Parkrun 5K, 6.9 miles slow

I got up early enough to have a go at the Parkrun in Pollok Park for the first time in almost exactly a year. When I arrived I went for a short warm-up and the legs seemed to have recovered OK from Thursday's race. This was also an opportunity to try out the adiZero Tempo in a race situation. There was a huge turnout but in the minutes leading up to the start I didn't see anyone I recognised as being fast, so I stood around trying to maintain the air of somebody who expected to win, as this doesn't happen very often. Then some fast people appeared at the last possible minute, which suited me much better as I was more concerned with posting a decent time.

A group of five of us made a fast start, but after 100m Mark McColl pulled up suddenly, and I didn't see him at the finish so I have no idea what happened. I was in fourth place for the first few hundred metres and when I checked my pace I noticed I was inside 5:20/mile. I eased off very slightly as the other three pulled away. The leader was already well ahead but I thought the other two might have trouble sustaining that kind of pace. Sure enough, after half a mile I was definitely gaining on them and I soon moved into second. The back half of the loop was somewhat more uphill than I remembered, and the steep S-bend was still a nuisance. By this point the leader was already out of sight, but as I approached the second lap there were some stewards shouting into the distance. They told me the runner in front had taken a wrong turn, and I should turn right at the bottom of the hill rather than left. There was also an arrow to that effect, but I might easily have done the same thing, and I'm sure this is also where Yohan went wrong a few weeks back. I looked to the left but there was no sign of the runner from East Kilbride AC who must already have been over the brow of the hill.

This left me unexpectedly in first place. My legs were quite heavy by this point and the Garmin showed my pace was gradually dropping, which makes me wonder whether it's actually helpful in a race at all or potentially demoralising, as it looked like I was going to be well outside 17 minutes. I had a feeling the runner in second wasn't too far behind as I could occasionally hear footsteps. At about 2 miles I started lapping people, and on the back half of the loop they were all over the path and difficult to dodge. The S-bend let me have a quick look back and I seemed to have a comfortable lead, and once I'd recovered from that final climb I still had enough in reserve to take advantage of the downhill stretch to the finish. My time was 17:19, a little slower than I had hoped but still OK after Thursday's race, and the recorded distance was 3.04 miles. I don't suspect for a minute that the course is short, so I think tree coverage must have interfered with GPS reception. I managed to bring it up to 3.10 miles by making a few adjustments to the GPS trace later on.

After the finish I handed over my barcode and position tag for scanning. The scanner had a bit of trouble reading either of them and I wasn't sure it had scanned my position tag at all, as the bleep seemed to have come from the next scanner along. I mentioned this to the recorder but he assured me it was fine, and I went off for a 1-mile warm-down. Inevitably, the results appeared on the web site later on with an unknown runner in first place and me in 11th with a time of 19:12. My e-mail reporting the error was answered promptly and the corrected results should be published at some point tomorrow.

Average pace (for 3.11 miles): 5:34/mile
Pace splits (approximate): 5:30, 5:47, 5:37, 4:29

In the afternoon I ran one of my usual routes, down Garscube Road and along the canal to Dorchester Avenue. Just before I set out it started raining very slightly, so I took the opportunity to try out a pair of tight shorts I bought in Decathlon specifically for the purpose of avoiding chafing in wet conditions. They were on the extreme side but seemed to work, although the rain never really got that heavy. I managed some reasonable splits after the traditional slow first mile, finishing the 6.93 miles in 47:41, average pace 6:53/mile, HR 148.

Pace splits (ave. HR): 7:41 (137), 6:49 (147), 6:46 (149), 6:46 (150), 6:45 (150), 6:44 (154), 6:38 (154)
HR zones: 1.2%, 7.9%, 90.9%, 0%, 0%