Park Run in the sun

I headed up to Wimbledon Park to run the free 5K as it was such a beautiful morning.  As I cycled there, I listened to the Marathon Talk podcast which had a Park Run special.  I love the event but hearing all the history and the facts made me realise just how brilliant it is.  There are now 41 Park Runs around the country (and Denmark) delivering the same formula of an accurately marked 5K course, timed and free to everyone.  Its pretty special; they have over 70,000 people registered and over 20,000 of those have volunteered at some point.

Today, I remembered my bar code.  I ran a few of these 5Ks in 2008 but only returned to them last month.  I didn't realise that everyone now has a bar-code which they need to bring otherwise you get an "Unknown" in the results.  I have one "Unknown" from last month.

The race itself was OK.  I started and felt terrible as my pretty hard week was evident in my legs.  I wasn't going for a quick time which was a relief.  However, when I run a 5K on my own, I only seem to have one speed.  I got to half way in around 11 minutes and thought I might as well try for a sub 22.  Kilometer 3 was good but 4 was poor.  I got over the line in around 22:30 which was fine.  As always, I was glad to finish but 10 minutes later, I wanted another go.  "I CAN GO FASTER" is all I can hear in my head.

I am determined to get my times down.  I'll continue my hill work and speed work in the week and try and get to a 5K at least very 2 weeks.  A sub-22 is now one of my main targets for the summer.  I also want to do as many Park Runs as possible as I want a coverted 50 t-shirt.  I've done 12 so far so I could get one early next year or next spring.