Parkrun 5K

I felt like I was getting back to race fitness and thought I should try a Parkrun to put a stake in the ground for the upcoming relays. Glasgow was cancelled on account of an event in Pollok Park, so I went for Strathclyde, where I expected numbers to be increased further due to the participation of Ron Hill. I traced out the course beforehand on gmap-pedometer and tried to memorise the kilometre points in case they were unmarked. There was no obvious landmark at 1K but 100m further on was a small bridge, so I made a mental note of that instead.

Conditions were pretty decent after rain earlier in the week so I went for the adiPure Gazelle and lined up on the front row with Charlie Thomson and some other Cambuslang Harriers. We set off at a fast but comfortable pace, and I was 4th or 5th for the first 500m or so. I looked at my watch with the bridge about 200m down the path and noticed it said 2:48, and having clean forgotten that the bridge represented 1.1K rather than 1K, I thought I'd better pick it up a bit, dismissing the 1K marker I passed about 100m later as being incorrectly placed. I moved into the lead soon after the bridge and held this position until shortly after the path deviated from the lochside when Charlie overtook me. When I saw the next kilometre marker exactly where I'd expected the 2K point to be, I realised my mistake with the first marker, and hoped going too fast early on wouldn't damage my chances of a sub-17 finish. I was still on course after 3K and it was a question of staying inside 3:30/K for the remainder. Starting to tire, I was overtaken again before 4K, but held it together enough to finish 3rd in 16:48. This was an average pace of 5:24/mile and over a minute faster than my previous 5K in Wimbledon 4 weeks previously. Jogged about 1.5 miles afterwards to warm down.