Parkrun #56: Windy Nook, run 2

Now that I've semi-committed myself to aiming for the "every local parkrun under 27 minutes" goal, it was time to return to one of the 5 local venues where I've yet to do that. And Windy Nook had my slowest time of the lot, at 27:48.

The start line at Windy Nook, which was looking lovely today

When I'd registered that time, I was delighted with it, as I'd heard Windy Nook was possibly the toughest course in the area. I'd been expecting a time worse than my 28½ minutes at Jesmond Dene. I also came away thinking the course wasn't as hilly as reputed.

In hindsight, I probably went into today's run a bit complacent as a result. And I found it HARD today. 🥵 Way more gradients than I'd remembered. Even the bits I'd remembered as roughly flat were uphill; it's just that they led to steeper sections.

Google Fit's usual poor choice of Y axis scaling fails to show off the hills here 👀

I probably didn't help myself either by arriving so late that I had to run from the local community centre (where I'd parked) to the course start, with only a vague memory of where that was. By the time I got there, I was already tired (there'd been no stretching) and feeling unprepared. 20 seconds later, we were off! While it was a small pack — only 35 runners plus me, it turns out — I was definitely starting at the back again. 🙄

Luckily, it's a course where you can overtake off the path. After waiting a little bit in the first couple of hundred metres, a quick burst on the grass saw me pass a handful of people and from there on, it was pretty much my own race.

Heading to the lowest part of the course for the first time, I still wasn't feeling great, despite it being mostly downhill so far. Turning the corner to head towards the steps for the first time, 2 things struck me. First, it was uphill (this was the bit I'd thought flat). But secondly, it was beautiful. Huge swathes of blue-purple mallow were flowering by the side of the path, the sun was shining and it was genuinely lovely. I made a mental note to come back and photograph it later. Sadly, my oxygen-starved brain completely forgot to do so when the time came. So just take my word for it.

That loveliness was soon over and replaced with the first ascent of the steps. Or rather, dodging the steps to run up the grass beside them. My knees are too clicky for running up steps these days, and at least the grass gives you the chance to decide your own step sizes. 

After the steps, it's a lot shallower but I must've sounded in distress as some guy passing me asked whether I was ok. The shame! I barely spluttered "Yeah, but ask me again on the next lap," thinking there were only 2 laps of this hell. His response was a bit of a shock: "At least there's only 3 laps!". Wait, what?!? THREE laps? I really need to do my homework. I'd thought it was 2 laps and was mentally unprepared to do this 3 times! Good grief! 😱

I spent the rest of that lap and most of the next mentally adjusting myself. The downhill sections were long and shallow enough to actually give time to prepare yourself for the next uphill, but by the time I'd run up the steps for the third time, I was barely running at the top of them. 

Eventually, I made it to the highest point on the course for the final time and sneaked a look at Google Fit as the gentle downhill started. It was somewhere around 24:50. 😯 Earlier, I'd seen it at 15:10ish after 2.89km and figured I was on for a terrible time (bad maths on my part). But here I was, in with a chance of beating my previous best here... and possibly even a chance of getting close to 27 minutes. Still half a kilometre to go, mind. FOCUS. 😬

Memories of my previous finish here flashed through my mind. It's a great, exploitable downhill section all the way to the funnel, with a slightly steeper bit right at the end to help a sprint finish. Feeding off the marshalls' and other runners' encouragement, I repeatedly put more and more into my finish as I approached the line. And then it was over. Google Fit, when I managed to check it, was just ticking past 27:16. In itself, that delighted me; plenty better than last time. And a couple of hours of anticipation later, I got the official time: 26:58.

YESSSSSSSS!!!! \o/

Not shown here, but Google reckoned I hit 4:25/km in the final 500m 😁

Unbelievable. It would've been pretty galling to have put that much effort in and not got the sub-27 minute time, so I'm well chuffed that this new goal is off to a good start. Go me. 😄

Remaining local, plus-27-minute parkruns:

• ⬜ Gateshead: 27:01
• ⬜ Chopwell Wood: 27:21
• ⬜ Silksworth: 27:27
• ⬜ Druridge Bay: 27:44
• ✅ Windy Nook: 26:58 (was 27:48)