Riddlesdown parkrun twenty two (rdp22)

I hadn't been feeling my normal self this weekend, slightly sluggish, fed up of not being able to race, and generally just a bit miserable.

This was the last Riddlesdown parkrun of November 2011 and the weather was still pretty decent. Nine degrees and partly cloudy. This time last year it was already freezing and we were just about to be hit with a great big dollop of snow.

Mrs7t managed to squeeze in a last minute shoulder massage before the run [photo:Richard Carter]

Mrs7t lined up for parkrun number four.

I lined up for parkrun twenty four.

The race started. We eased into an extremely gentle jog.

I usually leave the wife at the 1 kilometre point, but this week I wanted to go round with her. I let her set the pace and I just tagged along. We ran for a while. We walked for a while. We repeated that sequence for the rest of the run.

Lime spent the duration of the run clearly having a lot of fun with Nicki (thank you) [photo:Lucy Wernham]

Just after the half-way point I caught a glimpse of the leaders, who were now racing towards the final straight. I saw young Omar, who I've had a couple of interesting battles with, he looked like he was having a decent run. It was a strange feeling being at the back of the field watching the leaders finish - that's what happens when you do stuff that makes you injured!

mrs7t giving it some welly [photo:Richard Carter]

We came across a few (at least six) dogs at about 3.5km, I felt a little on edge. The wife didn't seem too worried. I felt safer with her than I would have if I had been alone. We passed them, there were no incidents.

When we hit the final straight the wife put in a nice kick and I followed her across the line a few seconds later. My plan for the day did not involve sprinting.

i think this was probably right at the end [photo:Richard Carter]

I am officially bored of my injury. So if you don't mind, the remaining niggly-ness will now go away. I'll start building my mileage back up and I'll be back to racing by Christmas. Then I'll get myself back to sub-20, then I'll start the push for sub-19. Sounds brilliant doesn't it...?? I hope someone tells the hamstring.

7t.