Bolton Park Run

After doing the Heaton Park Run twice all my good intentions disappeared and I never did it again. Some of the time it was because I was working saturdays but there was a lot of laziness involved as well. Back in February a new run started in Bolton and I kept meaning to go, but lost barcodes, work, etc got in the way. This morning Ali and I both decided to go, it's only 1.6miles from our house so we just rode down and locked the bikes up. The course is a little hilly, suppose that is to be expected in Bolton. I finished in just under 27minutes which I was very happy about seeing as i've hardly run recently. Legs are a little sore now though! I'm not going to leave it so long till my next park run.

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Ali comes to Park Run

I woke up nice and early so I was definetly heading over to Heaton Park for the Park Run but the question was would the sleepy Ali who had stumbled downstairs come or curl back up in bed?  Before I knew it we were both in the car, Ali doing her best to sleep while I drove.  We got there in lots of time for a warm up, which involved me trying to jog and Ali telling me to come back she was tired!  Quick talk from the organisers and we were off.  Ali stuck to my side like glue, I told her to go on but my super fast pace was too much for her ;-)  I tried not to go out as hard and then worked on limiting the loses on the hillier parts of the course.  Into the last km and I still had an Ali for company but I could hear the footsteps of someone else right on my heels.  I tried to push on a little bit round the lake and soon it was the finishing straight, I pushed a little harder, at one point I almost got a gap on Ali then in the last 15 metres she did her usual sprint finish and left me as if I was standing still! 

Since I am such a geek I had to compare my splits to last week:

Turns out I was only a second slower in the first km, although I felt slower.  After that I was consistently faster for all the splits.  The pushing on for the last km got me my best split as well.

It felt hard but I'm sure I can still get faster!

Official Time: 25:43  33 seconds faster than last week (Ali 25:42)

Finishing postion 56/96 (13/45 female)

(Pace 8:15 min/mile)

Park Run Heaton Park

A while ago I read about park run which is a weekly free timed 5k run. My local event is at Heaton Park and I had been thinking for a while I should go along. I find that a race situation makes me work harder than I ever would on my own. So since I couldn't get to the cross race today I made a plan to go. I had asked Ali if she fancied it but after spluttering over the start time she said no. Last night she did say she would drive me there though - which was good when left to my own devices I get too scared to go! We got there with lots of time to spare so I could wander round and feel scared by all the fit looking runners. It wasn't long before we had our briefing and were moved to the start.

Next thing I knew we were off and running, I dodged round a few people and got into a rythmn. Looked at my Garmin and it didn't have my heart rate - must try changing the battery this is happening a lot at the moment! So I just went off feel, the first km went by in 5minutes and I was a little worried that I was going too fast but I think that there was more downhill than uphill in that section. I tried to keep up with the guys in front of me but they got away in the 3rd km, looking at the splits I was a lot slower here but there was also the most uphill. From then on I got back onto a good pace and just hung on to two lads who had gone past me.The last bit round the lake was a little muddy and I did my one bit of overtaking going past a lady who was avoiding the puddles as I splashed through them. Round the last corner and the marshall was saying to push as we were nearly done. Next I heard Ali I was trying to run hard but my lungs didn't feel like they were getting enough oxygen.

Finished and I was handed a metal tag which I then handed in and gave them my details, my bar code I had printed didn't scan (must try printing again) so they had to type the number in. My Garmin had a time of 26:15 - I was hoping for under 28minutes so I was very happy with that. A quick look at my blog shows last year I ran the Gill Pimblott memorial 5k trail race, last year in 24:55 so it's not quite a PB. Guess my aim for next time is to go sub 26minutes then!

It was great fun and Ali says she is going to cope with an early morning and run it next time. My plan is to get there on free saturdays, probably ride over in future now I know its not so scary!

If you have one near you give it a go!

Official results:

Distance: 5k

Time: 26:16

4th female (27 female finishers)

(61/104 finishers)

(Pace: 8:28 min/mile)