Parkrun #68: Jesmond Dene, run 5

Three full weeks since my last run and I only go and try a parkrun at a course with a killer of a hill in it. And, ultimately, this became only the second ever parkrun that I've had to walk part of. Disappointing, but this time it was down to a persistent injury rather than a dodgy gut.

Things were going ok for most of the run — I'd at least made it up the hill without needing to walk, even if I was taking very short strides — but at about 4km, I started to feel the knee. I had maybe another half kilometre to go before the steep downhill to return to the start/finish area, but even over the course of that, I could tell it was going to be problematic. The 5 or so metres of downhill as I made the final turn by the duckpond just confirmed it. And as soon as I rounded the corner to descend properly, it took only a few yards to concede that finishing after a bit of walking was better than not finishing at all.


Not me, for the record. I just 'borrowed' the image from the Parkrun blog.

Ultimately, my time was 32:31, which given my general condition and the fact I walked a bit, I'll settle for.

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