To Sunny Colch! …early on Saturday morning. It was a return to ParkRun for the first time in a couple of months. Just as my pesky calf injury had actually managed to heal, I then had another four weeks of an enforced layoff with black ink recovery.
Oh woe is me, etc.
The ride in was an absolute breeze. It was good to see that work has started along East Hill with the new cycle lanes. These are long overdue, and will make entry into Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town finally fitting for the 21st century.
I reached Castle Park within good time. Already the fourth - or is it the fifth - heat wave of the summer had started to kick in. The scent from the civic rosebeds was quite overpowering.
It was a decent turnout for ParkRun, although not an exceptionally busy one. This didn’t stop me getting boxed in at the start. I knew something was up when a couple of not that athletic female runners positioned themselves at the very, very start of the pack.
As ever my aim was just to get round the circuit. I’ve been putting in the km’s a fair bit this week but I’m still a long, long way off my peak fitness.
The first thing to go was my arms. This is always a weird one. Whenever I’m really pushing myself running then I feel my arms are incredibly weak. I have no idea what’s going off there.
I started off fairly quick but then slowed down considerably. It was annoying to see a couple of geezers effortlessly skip past me whilst engaged in what seemed like a friendly Saturday morning social conversation.
The final bastard hills for the third circuit of the park pretty much did me in. I managed a lame sprint finish although my final time of almost bang on 24 minutes was nothing to shout home about.
