was really struggling this time, though I'd made sure I'd turned the volume right down on my phone so that I couldn't hear Google announcing one slow kilometre after another. 😂
The marshals though, bless 'em, were super encouraging this time. I love the cowbells they use here and one or two of them urged me on every bit as much as you would for a young child at a junior parkrun. Some might find that patronising, but I actually loved it and truly appreciated their support. I even got a high-five from one of the ladies near the start line.
Come the end though, despite having had my spirits lifted, I still felt I was on for a slow time. The last 50-100 yards are uphill at Denton Dene and I remember thinking how I'd kicked quite a bit further from home the last time. In my mind, that just cemented my poor performance... and then I checked the phone after collecting my finish token. It was just ticking up to 26:16. My previous time here had been a 27:22. WHAT THE **** JUST HAPPENED THERE?!? 😅
Instantly, the last vestiges of my melancholy evaporated and I was over the moon. Almost unable to believe it, I had to quickly search back through this blog to confirm my previous time. Yep, I'd smashed it. Despite the heat, despite the lack of warm-up time, despite feeling slow, I'd actually improved. And when the official time came through, I was even happier: 26:06. Not quite my quickest of the year so far (Town Moor was 26:04), but a heck of a lot better than I was expecting.
In fact, it's got me thinking again about my goals for the year. But more on that in another post. It's getting late. Time for kip.
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