February 27th - Thirty Minutes

        It has been a few weeks since my last blog post, I have had my fair share of swims and runs but I have also been away a LOT which means I had lost the regularity of the outings.  Most recently I spent 6 days working in Blackpool and it WAS my plan to take some time out to go for a run, go for a swim and maybe have a walk but as we ventured up north storm Dudley was just about to hit the UK and scuppered all my plans, for the next 5 days Blackpool was battered by 3 storms which made swimming FAR too dangerous and it really put me off wanting to run or walk anywhere along the promenade. 

    

    The work I did in Blackpool was exhausting and on my return I took a much needed day to recover and then on Wednesday I headed down to the beach for a small dip, I went alone as I was only expecting a small dip but it was lovely to be back in the sea. 

    Friday morning I was back in the sea with Ann off Hayling beach, I had not seen Ann for a couple of weeks so it was nice to see her again. Then on Friday evening I decided to head out for a stroll in my shorts, it was about 2 degrees but there was no wind so it was very still and quiet. I didn't walk too far, just 30 mins or so but it was nice to be out walking in the fresh air, I really should do this more often.

    Before I knew it the weekend was here and time for the Saturday morning Parkrun, 3 weeks ago I was elated to knock more than a minute off my personal best, I was also annoyed that my new personal best was 30:03, 3 second off running a sub 30 minute 5km, talk about being close. 2 weeks ago I ran a different parkrun in Fareham and I wasn't expecting a PB there (I think it was 31 and a half minutes) but this week I was back to Southsea after a week off and it was time to try again. 

    I have this little routine I do at Parkrun now, I hang around at the back near a wall (where everyone leaves their bags), then at the last second I whip my t-shirt off and join in at the back so that not too many people see me (yes its silly I know). This week the announcer came on and said "are you all ready?", this is my cue to take my top off and the run usually starts pretty quickly, this week however the announcer seemed to chat for a while leaving me stood there without my shirt on and everyone looking at me wondering why I am such an idiot (I am), The run started eventually and all went well to start with. 

    I generally start towards the back, this means I spend the first 10 mins slowly over taking people until I find my other runners that match my pace, I generally find a friend called Mark and run somewhere near him but today I totally missed him, I reached the 2.5km point and turned around to come back. There are a few other runners I know who do Parkrun but I didn't see a single recognisable face so I carried on using random strangers as my pace marker. 

    As I come to the last kilometre of the run I realise I may have run a little too fast and I take a moment to have a small walk, just at this moment I hear a voice from a fellow swimming lady, "come on Rob, you can do it", this was what I needed, I now had a new pace marker and I stuck with her for a short distance, eventually passing the pier and the home straight. It was along here I slipped into 5th gear and put my foot down on the accelerator, lengthening my step and taking much bigger but slower strides, really pushing myself right through the finish line where I was exhausted. 

    Did I do it? did I beat my personal best and beat the 30 minute target? My Strava app told me I had run it in 30:20 but I never know when to press start, I just had to wait and see. I sat and relaxed and caught my breath, for a while I sat in my car responding to some emails and then the results suddenly came through, my time - 29:57, I was 3 seconds under the 30 minute mark, I was SO happy. 

    My weekend was finished off nicely with a post parkrun swim and another run on the Sunday morning with Chris, both activities made all the better because of the wonderful people who joined me and the beautiful sunshine.