Parkrun 5K

I thought I had just about got through my injury enough to try a race of some sort, and decided a Parkrun would be ideal. There was no event in Hyde Park so the best bet seemed to be Wimbledon Common. I had aching hips from several days spent walking around London, and the hot weather didn't help either, so the best I could hope for was to finish inside 18 minutes, although I hadn't actually run a sub-6 minute mile since May. Despite some showers towards the end of the week it was dry enough to go with the Asics Hyperspeed 5. While considering my position with respect to running for a club, I wore my Marathon Maniacs vest and had switched my affiliation to Unattached on the Parkrun web site the night before. The start was quite a trek from Southfields and I wasn't exactly sure where to go once we got to Wimbledon Common, but other runners were arriving, some in Parkrun t-shirts, so we just followed them.

After the announcements and distribution of t-shirts to runners who had reached particular milestones, we walked down to the start en masse and turned around. I got up near the front and overheard somebody mention he was looking for "an easy 18," so staying in touch looked like my best pacing option in the absence of a Garmin or any kilometre markers. After a cautious start I found myself about 20th, but the injury wasn't causing me any problems. The surface was mostly gravel paths or trails and was slightly uneven in places where mud had dried. The course was marked with white arrows sprayed on the ground but I doubted how well I would have been able to follow them if I'd been in the lead or unable to see anyone ahead of me. I gradually started to pick people off and my halfway split was read out as 8:54. I wasn't struggling at that pace but didn't know if I could sustain it to the end and thought I might just slip outside 18 minutes. On the second lap I continued to make up the odd place, alternating between finding the going tough and feeling like I could certainly pick it up a bit. There was the occasional back marker to lap, but this was far less of a problem than in Glasgow. The finish came into view with sub-18 still on the cards, and I crossed the line in 8th place in 17:53, meaning I had run reasonably consistent splits, and I didn't appear to have done myself any damage. Average pace was 5:45/mile, time was probably a PW but I was quite happy with it. Somebody asked me about my Marathon Maniacs vest and turned out to be a member of the 100 Marathons Club. Afterwards, Natasha and I got some snacks at the Windmill Tearooms before heading back down to the station.