What a great morning for a run. Just in the door from Springburn parkrun which was celebrating it’s second birthday today. Seemed like a bumper crowd and the park was looking brilliant.
Always good to see familiar faces on a Saturday morning – one of the great things about parkrun and it was really interesting to talk to John S. of the Harriers before the start of the run. John was there training with his race walkng group and it was an eyeopener to learn a bit more about race walking. I’d always fancied my chances of glory in race walking but am now less convinced this would my sport of choice in pursuit of Olympic Gold as I was told the 50k winning time for a recent race walk was 3hrs 21mins. Quicker than I would have run it flat out 🙂
Onto the race and there was nice presentation for annual winners at the start. I’ve often wondered how parkrun points are awarded and worked out so it was good to see recognition for the speedy and committed.
The route has been changed slightly since my last official visit – starting at the pond (I didn’t even know Springburn had a big pond) before joining the usual route with the notorious steeplechase flooded section now removed. I wonder if this null and voids our recent glasgowparkrunsmashup given that we didn’t follow the official route. The Boy will be up for it again surely?
Anyway The Boy sacrificed his own run today to pace me round at a pb attempt. As with all elite athletes this was organised well in advance to allow professional preparation. Or rather we decided late last night after I’d been out for a heavy meal and couple of italian lagers 🙂 So target sub 19-24.
We ran side by side (very bromantic) throughout and I felt pretty comfortable to begin with, actually wondering if we were going too slowly. Up the first hill strong and round the back of the park until the mile marker beeped. I was shocked to see a 6 minute mile first split but glad to see my splits were now a sensible 6min30secs pace although this could lead to a nail biting finale on operation pb.
By now I was working hard and The Boy did well to keep quiet (he’s renowned for being a talker) and just drag me along. The second mile split was paced with pacing maths before the mile bleep brought me out of my puzzled trance. 6mins18secs leading to complex recalculations and a final mile spent completing even more complex time sums in my head.
Rounding the final bend The Boy shocked me by proclaiming we were on for a sub 19 if I pushed hard so I was delighted to cross the line in 18mins48 secs on my watch (18min46sec on his so I’ll wait for the official time).
Old PB 19-24 Victoria parkrun Spring 2014
New (unofficial) PB 18-48 Springburn parkrun Spring 2016
A proper parkrun smashup and delighted with it although in hindsight if I’d taken a bit less off I could have lived on gradual PBs for a few months.
Good to catch up briefly with race organisers at the end of the route who were prepping a delicious looking cake but had to fly off leaving The Boy to complete his own ‘proper training’ as I set off on a 5 mile recovery run home. Great company on the way back from Guiness World Record Marathon Holder – Harvey the Heart – to top off a successful morning.
therunbetweeners 
Cracking PB, smashed it! Flying just now 🙂
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