Princes Parkrun 5K

I completed my first ever parkrun on Saturday (16^th February).  These parkruns are free, timed 5k runs that take place every Saturday across lots of locations across the country.  One of these events take place in Princes Park every week (http://www.parkrun.org.uk/princes/).  Given its 5 or 6 miles from our house, and it’s been running for almost two years I really should have raced it before now. 

Daniel came down from Scotland for the weekend and was staying in our house.  I knew his brother Paul ran in these events and thought it might be a good idea to combine a run with a catch-up with his brother.  I didn’t anticipate all of the champagne we drank on Friday or waking up feeling a little rough when I initially suggested it though!

In my brief warm up prior to the race I broke into a jog and my heart rate rocketed.  I then did a couple of sprints and my lungs were aching.  The champagne was running through my veins!  This could be an interesting run.  A 5k gives you nowhere to hide.  It is fast from the start and never lets up.

Prior to the start, I noticed that a few guys from the club were running today – which is great because it’s nice to see them, but on the other hand it puts some added pressure because you want to beat them!  It also lets you know exactly where your fitness is in relation to everybody else.  Not always a good thing!

From the 160 or so athletes taking part, I positioned myself on the 3^rd row, behind one of our clubmates Lee Steele.  Almost two years ago, I did a couple of 3k time trials with the club on our Tuesday night run sessions and we used to run more or less the same times (10.57).  Since then, Lee has specialised on sprint distance triathlons whilst I’ve had a year of no speedwork at all due to injuries.  I didn’t expect to beat Lee today, but I was interested to see what the difference in performance would be (quite a lot as it turned out!).

The gun went and we were off.  I started off pretty quick, in the top 10 or 12.  I could feel my heart rate rise and rise, reaching 186bpm within 1 minute of starting!  I continued at my pace, hoping that my heart rate would come down once it got used to running at this pace!  Fortunately it did, it dropped to mid-170’s, although not for very long!  Within a minute, it peaked at 188 – an unsustainable heart rate.  I dropped my pace a little and my heart rate dropped and remained at between 180 and 182 for the rest of the race.

The first kilometre was covered in 3.41, the second in 3.42.  This was quick for me.  The next kilometre slowed to 4.00, with the fourth dropping to 4.05.  I was tired!  With 1k to go, I picked up my effort and managed to run the last kilometre in 3.56. 

The Garmin stats:

Split	Time	Best Pace	Avg HR	Max HR
Summary	19:25.0	2:46	178	188
1	3:41.0	2:46	170	188
2	3:42.4	3:06	177	183
3	4:00.4	3:18	181	182
4	4:05.0	2:52	179	181
5	3:56.2	3:24	182	183

I finished 18^th out of the 163 people who finished the race.  In my first race in the veteran category, I was 2^nd veteran, beaten by just 15 seconds!  I was also 5^th MerseyTri finisher.

As for Lee Steele, well he was a lot better than me, finishing in 18.36 and 6 places ahead!

This was my first running race in a long, long time and it was good to blow off a few cobwebs.  After the race I concluded a couple of things.  Firstly, I’m not a 5k racer (not currently anyway!) and secondly, 5ks are really tough!