Park Run Number 16

It's been a busy month of May for myself with Surf trips to Portugal and 30th birthday celebrations meaning that running has not been at the top of my priority of things to do. But with my body weight consumed in alcohol and 5 months until my first ever half marathon it's certainly time to put the trainers back on and start running again.

Last Saturday was to be my 16th Park Run at Lanhydrock and leaving the house it was a very gloomy grey start to the day with a thick heavy fog sitting over the whole of Cornwall. But as I arrived to the Lanhydrock National Park the sun was starting to break through the mist and cloud and you could feel the warmth of the sun coming through.

With this being the first run in nearly a month I was feeling a little bit nervous especially with the massive hill that I had not been missing whilst on holiday. As it was bank holiday weekend it was proving to be a popular morning for Park Run and with 177 runners on the start line I was feeling excited to get going.

I always go off too fast at the start of Park Run and get carried away with the crowds at the beginning and this week being the first one back after a few weeks off decided that I really did need to take it slightly easier and avoid going off too fast at the start and walking at the end.

As the crowds wound down the hill and up into the woods it felt good to be back running with a group of like minded people all up early on a Saturday morning. I plodded through the woods and down the massive steep section of hill and felt good, I felt like I was simply enjoying this run rather than pushing for a PB. As the second half of the course approached the hills got bigger and I started to feel the burn. Managing to get up the first two sections of up hill I upproached the main really steep hill and just had to walk up it but getting to the top proceeded to run.

My current Personal Best for Lanhydrock Park Run is 28:43 and after nearly a month off knew I wasn't going to be anywhere close to that but was hoping for around the 30 minute mark. As I pushed down hill to the finish line I was feeling very much out of breath and felt like I had nothing else to give.

Once home I recieved my time and was pleased that my first run in the new 30-34 age group came through at 30:20.

Tomorrow It's Park Run day again and this week I will be competing in my first ever Park Run as a tourist and will hopefully be plodding the tarmac of a much flatter Essec Park Run. I'm hoping to beat my current PB time of 28:43 and hope that a quicker Park Run time will encourage me that I can get around Park Run quicker and I've just got to do the same at my home turf when I return to Lanhydrock.

Fingers crossed for tomorrows Park Run and I'm looking forward to taking part in a much bigger event than what I'm used to in Cornwall. If you see me looking lost around the course in Chelmsford tomorrow give me a wave!