Saturday 1 October 2011

Riddlesdown parkrun fourteen (RDp14)

Standing at the start line there were noticeably fewer of runners at Riddlesdown this week (40). It seems that this was down to the rugby match between England and Scotland. The weather was glorious (officially the hottest October day for 26 years).

My left hamstring was still recovering from my first half-marathon so I decided not to race this week's event. Instead I decided to use the parkrun to do a tempo run (for me that works out at 4.05 - 4.16 minutes per kilometre).

The wife had volunteered to be the official photographer again, and took some amazing photos from Condon corner.

I started off quite slowly and gradually picked up the pace until I settled in behind Jo Q, who I knew would be running at about the right pace for my tempo run, and September's monthly prize winner Paul G. Jo was only doing one lap today as she was down as a volunteer and had to be at the finish line before the first runners came in.

Once the first lap was out of the way I couldn't resist the urge to pick out runners up ahead that I'd like to chase (while still sticking to the tempo run plan, of course).

With only a slight change of pace I gradually picked my way past a few more runners and with about 300 metres left to go I caught up with Graeme D, and after a brief attempt at an out-of-breath chat, I pushed on to overtake one more runner on the final straight.

I crossed the line in tenth place with a time of 21:22 - That works out at an average pace of 4.16 per kilometre, just about right for my tempo run. Interestingly, if I had raced I would have been in with a very good chance of finishing first. I'm still happy that I took the tempo run option.

We then went to the Good Companions pub for coffee and muffins (which were made by Ange N, who recently celebrated her birthday) afterwards.

My Stats:

Position: 10 / 40
Time: 21:22
2.5km Splits: 11:06 / 10:16

I'm hoping that the hamstring is feeling better for next weekend because I really want to race!

Steve.


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