Parkrun round-up
Mar. 2nd, 2020 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoIt's goodbye to ridiculous amounts of training runs, and back to the normal Parkrunning schedule, post-marathon. Italics indicate an unusual course:
26th October was a slow run, which I expected it to be, coming just six days after my marathon. Mostly I ran it just to prove to myself that I could. It was too soon though (as well as being wet and miserable), and I hurt afterwards. I volunteered the next week (time-keeping), to recover and get back on form for the week after.
28th December was a spot of Christmas tourism, doing the Evesham Parkrun near my parents' home. Despite the course being back-and-forth along the riverbank, it was one of only two local Parkruns that wasn't cancelled because of flooding. The course isn't the best, with a bottleneck turning point right at the start, but it was just about manageable with 188 runners.
I volunteered again for New Year's Day, where there was a record-breaking turnout of 750 runners! Seeing that many people running around Hillsborough Park together was fantastic. From my vantage point by the car park, it looked like a continuous stream of people for an hour. The high attendance has continued throughout 2020 so far, with only one week having fewer than 400 people (and then it was only one fewer!).
On 25th January, I marked my second-fastest ever time at Hillsborough and, on 1st February, I smashed 18 seconds off my previous reverse-direction PB at the 7th anniversary run. It's harder in reverse, you see. No matter what Becky says. Or Neil. 1st February was also the morning I tried to get back into longer running in preparation for this year's Sheffield Half Marathon. I ran a 10k Ooty Loop beforehand, then did my customary extra lap at the end (helping Dan & Tan to a sub-40 finish), to make it 10 miles in total.
This year, I want to tick off some of the volunteering jobs I've not yet done. On 8th February I stood in as Funnel Manager for the first time, and discoverd in involves almost as much running around as doing the Parkrun normally!
The last three weeks have included a slight diversion to the normal course, due to the amound of mud around the tennis courts. After a very slippery finish for the first go, we're now finishing on the path and the alternative course seems to work well. 3 1/2 abbreviated laps means more downhill than up, so it should be good for fast times. I've yet to work out a good rhythm for pacing it though; no doubt I'll figure it out just before we go back to normal. (We had an even more slight diversion earlier in the year, owning to drainage work by the climbing ropes. Naturally, the library downhill was restored to normal just in time for it to become the library uphill for the anniversary run.)
Today, with my first Monday off work, one of the things I did was a proper training run for the half marathon. 10 miles in 80 minutes, out around Strines Reservoir and back. It was a lovely day for it, with the storms of the past few weeks nowhere around. I was reasonably pleased with my time, but I'll need to find 5 minutes from somewhere if I'm to break through the 1h40m barrier on 29th March.
| Date | My Parkruns | Time | Position overall | Position males | Position VM 40-44 | Age-graded score |
| 19th Oct | 105th | 20:59 | 27th/385 | 25th | 5th | 65.53% |
| 26th Oct | 106th | 24:09 | 76th/274 | 68th | 9th | 56.94% |
| 9th Nov | 107th | 20:38 | 22nd/415 | 22nd | 3rd | 66.64% |
| 16th Nov | 108th | 20:56 | 20th/333 | 19th | 1st! | 65.68% |
| 23rd Nov | 109th | 20:26 | 12th/295 | 12th | 3rd | 67.29% |
| 30th Nov | 110th | 20:48 | 19th/301 | 18th | 2nd | 66.11% |
| 7th Dec | 111th | 20:36 | 13th/375 | 13th | 3rd | 66.75% |
| 14th Dec | 112th | 21:11 | 12th/266 | 12th | 2nd | 64.91% |
| 21st Dec | 113rd | 21:22 | 21st/328 | 19th | 3rd | 64.35% |
| 28th Dec | 114th | 20:38 | 16th/188 | 16th | 2nd | 66.64% |
| 4th Jan | 115th | 21:05 | 25th/521 | 25th | 4th | 65.22% |
| 11th Jan | 116h | 21:05 | 22nd/548 | 22nd | 2nd | 65.22% |
| 18th Jan | 117th | 20:45 | 12th/513 | 12th | 3rd | 66.27% |
| 25th Jan | 118th | 20:19 | 12th/473 | 12th | 1st! | 67.68% |
| 1st Feb | 119th | 21:18 | 38th/713 | 37th | 6th | 64.55% |
| 15th Feb | 120th | 21:06 | 22nd/444 | 19th | 1st! | 65.17% |
| 22nd Feb | 121st | 20:57 | 20th/399 | 17th | 3rd | 65.63% |
| 29th Feb | 122nd | 20:42 | 20th/424 | 17th | 2nd | 66.43% |
26th October was a slow run, which I expected it to be, coming just six days after my marathon. Mostly I ran it just to prove to myself that I could. It was too soon though (as well as being wet and miserable), and I hurt afterwards. I volunteered the next week (time-keeping), to recover and get back on form for the week after.
28th December was a spot of Christmas tourism, doing the Evesham Parkrun near my parents' home. Despite the course being back-and-forth along the riverbank, it was one of only two local Parkruns that wasn't cancelled because of flooding. The course isn't the best, with a bottleneck turning point right at the start, but it was just about manageable with 188 runners.
I volunteered again for New Year's Day, where there was a record-breaking turnout of 750 runners! Seeing that many people running around Hillsborough Park together was fantastic. From my vantage point by the car park, it looked like a continuous stream of people for an hour. The high attendance has continued throughout 2020 so far, with only one week having fewer than 400 people (and then it was only one fewer!).
On 25th January, I marked my second-fastest ever time at Hillsborough and, on 1st February, I smashed 18 seconds off my previous reverse-direction PB at the 7th anniversary run. It's harder in reverse, you see. No matter what Becky says. Or Neil. 1st February was also the morning I tried to get back into longer running in preparation for this year's Sheffield Half Marathon. I ran a 10k Ooty Loop beforehand, then did my customary extra lap at the end (helping Dan & Tan to a sub-40 finish), to make it 10 miles in total.
This year, I want to tick off some of the volunteering jobs I've not yet done. On 8th February I stood in as Funnel Manager for the first time, and discoverd in involves almost as much running around as doing the Parkrun normally!
The last three weeks have included a slight diversion to the normal course, due to the amound of mud around the tennis courts. After a very slippery finish for the first go, we're now finishing on the path and the alternative course seems to work well. 3 1/2 abbreviated laps means more downhill than up, so it should be good for fast times. I've yet to work out a good rhythm for pacing it though; no doubt I'll figure it out just before we go back to normal. (We had an even more slight diversion earlier in the year, owning to drainage work by the climbing ropes. Naturally, the library downhill was restored to normal just in time for it to become the library uphill for the anniversary run.)
Today, with my first Monday off work, one of the things I did was a proper training run for the half marathon. 10 miles in 80 minutes, out around Strines Reservoir and back. It was a lovely day for it, with the storms of the past few weeks nowhere around. I was reasonably pleased with my time, but I'll need to find 5 minutes from somewhere if I'm to break through the 1h40m barrier on 29th March.
