Parkrun Maidenhead - 01.01.2017
Christmas came and went and I didn't do a Parkrun, or even that much exercise.
New Year's day wasn't a Saturday, but they put on a special race so i made the effort to go.
I decided that I'm going to try more 5k races without putting pressure on myself for fast times, so this was the start of that.
It was another dry day, though muddy, and I've done this course before last November, so I felt fairly comfortable. I started a little faster than last time to try and get a position in front of any runners with dogs. I failed but got past in the first kilometer. After the adrenaline from the start had gone, and i felt tired, I let myself slow a little rather than pushing. On the second lap I saw a girl ahead, and a man with a buggy and I slowly gained on them. My shoe lace came undone, but I ignored it. Half a kilometer from the end I found a chance and got past the woman, buggy, and a boy as well.
I was feeling Ok, and though there were a coupe of people I thought I might be able to catch, I maintained my position to the end without a sprint. But as I entered the finish chute, the boy had decided he did want to sprint, and shot past me and took my token. I did beat him, so the volunteers should have stopped him really, but this also happened to me in Portrush on my first Parkrun. It's annoying, but not the end of the world. I won't let it happen again.
As expected, my place wasn't as good as last time (I'm sad about that, but it was deliberate).
I came 32nd out of 188 in a time of 22:12 - my slowest Parkrun to date.
Links
Parkrun
Strava
Flickr - Photos of me here, here and a few others.
Blog7t - someone else's blog, with a photo of me.
[As an aside, my aim is to get better acquainted with my 5k racing so that I can understand how I'm feeling more, and know when I'm having a good day and when it's worth pushing for a good time. I want to beat 20 minutes this year. I don't know if Maidenhead is the place to do that - the small hill is hard and technical as it twists around a bit, so you lose your momentum - but we'll see]
Christmas came and went and I didn't do a Parkrun, or even that much exercise.
New Year's day wasn't a Saturday, but they put on a special race so i made the effort to go.
I decided that I'm going to try more 5k races without putting pressure on myself for fast times, so this was the start of that.
It was another dry day, though muddy, and I've done this course before last November, so I felt fairly comfortable. I started a little faster than last time to try and get a position in front of any runners with dogs. I failed but got past in the first kilometer. After the adrenaline from the start had gone, and i felt tired, I let myself slow a little rather than pushing. On the second lap I saw a girl ahead, and a man with a buggy and I slowly gained on them. My shoe lace came undone, but I ignored it. Half a kilometer from the end I found a chance and got past the woman, buggy, and a boy as well.
I was feeling Ok, and though there were a coupe of people I thought I might be able to catch, I maintained my position to the end without a sprint. But as I entered the finish chute, the boy had decided he did want to sprint, and shot past me and took my token. I did beat him, so the volunteers should have stopped him really, but this also happened to me in Portrush on my first Parkrun. It's annoying, but not the end of the world. I won't let it happen again.
As expected, my place wasn't as good as last time (I'm sad about that, but it was deliberate).
I came 32nd out of 188 in a time of 22:12 - my slowest Parkrun to date.
Links
Parkrun
Strava
Flickr - Photos of me here, here and a few others.
Blog7t - someone else's blog, with a photo of me.
[As an aside, my aim is to get better acquainted with my 5k racing so that I can understand how I'm feeling more, and know when I'm having a good day and when it's worth pushing for a good time. I want to beat 20 minutes this year. I don't know if Maidenhead is the place to do that - the small hill is hard and technical as it twists around a bit, so you lose your momentum - but we'll see]
