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Tuesday 21 August 2012

Parkrun - a day of 1sts ...

Had an early start after my race last night as I was taking a few friends for their first taste of parkrun. Very exciting, although thanks to a late bedtime last night my eyes weren’t fully open until the M6! However, I wore my bright pink compression socks just so they could find me and fish me out of the hedge when I fell asleep on the course and got trampled by the other 300 enthusiastic parkrunners!

Had a wander around the Memorial Park when we got there and someone asked me about how effective the compression socks were. Not sure how effecive they are but I don’t tend to get achy legs after a long run if I have a cold bath and pop some compression gear on.



Sphinx AC were recruiting new members at the parkrun. Had a bit of a chat with a few members and they seem a nice, friendly group and the membership is a LOT cheaper than I currently pay at Rugby & Northampton. Might pop down towards the end of my R&N membership and see how I get on. Lots of blue and gold vests there today.

The parkrun started off and there were lots of people in front of me who weren’t quite sure where they should be. The start is quite narrow and of course everyone is chasing a PB and people don’t want to get stuck in the bottlenecks between the parkbenches and the flowerbeds. It was chaos as different people vied for the front and slower runners got caught up between prams and people trying to overtake them. I stayed back and kept my pace as steady as possible – no point getting run down by a parent with crazed eyes and a running buggy.

The first lap flew by and it felt quite comfortable. When I first started parkrun, just under 2 years ago, I used to tell myself „Just get through this. You don’t have to do it next week if you don’t want to. In fact, you never have to parkrun again after this. Just don’t drop out!“ Of course I would always go back to parkrun the next week. It still hurts every week, of course, but now I know that the hurt is only temporary. And completely overshadowed by a new PB.

I finished the run with a sprint finish with a chap and I beat him by a whisker, but forgot to stop my Garmin so absolutely no idea whether it was a PB or how I’d done! Went and got my chip scanned and went to clap the others in. Tom was first, then Vicky and I went to catch up with Ali. She was doing SO well and running at a steady pace up the final hill. She overtook another runner on the final straight and made it through the funnel to applause. She was overcome. She had run so many miles and started running for her Dad and now she had done it. She had completed her first race.

We had a coffee afterwards and chilled out in the sunshine. We were in no hurry, just soaking up the sun and enjoying the glow of a job – run – well done. I was surprised when the results came in - I was 1st woman and with a new Coventry parkrun PB. A good run.

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