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Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Four Parkruns over the Jubilee Weekend

Over this Jubilee weekend I did 4 Parkrun 5km's with two being today with the start times 90 minutes apart and about 20 miles away. I decided to do them all away from my local parkrun and all different events.

The first started at Reading on the regular time. However there was a lot more people (370) their than the last time I ran this event, which explained why I had to park over half a mile away but allowed a warm up. The route is out along the river and then do two loops near a woods and then run backand is virtual all flat. During the race there was a lot of children still ahead of me even at 4km, so I gave it a lot more effort than normal. This meant I got a PB by 17 seconds, that's a good start to the weekend, only 3 more to do.

Sunday was parkrun rest day.

On Monday I headed down to Eastleigh on their new course on a disused golf course which I had previously done. It is 3 laps of a W shape course that loops back on its self. At this event they had the Parkrun founder there as well plus a lot of other clubs and 250 t-shirts, mainly due to this being the only parkrun on the Bank Holiday Monday.
I decided to go of fast and see how long I could last for. I was ok until each time I got to the slope which got a bit harder with each lap. At the end I out sprinted a child that was ahead of me all the way round go a fast pace but luckily he did not have enough for a sprint finish so I edged ahead of him. I ended up with a new course PB by over 100 seconds.

At this point I was half way through with 2 new course pb's :-)

I then went off with my local tri club and did a hilly 64 mile (103km) bike ride, my legs were aching by the end of it.

On Tuesday as my legs were still aching I decided to go to Andover, as is flat and on grass and used it as a recover run. This is 2 laps with 2 short inclines which I took it easy pace and walked up two of the inclines. To test my legs I gave a bit of a sprint for the last 100m which was ok but not 100%, so th e last run would be interesting. This run was 5 minutes over my course PB.

I then drove to Newbury to take part in the last parkrun of the weekend. This race was one that I was aiming for a PB but was not sure now on tired legs. This course is a single lap on gravel pathway with a short section of tarmac across a disused runway, with the finishing straight being over a mile long which has a steady incline for a part of it. For this I positioned myself near the front and to the left, as I know the start was along a narrow path and turns left. I went of fast and was starting to struggle about 1 mile in as their was a bit more wind in the exposed elements but I managed to keep the pace only slowing down by 15 seconds per mile. Then once I turned on to the finishing straight I picked up the pace slightly to quicker than my average pace and even managed to out sprint somebody in the last 100m's. The records show I managed to beat my course PB by 62 seconds, however they don't show that run was in -11c and in snow!!

To celebrate the completing the 4 Parkruns, 3 course PB's and 2 parkruns in a morning I had 1 cake to celebrate :-)

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