Long run - 21km (Parkrun No. 12 - can I get another PB?!)

dannewton just finished a 21.37km run, that lasted for 129 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 1622.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: TL:DR - Can I get a new Parkrun PB? Yes I can! :-)

Its the weekend (woohoo!), and as I have booked a couple of days of next week its gonna be a 4 day weekend (even better!). More on that later, but for now its time to start my weekend with a bang, and yep, that means its Parkrun time again.

After last week trip to my local parkrun, it was time to head back to the other parkrun location we have here in Lincoln located up next to Yarborough Leisure Centre. I ran here 2 weeks ago for the first time and really enjoyed the route. The fact that it featured wide and flat paths meant there was great potential to get a PB.

I ran that one on 25:25, and it was indeed my fastest parkrun time. Heading up there again this morning, would I be able to get another PB?

I set off at 8am this morning, parkrun may not start until 9am, but its 8km away, so I need to make sure I get there in plenty of time (and most importantly without rushing).

At an easy pace of 6min/km I would hopefully get there around 8:50, which give me time to take a breather (and also gave me a little leeway if I got delayed for any reason)

Just like yesterday, the weather was bright and sunny but still on the cool side. Not as cold as the 6C yesterday though, so I decided I didn't need gloves this time

I took it nice and easy on the run through town, this picture shows the very quiet looking High Street, with the Cathedral, looking majestic in the distance

After this I took a left turn to head towards West Parade, and then up Yarborough Hill. A quick meander through a housing estate, and I was here:

I had run a little slower than expected in the end so I arrived at approx 8:55. This meant I had missed most of the messages from the Race Director... I did hear that a couple of people were hitting milestones today 50 and 250, and it was someone elses birthday, and she had brought lots of cakes and treats to celebrate.

What I didn't hear was anything about pacers (ie people who aim to run a set time, so you can try to stick with them to try and get the same time, which is super useful if you're trying to a achieve a particular finish time

After the messages, there was a very quick and quiet "3,2,1 Go!" and we were off

As I had arrived late, I had started at the back, and spent the first couple of minutes over taking the slower runners. As I moved through the field, I noticed individuals with numbers on their backs... 30 and 27. I then realized that this event had some pacers, and wondered if there was a 25 minute pacer that I could chase...

..and so there was!

I slotted in behinfd this runner, and for the rest of lap 1 and lap 2 I did my best to just stick with him. I do have the option to watch my pace on the watch, but it is much easier to follow someone.

I stuck with him for the start of lap 3, and then with just over 1km to go, I kicked for home, I was working quite hard at this point, but still felt like I was in control and not losing form or anything. A final sprint to the finish meant I overtook one more person and meant I finished in 57th place overall (out of an eventual total of 197 finishers)

I had finished in front of the 25 minute pacer and so I was hopeful I had managed to get under 25 minutes (and thus getting a PB), but I didn't know what my time was.

I record the whole run as part of one long session, so my watch couldn't tell me how fast I had done it either

After getting my barcode scanned, and helping my several to some rather tasty chocolate cake, I slowly got moving again and started to head for home.

My legs initially felt a little stiff after that hard effort, but after 10 minutes they began to loosen off, and I relaxed into an easy pace for the 8km run home.

The graph above shows an over view of my run... running down cross o'cliff hill and up yarborough hill. I paused while waiting for the run to start, and then there was 5km at an increased pace (with the sprint finish!). Then there was a pause while I caught my breath and ate some cake, before heading back down yarborough hill and back up cross o'cliff hill to make it home

And as soon as I got home, I received the email of the results...

And I had indeed managed to get a new parkrun PB. The 24:34 was in the end comfortably under the 25 minute target I was aiming for, and I'm very pleased with that. Also good to note that while this was a 'hard effort' I didn't feel like I was giving it everything, and that there was still some more in the tank.

remember, I need to run 8km home afterwards, so need to have some restraint!

But yes, happy with that :-)

And now its time to crack on with the rest of the weekend. This afternoon we will be playing Car Tetris, to try to get all her uni stuff in the car, and then we will be driving up to Carlise tomorrow.

Sunday will be a long old day, with a 4 hour car journey, 2 hours carrying her stuff up 3 flights of stairs, and then a 6 hour train journey home. This is why I've booked Monday and Tuesday off, my weekend will be lost, so I'll need some time to catch up with chores (and get some rest) before I head back to work.

right, its time to go move some boxes... I hope everyone else has a great weekend!

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/12405527824

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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