I Didn't Stop or Look Around, Just Ran My 119th parkrun

 

Five months to the day, I returned to Pollok Park to participate in the Glasgow parkrun. It's been a long hard road back to some degree of fitness, and although I'm still far from race fit, I decided to give it it a go. I joined in with an impressive 434 others, including loads of friends and running buddies, in the Scottish sunshine.

Although I started quite well back from the front, I was still in among regular club runners. I didn't hear the 'off' but we started at 9:30am. There was a fair bit of congestion and we had to revert to walking for a few steps but the field soon opened up and I was running my 119th parkrun.

My approach to the race was one of caution and I watched a number of my contemporaries race ahead of me. Last month's time at Tollcross parkrun had been 25:18, so I had in my mind that I wanted to run under 25mins. I was a little disappointed when my Garmin indicated 5:04 for the first kilometre. Although I traditionally run a negative split, I did worry that I might fade in the latter stages of my comeback race. To be honest, I was already feeling tired and knew that I would need to work harder as the race progressed. The second kilometre was slighter faster, at 5:00. I was a bit surprised to see some of my running buddies not that far ahead but I decided to run my own race. The GPS reception isn't very good within the wooded part of the park and I was concentrating on my run, so I just ignored my Garmin bleeping at the 3^rd and 4^th k. However I did notice a friend passing me as we turned off the glade for the second and last time. I stuck in behind him and he helped me up and over the last hill in the course. I could see a club mate ahead and concentrated in decreasing the gap between us and I upped the work rate and finished strongly.

Garmin revealed that I had achieved my aim of sub 25mins and I was extremely happy with my time of 24:25, in 167^th place. I congratulated those around me before handing in my finisher's token. For some reason, I then decided to do a 5k 'warm down', which afforded me the opportunity to say 'hi' to some of those that were well in front of me in the race.

I rewarded myself with a, post run, coffee and scone in the packed Burrell Cafe, where many of my friends welcomed me back into the Scottish running community.Then it was home and back to bed.

A major step in my recovery achieved, although there's still a long way to go.Thanks to all the volunteers, my fellow runners and the Burrell staff who made it such a great morning.

Results

Stuart MacDougal's PB of 16:54, breaking the 17min barrier at the 101st attempt, wasn't good enough to win Gold today as Kilbarchan's Robert Quinn and Shettleston's Kenny Richmond, placed first and second, with times of 15:33 and 15:55, respectively.

In the Women's Race, Clydesdale's Marina Mccallum, achieved her target of dipping under 21mins and earned Gold into the bargain, with a time of 20:55.  Bellahouston Harriers, Super Vet, Erica Christie, placed second in 21:33 with Giffnock North's Hilary Millar, some eleven seconds, behind claiming third spot in 21:44.

Full Results