Saturday 18 February 2017

Run With The Walker! - Parkrun!

Hello blog lovers

Sometimes you can have a good parkrun, and sometimes you can have a really good parkrun!  So I didn't smash my pb today, I am still hoping that will happen one day!  But it was good quality running!

I met up with LittleJ and K, and we walked over to the start, chatting as we usually do.  LittleJ was going to be running with K today.  I wasn't quite how I was going to be doing.  After going out last night and enjoying time with family, well all I can say is I am glad I didn't have a curry as well as beer!  The hangover wasn't too bad actually, it was the rather late night.  I didn't think I would be getting up! Excuses out of the way, we all settled at the back of the pack, but not before SingstarJo took this picture of LittleJ and me in our new '50 run' running tops!  We both wore them today for the first time, and we didn't even liaise with each other!



Carole and Michael were there, Pei, Becky and Gary and of course a few other PWR's too, some have their kids with them. TimTheHeadBand was race director today and he got us all off to a great start.  The first couple of meters is a little crowded and we just walked it until it all thinned out a bit but then we ran.  I straight away I started to pull away from LittleJ and K and settled into a good pace.  I had made a pact with myself that I would run at least for 15 minutes before I even thought about walking!  I knew I could do it because I do it at track on Thursdays, in the cold evening air too!  Just because it's the ground is different, it's not a nice spongy track, there's muddy bits and bumpy paths down new the short straight, it doesn't mean that I can't do it. I am not going to make excuses!

By the time I was at the end of the long straight for the first time I was running with Becky and Pei.  We were all running at a nice steady pace chatting and just getting on with it.  I had noticed the Walking Man, he was behind us in the beginning but he soon over took us!  And he walks!  He doesn't run, he just walks the whole way around.  There has been many times I have tried to catch up to him, to over take him but never could!  He is a great incentive to get you going! He is my challenge whenever I see him on this parkrun!

Me, Becky and Pei all got around to the car park without stopping, I was thinking "I could just do with a walk now" But the Becky said "Come on Old Girl, we can do this" and that reminded me of my pact with my self, I had to get to at least 15 minutes running non stop before even thinking about walking.  So it spurred me on.  When we got to to the place where we started I said to Becky that we are running to the 15 minute mark, and she was just fine with that.  But then I noticed we were almost level with WalkingMan, and then we were level with Walking!  I started chatting to him, and I was quite pleased to find that I could still run and chat! And then I found out that he was actually taking it easy today, as he has a cold! But that's fine, in my mind I have still caught up with him, which was an achievement for me! So from the long straight we chatted and ran along next to WalkingMan.  The 15 minutes running passed by, 16, 18, 20 minutes.  We just kept going as we chatted to WalkingMan.  About 25-26 minutes into the run Becky just got out of the zone and wanted to have a walk.  She got behind me so I said to WalkingMan that I will go and encourage her to keep going for just a little bit longer.  "Let's just get to the muddy hill first, then we can walk up that bit" I said to her.  It's a little sticky, muddy section that we do as we by pass running through the car park.  It's probably the best time to do a walk if you decide to have a walking section.  Becky thought that she could do that and got herself running again.

The thing about taking a walk is that it's in your mind then, it' in your psyche.  And you start to think about having another walk as you've already had one!  I know, because that's what I think!  Becky was the same.  So I said that we would run to the building, the second one that's on the long straight, and then from there we can, WE CAN run the rest of the way non stop. Walking man and Pei were ahead of us.  I could still do this, I could still get my challenge of beating WalkingMan (I know it sounds crazy, but WalkingMan does really walk very fast indeed, I think his pb is something like 28 minutes!)

It was on the last Short straight, down to the funnel that we passed WalkingMan and Pei, because Becky was still with me, although I had upped the pace a bit.  Both of us ran faster and faster as we did the sprint finish for the funnel!  Oh body did it feel good!  It felt a good run, I didn't feel sick like some of the times that I do that last sprint finish, and it just felt like a superb run!  Then I check my time, I was thinking at least 37 or less!  But no, my Garmin said 38:41 minutes!  Well, sometimes what you think is a faster time is just actually a bloody good run!  Not necessarily fast!  This was one of those times.  I had fun, I felt good and I didn't struggle at all!  So next week, it will have to be going even further before that first walk!

Geeky stats.

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