Last week I decided to try something I had heard people talk about but never tried myself. I decided to do the Park Run.
This is literally just what it sounds like, it is a run around a park. I had been looking at the website for a while and had found out that there is an event in Walsall at 9.00 on a Saturday, it also turns out that my wife’s cousin has done this event a few times so we made arrangements to go and do the run together.
A few days before the run I registered to get my unique bar code and I was all ready to go. I have run 5k on the treadmill before but this was to be my first actual outdoor run so I was pretty nervous about it and didn’t really know what to expect.
My worries were not founded, I met Abigail at about 8.30 and we had a walk down to the Arboretum in Walsall and over to the starting point where they went through what was going to happen and pointed out the course. It was 3 laps of just over a mile each to make up the full 5k. I had downloaded a running app to my phone and had my headphones with me so that I could listen to my play list for inspiration.
At 9.00 exactly we were off on the first lap, the music had started and I was running with the Stereophonics, the course is pretty flat but just after the start there is the only incline before it levels out over the back stretch. By the time I was over the back a voice told me I had been running for 5 minutes and almost immediately after I was told that my first Kilometre was done. By ¾ of the way around lap 1 I realised I may have overestimated my fitness, treadmill running is so different, plus I had decided to keep my jacket on. When I got the chance I passed this to one of the marshals who took it to the finish line for me.
Lap 2 was harder, I had to walk up the incline but I think I had found my pace by now and there were people passing me while I walked who I had passed a few minutes earlier. This was repeated several times over the last 2 laps, I would run and overtake a few people then when I was out of breath they would pass me. The voice in my ear told me I was slowing down the pace and there wasn’t really much I could do about it but I was determined to finish. On the last lap I was told I had done 4k in 25 minutes so I was hoping to finish with a Personal Best. As I crossed the finish line I was told that my time was 32 minutes. The Run Keeper on my phone confirmed this. I was happy with that, my treadmill time is 35 minutes. When I checked the website the next day my time was officially 31 Minutes 55 seconds. I thought that was quite a respectable first attempt and gives me something to build on.
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