Basildon parkrun makes it's debut

Saturday morning arrived and the continuation of building work at our place gave an excuse for some parkrun tourism. With parkrun moving the goalposts for their table of events attended I was no longer showing, you now need 30 different events or 10 inaugural runs to make it. This means I can't make the league table once more until I've picked up my 50 shirt.
Basildon parkrun was due to debut on April 5th so I persuaded Paula that we should take a drive into south Essex to support their first event.
The first thing to note if you're considering a visit, get there early. The park car park fills up quickly and by the time we were there at 8:35 even the Premier Inn facility across the road was almost full. There was an excellent crowd and everyone hushed to listen to the first ever pre race briefing.

The Run

Yet again I lined up too far towards the back of the field. I realised this error even before we started and there is a great sequence of photos on the event's Facebook page showing me changing direction straight away. The problems with being too far back are multiple. Firstly you start slowly, I generally find a fast start helps for rhythm. You also find the start harder to hear, so everyone walks, stumbles, saunters forward without momentum, eating up valuable seconds. So within ten seconds I was off the path and onto the grass making progress.
The course was fairly simple, nearly three complete laps of the park. The first half of the lap was flat, around a fishing pond and then along a trail. You were then met by a double hill climb. As you exit the trail you ascend the steeper of the two climbs. We're not talking Wimpole hill of doom here, but enough of a bite!
Of course what goes up, must come down but the descend didn't seem to be as kind as the climb was harsh!
I tried to settle into a rhythm, making progress through the field during the first lap. Something didn't feel right though. Where as last week I felt fast, fast forward a week and I felt useless. Just slow. After getting up the hill a second time I just felt myself going backwards. My pace wasn't horrendous, but it didn't feel that way to me. By the third climb I was more concerned with just getting to the line. I had nothing left and no idea why. Perhaps a stressful evening of work had disturbed my sleep, eating late, lack of runs in the week. Genuinely not sure what happened.
I lethargically made it across the line, barely mustering a sprint finish, got scanned, picked up a sweet and headed straight for the car. Bizarrely we were going through Chelmsford before their event had even finished!

The Conclusion

You'd think from my description of the run that it was a complete horror show, yet my official time was 24:56. I guess it is a sign of progress that I can run a sub 25 despite feeling appalling.
It was also a wake up call. The last couple of weeks have gone very well, pace returning, a good return at Brentwood, but a performance like this is good for you, it keeps the feet firmly on the ground. It serves as a reminder to me that with five weeks to go until Helsinki, more hard work is required.
If you get a chance, Basildon parkrun is well worth a visit. The course is more challenging than you'd expect and although they broke 200 in the first week, an average attendance without the tourists such as myself will make the start a bit easier.