I am a habitually early riser, my alarm on a weekday morning goes off at 05:40, so I’m normally awake by 07:00 on a weekend (no alarm set), often assisted by the cat who seems worried that I might miss something if she doesn’t start cleaning my face about 10 mins after my alarm would normally go off. This morning as I began to surface and wonder what the time was, there was no sign of Madam Pusskins – P had left the door to the conservatory open overnight and she’s recently discovered she can get on top of the bookcases and sprawl in the sunshine, which is far more interesting than seeing why I haven’t got up yet. Checked my phone, and the time was 08:15 – the mental conversation I had with myself went something like this:
“Agh! Parkrun!”
“But you haven’t had a lazy morning in weeks.”
“Yeah, but you’re awake now.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“Parkrun?”
“Ok, parkrun.”
So, up I got!
I decided to try the new pink monstrosities (seriously, see below, they are PINK!) for fit and comfort, after finding a pile of insoles in the shoe cupboard (I don’t know why I keep them, but for some reason I have some there from shoes I decanted into the charity shop pile). With the thicker sports socks I was wearing I only needed one in the left shoe – will double check with the thinner (quicker drying) socks before I wear them for the No Ego trail race next weekend. The trainers were absolutely fine, the route was drier and less muddy than last time so the ground was mostly hard and they’re more cushioned than my Cascadia’s so I was quite comfy. At one point I noticed the front upper of the left shoe was folding in and touching my foot, but it wasn’t uncomfortable and I promptly forgot it again so it can’t have been that big a deal and may have just been related to me running downhill at the time!
I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction this morning. I keep getting caught with tonnes of extra clothing to swathe about my waist when I’m running, so determined not to be toting my whole wardrobe and kitchen sink about today, I’d put on just a sports vest and thrown a big hoody over the top for after the race. Winter it seems, is not quite finished and I’d have been better off with the thermal I so nearly put on this morning. For most of the route the wind was bitterly sharp, and I ended up wearing my massive hoody the whole route round and putting up with being slightly over-warm for short stretches rather than being turned into a frozen vested statue for the rest of it! I’d say one day I’ll get it right, but I think I’ve had that day for the year with the Tyneside 10k last week so that might be me doomed to wardrobe malfunctions until 2016!
In the serene zone coming up to the finish!
The Parkrun itself I decided to just take easy and get round – and get round I did! I now feel I can say I’ve run Blackhill Parkrun – last time I had a walking break at the top corner of the field on each lap, and this time I was determined to get round one full lap even if it meant walking the other two! As it happened, I’d paced it as such that I was hitting the downhills just as I was starting to flag a bit and I made it round the whole thing without a walking stop! Much better 🙂 I also knocked 39 seconds off my time which I think is an excellent start 🙂 32m 48s on this occasion. Will keep working on getting this down to the dream of sub-30 mins! I still found it moderately savage amusement, but in a much calmer, quieter and generally more serene way as I pottered about rather than gasping like a stepped on frog round every corner! I think it helped being a degree more familiar with the course and knowing when the breather stretches were coming, but I don’t think it’ll ever be my favourite 5k!
Blue Runnings 
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