See what I did there? Karin smiles or Karin's miles. I like to think I do a lot of the first one a while clocking up the second, my running partners may think differently... Filed under: running
I ran my first Parkrun this morning and it’s actually my first ever 5K, so I also got a PB (nothing to get excited about, the results show 24:47, but I’m happy enough with that).
There were icy patches along the prom and I am such a wimp about running on icy tarmac that I almost went home without taking part, but it didn’t seem to be bothering anyone else and there were quite a few of my club-mates at the start so I gave it a go. I was hoping all the fast runners in front of me would generate enough heat to melt the ice and in fact I only had to do the little ‘aaargh no grip’ dance on one shady stretch so I guess they did.
I have no idea how to run a 5K so I just started as fast as I could go and then held that pace for as long as I could. I’m not sure whether the limiting factor was the fact that my legs just don’t turn over very quickly or that there’s a strange anomaly at Silverknowes that means it has air pressure equivalent to 20,000 feet although it’s at sea level (it’s probably the latter; that would also explain the ice).
Edinburgh Parkrun 07/11
When my shoelace came undone at around 3K, the five people I had just overtaken all passed me again as I stopped to re-tie it. I re-passed four of them but the fifth speeded up as I tried to overtake. Kenenisa Bekele won the world cross-country championships after losing a shoe but a loose shoelace was all the excuse I needed to recoil from a barf-inducing finish, so I sat on her shoulder to the finish. As I say, it was my first 5k so it’s probably best to leave some scope for improvement.
Apart from the fact that 5K is definitely not my distance, I enjoyed the parkrun. I chatted to a few people I haven’t seen for months and some I’d never met before. I loved the low-key, informality of it. I thought it was great that I still had the whole day left – but I was mysteriously hit with a strange fatigue in the afternoon (probably that altitude thing again – it certainly couldn’t have had anything to do with a piddly 3 mile run).
I almost completely neglected speedwork this year because I was totally focussed on distance but I have no more excuses for avoiding it and I’m planning on running the odd parkrun to try and gauge whether it’s having any effect. You do get a pretty little star against your name on the website when you improve your time – that might well be worth the bleeding eyeballs.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
Karinsmiles 