Rising early on Saturday morning, and at that point still unsure as to what training to do that day, I decided to do the Park Run at Strathclyde Park. With the previous Thursday night’s Garscube Estate exertions still very much present in my legs, I thought it wise to choose this event over its more challenging counterpart at Pollok Park, Glasgow. A perfectly flat ‘out’n’back’ course that I was familiar with from a relay race I used to do years ago, it would be perfect to use in an attempt to get some speed back in my legs.
Although the conditions were relatively still, the lakeside location meant runners were somewhat exposed to the early morning chill. A good warm-up was essential.
The race, like the other Park Run events, started bang on time. Almost straight away the field thinned out, and I found myself sitting in 6th place. The fastest runner had established an instantly impressive lead, leaving myself and 4 others to battle it out. I managed to hold onto them for the first half as we ran an approx 5:40min/mile pace. We all then started to slow into a more realistic pace – mine dropping to somewhere around 6:25min/miles.
Remaining in 6th position for the long home stretch I was all on my own with a runner 30 secs ahead of me, and the following runner the same distance behind. Maybe if I didn’t have the hill/speed session from just 36 hours previous in my legs I would have managed to creep in just under 19mins. Maybe if I had someone breathing down my neck and putting me under more pressure I would get a seasons best 5k time. Maybe maybe maybe indeed. Maybe I should just be glad that I ran the exact same time as my best (Dunky Wright 5k) from earlier in the year when I was half-marathon fit and doing approx 3 times the mileage I’m doing at present. 19:17. I’ll take that.
