Run > Race

Mile End parkrun #66.

First race since September last year.

Well organised and friendly. A nice course, although there are some (modest) hills. The course is out and back twice, so all of the hills have to be run 4 times!

Aiming for 8mm. At the start was slightly alarmed by the number of people who immediately dissapeared off ahead of me and felt like I was almost at the back! That wan't the case as I discovered later once I turned round to come back. I tried to keep my pace at 8mm but inevitably got swept along by the quick start and gained about 12 seconds within the first few minutes. This gradually increased to around 25 seonds by the end of the first lap and remained at around that for most of the rest of the run. At halfway felt good and like I had a lot of energy left. Last 25% was harder and had to push myself to keep the pace up, though it didn't feel as difficult as I remember it feeling doing the parkruns last year, despite the hills. I traded places with a few people all the way around but was running in my own space for a lot of the run.

Course measured 3.09 miles by my watch so pretty much spot on. Very pleased with the finish time which makes this the quickest I have run since before the marathon in April 2010! Watch said 31 seconds ahead of target at the end. Watch time was 24:10 but parkrun recorded time was two second faster!

Clearly running hills and also at a faster pace in training generally have made it easier to run quickly.

7:42, 168
7:54, 180
7:57, 185
(7:12, 190)