Riddlesdown parkrun eleven (RDp11)

After being caught in stand-still traffic on the M25 after someone's tyre blew out, we were worried that we would not make it to the parkrun at all. That would have been disappointing for me, but even worse was that I had the official photographer in the car. Fortunately the traffic soon started moving and we continued our journey to Riddlesdown for event number eleven!

We arrived with only a few minutes to spare, The wife and the baba (sporting her parkrun t-shirt for the first time) joined the other volunteers. I jogged over to the start line, where I bumped into the race director and reassured her that she did have a photographer for the event.

riddlesdown parkrun's youngest fan? (Photo: Nicki Clark)

Standing at the start line I noticed that there were less runners than usual this week, the official number of finishers was 56.

The race got under way in the usual manner and everyone headed off on their own little adventure around the downs.

first lap (Photo: The wife)

The theme of the day was definitely the weather. It was humid with the occasional blast of wind in places, and it wasn't long before the effects of the humidity started to show. I ran at my normal 5k race effort but was about 30 seconds slower than I had hoped at the half-way point. I was bang on 10 minutes. I usually run the first half quicker than the second and today was no exception.

As I pushed on through the second half, the humidity further took its toll on me - it was very hard work just maintaining the pace, let alone pushing for a sub-20 time!

There were no exciting battles with other runners for me this week. So, alone, I pushed on to complete the course. I have a vague memory of the wife shouting at me for not sprinting down the final straight. I was out of juice and was running as fast as I could!

final straight (Photo: The wife)

I was handed my position barcode and was surprised to see that I was in third place. My highest finishing position so far! This made my finishing time of 20:07 easier to bear, especially as I really wanted to get back into the sub-20's this week. After reflecting on my run and looking at some other runner's times I saw that most people were slower than usual, I think the humidity had affected almost everyone.

My Stats:

• Position: 3rd/56
• Gender Position: 3rd
• Age Group Position: 1st/2 (SM30-34)
• Age Grading: 65.20%
• Time: 20:07
• 2.5km Split Times: 10:00 / 10:07

Official results page for event eleven

We really wanted to stay for a coffee and chat in the good companions pub afterwards but were so hungry that we decided to head back home for brunch instead. We're looking into bringing some kind of post-run breakfast type stuff next week so we are not tempted away again!

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