parkrun comeback

The long and short of this post is that after the Derby 10 mile PB I got injured because I'm stupid and not invincible!! There has been a very painful sports massage, rest days, crosstraining and now I'm back running-ish! 

Two weeks ago, I finally got Sean to run our second local parkrun The Wammy, which is a relatively flat and fast parkun, at long out and back.  The only other time I have run here was on New Years Day as part of my NYD double, so this was my first opportunity to run this since I had got some speed back in my legs. 

The Wammy is flat and fast, the place to go for good run time and my running buddies asked me the night before if I was going to go for it.  But with being injured recently, unsure where my form was at and not wanting to put the pressure on myself, the sandbagging excuses came out "nah just going to go for a normal run".

After a brief chat with parkrun RD, we headed off for the start and then we were off......things were going well my legs felt fresh and springy so my thoughts of a parkrun time with a 24 at the start would be a nice way to finish out the year….these were fleeting and as the lactate started to build were replaced with “a low 25 would also be very good”. The course, after the turn around point, is slightly downhill and once again thoughts returned to 24🤔.  

As my watch beeped the 2nd mile, I tried desperately to work it out what pace was needed to for a 24 something finish, but the lactate build up was making maths difficult 😳 The way back felt longer than the way out and the finish felt a long way off. Looking at my watch I had less than half a mile to go and still I couldn’t work it out, every time I did it came out at a 23 at the start and that had to be wrong!!

Then I saw that fantastic finish line and surged for it, crossing the line, trying not to collapse, throw up and stopping my watch all at the same time! the result was officially 23:57 my third ever fastest parkrun! 

A great way to finish the year…..and now I am injured again :( so I am back spinning