After I'd been running for a couple of months, Sean suggested I tried a parkrun event. My runs at the time were generally only 3-4km, but the events were inclusive & there was no pressure to run the full distance. Back in 2010 the parkrun map was a lot less populated than what you see these days so we opted for the Greenwich event as it was en route to Eastbourne for a family visit & easily reachable for us & Sean. My time four years ago was a decent 27:39. I stopped several times to walk & it would be a while before I managed to complete a 5km without walking & almost a year before I bettered the time & then started showing some improvement.
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| Surveying the landscape |
My appearances at parkrun events would generally be sporadic for the first couple of years. They were nice to visit, but most were a distance away so I never thought the 50 shirt would be achievable. The distance & time of events made forgoing a lie in a tough sell. In 2013 this changed as I started to compete on a more regular basis. I targeted one parkrun visit a month as I gave myself the task of recovering my pace & fitness following a bout of PF.
More events started popping up as well, increasing the possibility for visits to different places. The once a month mantra continued until August, where a visit to Oak Hill alerted me to another target to aim for. Though I now had 26 events completed, I knew based on my current rate that I wouldn't get my hands on a red shirt until 2017! Fergie mentioned something else I could aim for. Apparently there was a league table for event attendance based on number of different & inaugural events rather than total number. To get onto this league table you needed to attend 20 different events & despite my relatively low number of events, I had been to 14 different venues across the country. Suddenly I had some more motivation. Combine that with a decent PB at the Copenhagen Half & I was doubly inspired to start increasing my pace & break a near two year 5km PB.
I finished 2013 with 7 events over the course of 10 weeks & by the end of January I had my place on the parkrun league table with a 20th different event courtesy of a visit to Colchester. I'd timed it perfectly as within a couple of months parkrun HQ had updated their qualification requirements based on the increased number of events to 30 different events or 10 inaugurals.
Since the turn of the year I've completed 15 parkruns, despite a target of one every three weeks I've been far more prolific. In the run up to the Helsinki City Run I all but abandoned any other tempo training & got myself to 7 consecutive events & got not only a parkrun PB for it, but a great PB performance in Helsinki to match.
I went to Helsinki with 48 parkruns & since then have carefully stage managed my attendance. Once I knew I'd be clocking my 50th, I wanted it to be even more significant. I'd already set a date of June 7th to head down to Eastbourne to visit my now 99 year old Grandmother, so it made sense to combine this with Greenwich parkrun once more.
The Run
Driving one hour to run for less than half of that time would be of questionable worth. Driving a total of five hours, even more so! Yet as we pulled into Avery Hill Park it was nice to be reminded of where my parkrun oddessy started. Despite an absence of 4 years the location was instantly recognisable & we'd left ourselves with plenty of time to get warm & hopefully avoid the rain.
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| Really not 100% healthy |
This would be my first run in 12 days so I went into the event without any visions of grandure. My aim was to at least continue my sub 25:00 streak, though wasn't convinced that would be possible. The extended break was partly by design, partly due to circumstance. I'd intended to give myself a week off as a reward for getting to the end of my previous training plan & scoring new PBs at every distance attempted along the way. The break got extended though as the head cold I developed over the London 10000 weekend was being persistent. I suspect the dusty building site conditions at home combined with some stress were some contributing factors to the amount of time the illness was taking to shift. It was that bad that I even had to take a day off from work, ending a four year streak of 100% attendance.
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| The tone of the shirt should be sufficient to help warming up |
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| And we're off! |
The course was a simple lap of the park, repeated for a total of three laps that starts downhill, stays flat & then climbs towards the end. I settled into a 5:00/km ish pace, trying to push and clawing back places on the uphill stretches.
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| Starting well |
By the second climb I was more than aware that my stamina was shot from the time off & I found myself really just wanting to walk. Thankfully unlike on my first visit, I didn't succumb to this urge. The intervening four years have taught me that I don't need to walk, especially when I can maintain a decent pace. It wasn't as if my splits were spiralling uphill, everything was consistent. Sometimes I just need to kick myself up the arse & as the final climb approached I focused on what was just another two minutes of running. Get myself up the hill & then it was all downhill to the finish.
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| A pack starts to emerge |
This was definitely helpful as I finished in 24:58, just scraping under my sub 25 target. Admittedly if I'd concentrated on running rather than 5-0 poses whenever I saw Paula with the camera then I might have got the time with a bit more comfort!
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| Lap 2 |
The Conclusion
Of course this event was not about the time at all. It was respectable enough but that wasn't the aim. Saturday was all about completing the journey to a parkrun 50 shirt that started in my formative months of running back in 2010.
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| Cheeky check of the watch as the finish approaches |
In the past year I've truly embraced the parkrun format & have found it the perfect way to increase my speed. Although I'd started to settle in to the Chelmsford event, the recent announcement that my home town of Braintree has an event starting on June 28th with the Great Notley parkrun has given me a new home event & the most likely venue when I start giving back & volunteering. Keeping up the variety of events has been fun as well though. My total of 50 parkrun has been spread across 26 different venues & by the time the month ends that will become either 28 or 29 depending on what my schedule allows.
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| 50 Completed |
The social aspect of parkrun is also something I've enjoyed. Be it interacting with events on Twitter or Facebook, or meeting up with friends & family at events, there is added fun to the running side of things.
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| Starting to resemble the shirt colour |
The Eat
Of course no good parkrun story can end without the corresponding eat story. As planned we made our way to the Wimpy in Eastbourne. Paula had to stop me walking out as the moment I ordered a thick shake I was told that the machine wasn't working! Luckily for them I was feeling hungry & the half pounder (in a healthy wholemeal bap) with chips was an emphatic way to fall off of the no carb wagon.
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| Beautiful day in Eastbourne |
Thankfully these cheat days are few & far between. The last positive to report is that since the end of April when I decided to drop out bread, chips & potatoes my weight has dropped significantly. Salads or sushi for lunch at work have also helped & I'm down to 14st 8lbs & 6 at present (190.6lbs). After stalling weight wise since Christmas, the last six weeks have seen me drop half a stone & I'm closing in on being at my lowest weight since taking up running.
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| Mrs H gets to enjoy the amusements |
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| Officially a 50 club member now! |
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