Volunteered today to do the pre event setup, don’t believe I’ve done it before. Got there around 8am, had to few a few mins for anyone else to turn up, and we were all done in around 20 mins. Two lines of stakes with tape each side at the start, and similar at the finish but with cones and a black bin. Plus a few cones on the inside of the first corner.
As were were done with 30 mins to go, I ended up running the whole route for a warmup, and it seems they have also given me credit for the course check, but no one told me and I didn’t report back. Funnily enough as I did go round, I thought I could have done the course check and would have rated the puddles as a 6/10, but alas my rating was never shared.
Was pretty sweaty after the warmup, did it in 25 mins in 3 layers. Took off a couple of layers and 5 minutes later repeated it but with a lot more people, 482 more to be exact, around 100 more than normal, not sure why. Think the warmup was probably slightly too long/hard for me and did impact the run, but wasn’t aiming for a PB.
Managed to knock a full second off my course PB at the parkrun this morning although TBF I’m reasonably pleased about that as it felt really difficult even in the warmup and the course was pretty boggy. Previous best was May last year when it was drier and I was definitely running better so this feels like I might be getting a bit of running fitness back?
Maybe if I hadn’t done the Zwift crit last night after a massage the legs might have been a bit more interested!
I also saw another deer, second time in 4 days on the walkway, this one ran across the course as there was a bit of a gap between myself and fourth place, it also looked a bit bigger than the one earlier in the week.
Bit of tourism at Bognor Regis this morning as we’re at Butlins for the weekend (it’s really close). We were here about a year ago but one of the kids was throwing up all night so didn’t manage to make it. Very flat course almost all tarmac so should be quick, but some very tight turns, some with muddy corner, plus quite narrow so bit congested given its 4 laps.
Got a bit excited at the start and found myself in second but first was rapid (ran low 17) and after the first km I decided I wasn’t going to completely destroy myself and backed off a bit for 4th in 19:27.’ By my watch it was about 100m long.
Seemed a really nice park, with a train. Surprised the kids didn’t ask to go back. Then again they seem to prefer spending a small fortune in the arcades despite all the free (well, included) entertainment
That’s our local and I was there this morning. It is a good little course but one for polite runners who don’t mind being held up occasionally when it gets crowded. If you try and overtake on the grass then because it’s so muddy you are risking a fall. The tight turns slow you down as well. I’ve run 30 seconds quicker elsewhere. I do like the Bognor course though - and not as it’s a mile from my front door.
I ran just over 22 mins which I was happy with on my current one-run-a-week training routine. As for the guy up front - he’s won over 1000 races (not including parkruns - as they’re not a race!)
I went off road towards the end of the first lap due to 2 park users and 2 dogs on the path, especially after the RDs comments in the welcome speech! Didn’t try it again
We were the Swindon family that didn’t respond to the RD, my wife was queuing right at the back of the start (as walking with the kids) and couldn’t hear a word the RD was saying, and I don’t like bringing attention on myself.
Some proper pedestrian paced people starting right at the front. Not sure if that’s down to lack of pacers or welcome speech happening in one place and then people moving to the start. Don’t seem to get that at my local one so much, but we have pacers every week and welcome happens in the middle of the start area.
What’s the general consensus on the length? My watch (Garmin 255 which has the improved GPS) is normally quite accurate.
There’s always loads who start too far ahead of where they should and you’re right in that the welcome speech takes place ahead of the start line and when people assemble to start they’re all over the place, If you’re not up front at the start then the first mini lap can be so so congested.
As for GPS, well done for getting 5k, my Garmin 735 has always come up short (in over 250 runs there), and my 310xt old school watch before was the same, I think other people get 5k or thereabouts,
On Sat did a 19:21, my fastest ParkRun for 15 months. I was still feeling a bit tired after the Backyard Ultra, and doing some fast climbs of Zugerberg (also the fastest for over a year). However, aim was sub 20. Friend of mine, Vadim, who is aiming for a sub 1:25 in Zurich HM in a couple of weeks, set off at 3:35/km - I didn’t even try to follow as I thought that he would struggle at the end. After 2km the Gap to Vadim was stable and by 3km I was visibly closing the gap. The final km I ran in 3:38 and pipped Vadim at the post by 1s. It was really good fun to have someone to chase down. Feel pretty confident in a sub 19min parkrun in the coming weeks
Pretty quiet at the parkrun this morning, possibly a combination of very few tourists and Manchester marathon tomorrow.
Felt like hard work again but about 6 of us started moving away pretty quickly, then 2 pulled off the front. Myself and a young lad pulled away a bit at the halfway point and I finally dropped him at 4k.
So despite feeling naff it was 5 seconds quicker than last week and another course PB and third overall. Conditions were still a bit soft and boggy in places so probably not the course.
Was supposed to be helping today with the fell race tomorrow but the RD misunderstood my cryptic comment and thought I was just after the cake for the events 1st birthday and when I got there they had plenty of Marshalls.
So I decided to run and take it steady, until about 3k when I got a bit carried away and picked up the last 2K
About 21:35 so a bit slower than the last two weeks.
Quite a big turnout though and the track is finally drying out.
Wore my AlphaFlys (with popped AirPod) and was rewarded with my quickest time of the year by about 10s, but a minute down on my PB. Given my lack of fitness and volume currently I guess I can’t grumble. Had some solid pacing from Jim for first km or so.
Amongst the achievements called out in the (almost always) late RD intro this week were:
Winner of the Reading half marathon last weekend (65 mins) and the worlds first blind person to complete a marathon (Manchester) without a guide.
Did my usual today and turned up marginally late, running through a big crowd. Legs felt heavy leaving my house and weren’t having any of it but loosened up and started to feel ok, managed to get progressively faster. Sun was shining too, bonus!
Easy turbo later after my five year olds birthday party
I was there this morning, thought I’d do a brick in case I actually do a triathlon this season.
Along side the roll call were a lot of awkward announcements about how we must all the respectful to the volunteers, other park users and each other. Obviously triggered by something from last week. These type of announcements seem to be getting more common, not sure if it’s just because there are more people running, so the number of thoughtless people has also increased, or if behaviour is getting worse.
Chill out people, it’s a 5k social. If you want to race there are plenty of fast courses where you can pin a number on and people will applaud you for going fast.
Not condoning bad behaviour but if you don’t want people running fast don’t record times. It’s not a crime to be ‘not slow’, although Parkrun seems to be heading that way.
So there were 3 of us at one event, and I’m unquestionably the slowest of all of us!
I actually am very snotty with a cold and coughing and sneezing, so I actually was intending to go even easier than I recently have been - which has not been fast - otherwise I’m sure I would’ve made @buzz overtake me after the first corner. But I still hated the crowds of people ahead of me so despite going very slow to that first corner and as I say being far behind @BadAsh I overtook the crowd to get some clear air and then only took at easy as I always do up the hill (even when I am running hard, I still run the hill slower than the people I finish with)
Run was fine, I even ran the last 100m hard to give a couple of guys who seemed to chasing 20min the incentive of a hare.
But on the way home, I tripped, have hurt my ribs, smashed up phone and thumb, so that was crap…
although TBF I’m reasonably pleased about that as it felt really difficult even in the warmup and the course was pretty boggy. Previous best was May last year when it was drier and I was definitely running better so this feels like I might be getting a bit of running fitness back?